What is Quiet Quitting and How can HR Help Avoid it?

Quiet quitting was not particularly common in earlier times. But lately, with more and more employees, especially the younger generation constantly disengaging from work, the topic seems to be the talk everyone is talking about. Recent research from the Society of Human Resource Management revealed that more than 51% of HR professionals showed concern about the negative impact that was caused by quiet quitting.

Also, of those who were quiet quitting in companies, data revealed that 72% of them were millennials. According to Forrester’s predictions 2023, these statistics surfaced post the pandemic, and are still prevailing as employers are struggling to come to terms with the hybrid model of working and have been nudging employees to get back to working from the office more often.

But what is quiet quitting? How can organizations, or specifically, HR (since they are the most common point of contact for every employee) of an organization address it and help overcome this effectively?

What is Quiet Quitting?

Quiet quitting is the concept of employees only carrying out the bare minimum work required for the role and not putting in extra effort to learn more or do more. Quiet quitting mostly happens due to employee burnout or work dissatisfaction. What we need to focus on is if it is just employee dissatisfaction or are employees avoiding work in fear of it taking over their lives.

As we all know, in an organization, there is one department that is entirely concerned about employee engagement and well-being. The HR department. In order to understand why quiet quitting has been happening, they are the right people to turn to. They are the ones who can truly understand the inside story and help avoid it happening so often.

Why is Quiet Quitting Happening?

There are numerous factors associated with why quiet quitting can happen. Some of the common factors are-

1. Disengagement

Naturally, only a motivated employee would go above and beyond to excel and do more than what their job role requires of them. And they are motivated only when they have a fair relationship with the organization or their respective managers or heads. Similarly, when an employee is disengaged, they become robotic in their work lives. They show up at work, barely interact with their colleagues or others, stick to their desks, do the bare minimum and leave.

2. High workloads

There is only as much an employee can do, no matter how efficient, effective, or motivated he is. Dumping more and more work on employees, assuming they can, is a big mistake. Being overloaded with work not only affects their efficiency but also their motivation. Give them responsibilities that is well within their knowledge and not something that is outside their skillset.

3. Unsupportive colleagues or work environment

Nothing is more demotivating than an unpleasant or an unsupportive workplace. You are not doing right by your employees if you are not recognizing and rewarding their hard work. There are some things that are an absolute NO in the workplace, if you want to see your employees thrive and be productive.

They are micromanagement, denying them the required resources, providing the right training, opportunities for career growth etc.

Remember that they are the strongest pillars of your organization and, no matter the circumstances, you must be mindful of their needs if you want to see your business succeed.

What can HR do to Avoid Quiet Quitting of Employees?

It is not particularly hard to find out why employees are quiet quitting. There are only as many factors that can contribute to their disengagement from work. Once you figure it out, all you need to do is address it to the best of your ability. The HR department of an organization is one that truly understands the qualms of employees and can relate to their problems.

Leveraging their means and experience is your best bet if you are hoping to eliminate the quiet quitting of employees.

So how can HR help?

1. Prevention of burnout

If burnout is the reason for quiet quitting, there is something wrong with your workplace practices or a negative organizational culture. The mental health and well-being of employees has become an important part of the contract these days and rightfully so.

With everything being so digital lately, employees always feel micromanaged as if they must be ON.

It doesn’t hurt to look beyond presenteeism. Now we are not saying “don’t have any rules.” You must set boundaries. But make sure that they are not so stringent that they are causing unrest or burnout of employees. For example,

• Make agreements as to when it is ok to be logged out or be unavailable on a regular workday. Do not enforce the need for them to be online continuously. It is humanly not possible.
• Have recharge days. Normalize employees wanting to take a day or two off for a day or two if they are not feeling like being available for calls, emails, meetings, or any other work mandates.
• Try deep workdays. Deep workdays are those days when meetings are completely banned for everyone, even the seniors. Days where you allow them to just get by with their usual work.

2. Give them purpose

A Gartner report revealed that, post the pandemic, more than ever, people want to work for organizations that have a purpose led EVP (Employee Value Proposition). One of the key reasons why employees feel demotivated sometimes is because they don’t feel a sense of purpose.

They feel that the time and effort they put into their work isn’t contributing towards fulfilling a bigger organizational goal.

As HR, you need to instill that sense of purpose in them.

• Have One-on-chats
• Online meetings
• Conversations about the company’s future goals
• Conversations about how their weekly work is impacting the company’s growth

You must make sure that your employees feel recognized and are acknowledged for their valuable contribution to the company.

3. Make employee engagement a priority

Why are your employees tuning out so often? Please don’t consider yourself a mind-reader or make assumptions as to why. You need to ask if you want to know.

Some useful methods to find out the reasons for disengagement are-

• customized employee engagement surveys
• Pulse surveys
• One-on-one stay interviews

Toxic company culture has been cited as one of the prime reasons for employees quitting organizations, so you need to take sharp steps to find out the root cause of the problem.

4. Encourage open communication and feedback

Do not be the one who does all the talking in meetings. Listening to your employees is important, you would be surprised at how much it can reveal about the employee and their problems, even in a normal conversation.

• Listen to what they have to say
• Learn from what they have said
• Initiate actions suggested by them
• In situations where you can’t take in their suggestions, let them know why.

As HR, you may not be able to implement all their suggestions, but you can pass them on to your supervisor who can ensure they are addressed.

5. Be kind

It doesn’t cost you anything to be kind. You might have had a rough day but bear in mind that as their HR management you must always be kind and make employees feel appreciated. According to research cited in People management article, employees perform their best when they feel psychologically safe and assured. Allow them to speak up, disagree, offer feedback to management.

6. Do a “stay interview” with employees who are not quiet quitting

Of course, you must know why employees are quiet quitting, but it is also important to know about why those other employees aren’t. You must know both the good and bad about your organization. By understanding the reason behind the happy employees, you can gain insight into why the others are not.

Explore Before You Act

There is no doubt that quiet quitting can have serious implications on the growth of the organization, but you must understand that setting boundaries is just as important and it doesn’t mean that employees are disengaged. Having said that, you must also be aware that not everyone is ambitious. Some are simply happy in their jobs and aren’t looking for anything else.

In which case you must recognize employees who want to truly contribute to the greater good of the organization and give them responsibilities according to their abilities and allow them to shine.