Getting Ahead of Quiet Quitting by Speaking Up

BEHIND THE ‘QUIET QUITTING’ HEADLINES

While the extent of the Great Resignation experienced in Australia and New Zealand is readily debated, the global workforce is in a state of flux; over the past year, we have seen a rising trend in ‘quiet quitting’. Leaders… sit up and pay attention…  quiet quitters have the potential to promote a toxic culture and wide-spread disengagement. 

Quiet quitters are employees who don’t feel that speaking up matters or who don't feel comfortable expressing themselves in their current role, team or organisation, and they are quite simply disengaging. This is not the only challenge in the fight to retain and engage staff currently, LHH’s recent Global Workforce of the Future 2022 report found entire teams are also susceptible to the impact of “quietfluencers” with 33% of workers in Australia saying they have been motivated to quit after seeing colleagues doing so and a further 58% admitting they are more likely to consider it. 

It is important to recognise that these disengaged employees may also feel their needs are not being met in terms of career development or personal aspirations but it is not all doom and gloom, there is a great lesson to be learned – when your employees feel that they can’t speak up, as a leader, you can make a difference.  

Is your team at risk?

The voice of the quiet quitter might show up in a variety of ways; do any of these sound familiar?

• “I raised my workload concerns time and time again, but they weren't resolved; so I looked elsewhere.”
• “When my manager bulldozed or shut me down, I felt less inclined to share my views on what matters. I want to work for an employer where my voice counts.”
• “I want to be happy at work, bringing my best self forward. I can’t do that if my manager has no time to check in with me.”
• “I was buried knee-deep in the day to day, I lost sight of my well-being.”

Our Global Workforce of the Future 2022 report found 3 in 10 employees want to leave their job in the next 12 months. Of those looking to leave, most here in Australia are driven by the search for a better salary (38%), better work life balance (34%) and better career progression (32%). Would these employees stay if there was open dialogue around their needs and goals? 

As a leader, it is important for you to recognise that you have a profound impact when it comes to re-engagement and retaining your talent. Whilst it may not be easy to identify and support employees struggling with mental wellbeing, OECD research found that a leader’s attitude towards an employee had the most significant impact on their mental health, with a positive attitude, reducing the probability of the employee developing issues such as anxiety or depression by 6%. 

WHAT NOW?

The good news is that as a leader, you can re-engage your team and bring about positive change by building trust and establishing a safe space to speak up; where your team members ideas, questions, concerns, or mistakes will be welcomed and valued. Ahead of year end performance reviews, there is no better time to reflect and critically assess both personal and team progress. There is an opportunity over the holidays to re-calibrate and review priorities for 2023. Self-awareness is critical for personal development and efficacy as a leader, as is role modelling this behaviour to maximise learning and impact within your team. 

The consequences of not creating the space for your team to speak up can be significant in that over time, employees start to disengage, and from an organisation’s standpoint, productivity declines while innovation and growth is stifled. Psychological safety is not about niceties, or your ideas being accepted. Fundamental to psychological safety are attributes of trust and respect where employees feel able, even obligated, to be candid. Creating a climate of psychological safety involves not only leaders being open to their team providing feedback but also individuals being courageous enough to speak up. When employees put their voices forward even if they fail, there needs to be a certainty that even though others in the team might not agree with them, their risk-taking and perspectives will be valued.

What does a psychologically safe environment look like?

• Team meetings are dialogue driven with team members asking questions
• People share opinions, even if they are unpopular
• Asking for and receiving feedback is a norm
• People in the team talk about learning from past projects and/or mistakes
• Team members feel like their talents and strengths are valued and recognised
• Engagement scores are high

Establishing psychological safety sounds like a daunting task but you can start quite simply by encouraging feedback and showing your team that you are listening.

THE KEY FOR LEADERS

Get ahead of quiet quitting by taking steps to build psychological safety in your team. A simple and practical way to do this is to set aside time and space to have meaningful conversations with each of your team members. Create the opportunity for your team members’ voices to be heard by encouraging a dialogue on what motivates them, and what success looks like. Understanding your team members’ motivations and drivers will enable you to draw them into conversations, appreciate their perspectives and make them feel valued. 

Our recent Resetting Normal research found that three in five (64%) workers are concerned about not having relevant skills for the future, in fact 94% of employees would stay at a company longer if it invested in their career development (LinkedIn Workplace Learning Report). Yet unbelievably, according to our latest global workforce study, 23% of all workers have never had a career development conversation, and among those who have, 23% report that it’s only done once a year. Employees expect and deserve more. 

Where do you start? Having a meaningful career conversation starts with helping your team members discover their purpose, their “Why.”  Having clarity on each other’s purpose nurtures trust and respect in the team, leading to greater engagement and collaboration. 

Here are some conversation starters you can use with your team member to discover their “Why”:

• What do you value about your work in this organisation?
• What things motivate and satisfy you at work?
• What are some of the things that you are most proud of?
• What difference do you want to make in your work? What gives your work meaning?
• What attracted you to work here, over other organisations?

Of course, be aware of your behaviours as you engage your team member in conversation. Recognise what might stop them from speaking up and the consequences of them not voicing their thoughts openly and honestly. As a leader, pave the way forward by demonstrating behaviours such as active listening, being curious, encouraging different perspectives and withholding judgement. When you go first and role model these behaviours, your team is encouraged to do the same and speak up. 

So, you’ve opened the channels of communication, what now? As we have established, taking the time to reflect on the past year, seeking out the motivations of your team members and taking every opportunity to show your team that every voice counts are critical steps to building psychological safety. It is only by taking the time out of your day to day to notice, observe, and create the space to speak up, will the power of psychological safety be realised. Remember, the small decisions, actions and choices you take as a leader, make a big difference to your team. There is an opportunity here to embrace feedback, address challenges and set a new course for 2023.

Interested in learning more about our assessment or leadership development options? Please contact us to find out how we can support you.