An active, engaged workforce is the backbone of any successful business. However, many different factors could disrupt this workflow, such as burnout. Not only is burnout often cited as a key reason why an employee will choose to leave a business - it's also one of the driving factors behind “Quiet Quitting.”
What is Quiet Quitting?
Quiet Quitting is the latest workplace trend to take the internet by storm. It means employees will only do the work outlined in their job description and nothing more. In doing so, they are “quietly quitting” by not carrying out tasks that are often assigned to them unnecessarily, such as unpaid overtime or duties that exceed their role/job title.
Far from an internet trend, however, the number of employees “quietly quitting” is on the rise. In fact, a recent study found that 50% of the US workforce would describe themselves as a “quiet quitter.”
The impact of this silent quitting is drastic on both ends of the scale. From the employee's perspective, they can carve out a better work-life balance for themselves while also setting clear boundaries in their professional relationships. It is a step forward, especially for younger, less experienced professionals who may have otherwise been taken advantage of in the professional realm.
However, from an employer’s perspective, workplace productivity and engagement are likely to drop when “quiet quitting” becomes widespread among employees. This could push back deadlines, reduce the quality of your services, or even lead to customer dissatisfaction. As such, you must find a way to combat this sooner rather than later.
What is the cure for Quiet Quitting?
Fortunately, there are many steps that business owners can take to reduce the impact of quiet quitting. Business owners can be proactive and prevent employees from feeling the need to quiet quit in the first place. For example, your approach should:
- Improve employee engagement
- Focus on staff training
Employee Engagement
According to a recent Forbes Study, just 15% of the US workforce is “engaged” - and engagement figures were already dropping before quiet quitting became popularized. As such, it's clear this is a pain point that businesses must tackle if they want to succeed.
Why is employee engagement important?
Employee engagement is important as it contributes to the quality of work carried out daily. Generally, disengaged employees are less focused, less motivated, and less productive. This opens the door to frequent complaints and allows simple mistakes to go unnoticed. Conversely, engaged employees carry out projects on time and to a high standard. It can also work wonders for your retention rates, as you are not giving them a reason to seek work elsewhere.
As a result, now is the perfect time to work on enhancing your current employee engagement strategies. For example, you could:
- Put together an attractive benefits package for your employees.
- Ask current employees for feedback on what you could be doing better.
- Curate a positive workplace culture, as opposed to promoting competition between employees.
- Work on your communication and team-building skills.
- Treat your employees as valued individuals, not cogs in a larger machine.
Employee Training
Staff training serves many purposes beyond introducing a new employee to your team, especially during the onboarding process. New hire training helps them get up to speed and better understand their role. Still, they need continuing education and development opportunities to feel fulfilled. A full learning and development journey keeps an employee engaged, motivated, and continuously growing with your company.
Refresh yourself on the various types of training you should be providing for your employees here.
Why is employee training important?
As mentioned above, employee training is crucial to the smooth running of your business. When discussing quiet quitting, however, training is important as it can be used for reducing ramp time (the amount of time between when an employee joins the team and when they are ready to be productive) while also improving workplace satisfaction rates. This is because continuous employee training provides them with a sense of structure and a trajectory that they can use to advance in their career.
Metafora can help.
At Metafora, we provide business owners across transportation and logistics with the tools and insight they need to take their staff training plans to the next level. We understand the importance of training and the burden it can cause on management and high performing players. Since creating and implementing training is not your core business function, we recommend using a variety of resources to supplement your own in-house training initiatives. This is why we created Sync Logistics Training.
With Sync Logistics Training, employees get a learning journey that lasts their entire time with a business. A mix of pre-developed courses and custom content with digital delivery lowers the burden on management, reduces ramp time for new employees, increases employee retention and satisfaction for experienced team members, and improves the consistency of training without sacrificing engagement and human interaction. Sign up for the wait list here!
