Is there a secret ingredient to building an engaged workforce?
TL;DR
Tech Founders: Don't Be Fooled By the Quiet Quitting Narrative
Do a quick Google search of "quiet quitting" and you’ll find a number of articles pushing the narrative of a lazy workforce. Most are backed by a recent?Gallup ?report, warning fearful employers that “Quiet quitters make up at least 50% of the U.S. workforce,” and the trend “could get worse.”
Ah the internet—a place where you can find the exact information you need to help you validate your fears.
This information alone has leaders across the country worried about the consequences a disengaged workforce could have on their company's productivity.
But what if we told you that this piece of data is misleading?
If you haven’t heard of quiet quitting, I’ll explain—but first, please let me know the address of the rock you live under so I can join you in trend-less bliss—Quiet quitting is a trend spreading virally on social media where employees have stopped going above and beyond at work and are instead just meeting their job description.
Between 2018 and 2020, employee engagement?increased from 34% to 36%. In 2022 it declined, but only by 4%. A closer look at Gallup’s report below shows that employee engagement is still higher than it’s been any year prior to 2014. So why all the fuss around quiet quitting?
Sit down for the next bit, because it might scare you even more than your Google search.
Harvard Business Review studied the issue and found that the quiet quitting trend might have less to do with employee motivation and more to do with management.
As a tech founder or exec, the quiet quitting narrative could lead you to worry that a disengaged workforce is going to tank your company's productivity—or worse, lead you to look at your younger employees through a less forgiving lens. But maybe there's something else at play here.
When surveyed,?52% of 20,000 Gen Z and millennial employees said they were considering changing jobs this year. When asked “why,” respondents said that changing companies is the best way to further develop their skills—73% said they would stay at their jobs if it were easier to change roles and develop new skills internally.
The drop in employee engagement occurred during the second half of 2021, amid the Great Resignation. Among the engagement elements Gallup measured, the greatest declines were directly correlated to a lack of clarity around expectations, fewer opportunities for employees to learn and grow, workers not feeling cared about, and an absence of attachment to the organization's mission or purpose.
Which, according to Gallup, is a clear indicator of the growing disconnect between employees and their employers.
Across 2,801 managers, 13,048 of their direct reports were surveyed by Harvard Business Review to determine the correlation between poor management and low employee engagement. According to their findings, managers who were rated highly by their employees only saw?3%?of their direct reports quiet quitting—the worse the rating the higher the percentage of quiet quitters.
According to HBR, employee output directly correlates to effective leadership, and an engaged workforce begins with leaders who not only prioritize employee well-being but do the hard work of providing consistent feedback.
If quiet quitters aren't infiltrating the workforce, and the numbers show that engagement is steady—what’s changed?
Today’s workers expect a different standard of management—but is there a secret sauce to maintaining a good relationship between leadership and employee?
There is, and it has to do with one simple, yet difficult-to-find ingredient:?trust.
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