Opinions expressed by ukbusinessupdates.com contributors are their own.
Articles about quitting quietly (when employees stop hustling and do the bare minimum necessary for a job) popped up all over my LinkedIn feed last week. After reading these articles, I realized that quitting quietly is just a catchy name for Gen Z employees who are no longer engaged and disappointed at work.
Gallup and other management opinion leaders have been talking about disengaged workers (employees who go to work for pay, not impact or purpose) for decades. Being involved at work feels like time stands still and you enjoy what you do for a living. You get energy from your work because it has meaning and is intrinsically satisfying.
This article discusses ways to get your Gen Zers to say TGI Friday (TGIF) to TGI Monday (TGIM), such as paying your top performers more, training your budding leaders, and fostering a culture of wellness and create support for your employees. Below are three ways I’ve helped my clients create a more engaged Gen Z workforce and avoid silence before it’s too late:
Related: 8 Ways To Stop Your Employees From Silently Stopping With You
1. Examine Gen Z’s Pay Structure
From July 2022, inflation was 8.5%, which was difficult for Gen Z (and all Americans) starting their careers. Ultimately, quitting quietly will be the ultimate layoff we’ve seen during the pandemic. Research your Gen Zers pay structure to see if it is competitive in your industry. Also analyze the turnover costs (half to twice the annual salary of an employee) for each employee. If your Gen Zer makes $50,000 annually, it could cost you $25,000-$100,000 if they unfriend you (leave your company). Our research found that many Gen Zers had to have part-time jobs during the pandemic to make ends meet — and that they would quit this part-time job if their primary employer paid them more.
Here are some steps to examine your pay structure and the ROI of your employees:
-
Listen to your HR leaders and give them the resources to fund a rewards survey.
-
Calculate the cost of sales for each employee. Is it feasible to pay them more compared to the cost of losing them?
-
Create statistics to measure employee output. By doing this, you can reward your best performing employees. Is there a pay gap between men and women? Gen Zers and Millennials talking about salariesso it will most likely come.
-
What other benefits can you offer your Gen Zers that are inexpensive? Some good places to start are flexible schedules, telecommuting, special projects, job rotation programs, and tuition reimbursement/refunds.
As a business owner, I know firsthand that labor is one of the highest costs of running a business. But sustaining and growing your business is very difficult without the right people on the bus.
2. Train your leaders
Did you know almost 60% of managers have not received training in transitioning into their first leadership role, and that 50% of organizational managers are judged ineffective?
No wonder Gen Zers are quietly quitting. All generations have been part of the Great Surrender, and 40% of employees consider quitting their jobs. Quietly stopping is a symptom of insufficient leadership.
Gallup found it that managers account for at least 70% of the variance in employee engagement scores. People are resigning from bosses, not companies. These statistics are hard to believe, but having worked for large organizations, it doesn’t surprise me. I’ve seen people get promoted because they were technically the best. Or they played office politics but didn’t care about the interpersonal aspect of the job. But organizations don’t always promote people based on their ability to connect and motivate their teams. It is no problem for technical people to get promoted to a leadership position because they are the best salesperson or engineer. Organizations must build new leaders for success, not failure. Some of most common problems for budding leaders, the inability to delegate, micromanage their team, distrust, and go from me to us.
If your company’s training budget is small, try these tips to develop your new leaders:
- Set up a mentoring program.
- Promote book clubs for leadership.
- Give new leaders podcasts to listen to and discuss over lunch.
- Offer tuition reimbursement (if your company is big enough).
- Create a strengths-based culture, starting with your leadership team, and provide training for all employees by investing in their strengths, not fixing weaknesses.
Related: Why You Should Invest in a Leadership Development Program
3. Create an agile company culture that cares
We found that most Gen Zers want to work in a hybrid environment once the pandemic is over. Yet many organizations are have brought back workers without explanation full-time (or almost full-time) to the office – or for reasons such as creating a sense of belonging and creativity.
Research your employees to see what they want and make sure it aligns with your business goals. For example, if your team works in a lab, it can be difficult for them to work remotely every day. But they may be able to work remotely once a week to do paperwork or crunch numbers.
Next, Gen Z is the most depressed and anxious generation in the US As a college professor, I’ve seen this first hand. Organizations that want to attract, retain and avoid quitting quietly should prioritize mental wellbeing and make it a staple of their corporate culture.
Here are some ways to support mental wellbeing at work:
-
Offer therapy and counseling through insurance
-
Investing in mindfulness apps like Calm or Headspace
-
Leaders are vulnerable and talk about mental wellbeing
-
Have leaders check in with their employees to see how they are doing and what resources are available to them if they need help
-
Being flexible and compassionate (ie a great human being)
Stopping quietly is nothing new. But it is a symptom that leaders and organizations that want to hire and retain the best talent must pay their employees more, train their leaders and create a culture that focuses on mental wellbeing.
Related: Is Your Company Culture Leading To Happy Customers?
My message to Gen Zers or silent quitters reading this article: I’m a fan of Stephen Covey’s Seven Habits book. I would recommend that you be proactive and look for a new boss/organization whose values are in sync with yours and who care about you as a person. Quitting quietly is unfair to you (and your employer) because it wastes your time and theirs. We all deserve to be happy and passionate about what we do, but it’s up to us, as individuals, to find it.
