51% of HR professionals are concerned about quiet quitting

In the same SHRM research, nearly half (45%) of HR professionals said their organisation has struggled to motivate and engage employees.

You may think that quiet quitting is about employees being lazy and poor performers.  While some of the responsibility for motivation and engagement belongs to the employee, much of it belongs to management.

Managers are responsible for staffing their team, organising responsibilities, planning the work, controlling resources and leading the group.

If managers are unable to do these things – maybe because they are understaffed, overworked, burnt-out, undertrained or face a budget crunch – then that impacts their ability to build positive working relationships with their team. It keeps them from training and coaching employees.

If managers are frustrated because they feel that they aren’t getting the tools and support to be successful, then they are quiet quitting too. And if an employee sees that their manager doesn’t care, they might ask themselves, “Why should I care if my manager doesn’t?”.

Organisations aren’t intentionally trying to hurt their managers. But sometimes the comments “do it and do it now” and “make it happen” can add up.

Managers feel an intense pressure to deliver results. Unfortunately, the pressure can have the opposite effect. Managers get overwhelmed and stressed.

Organisations need to look at their management practices. Here are a few places to start.

Reward strategies: One of the best things about being a manager is also the worst. If a manager shows up to work late, not a big deal because they don’t clock in/out. However, the reverse is also true. Need someone to stay an extra hour late? The manager isn’t paid extra. Organisations need to make sure that they are not abusing a manager’s contracted hours of work and a reward strategy for managers is a great way to recognise and reward individuals (with not just financial benefits).

Wellbeing: Managers need to take care of themselves. When a manager is stressed, everyone around them feels it. Managers will do their best work when they are able to care for their wellbeing.

Training: Managers need training too.  This might be in the form of online training, coaching, mentoring, etc. but they need to get the tools to do their jobs well. A big mistake companies make is promoting the most technically competent person to management and then not giving them the rest of the tools to effectively do the manager’s job.

Stay Interviews & Employee engagement surveys:  Benchmarking how employees feel about working for the business will help organisations understand and gauge employee engagement levels. Conducting Stay Interviews with managers will help businesses understand how they feel about their role.  Regular benchmarking is key.

Managers play a critical role in organisational success. They are responsible for building engagement and making sure that employees do the work to the company standard. They can’t do that if they don’t feel respected and supported in their role.

Organisations should be asking themselves whether they have an issue of managers quiet quitting and what impact that has on the rest of the workforce.

If you think your managers need support with training and development, our online portal DevelopME has over 8000 courses to help with wellbeing, management & leadership skills etc.

If you’d like to check out the DevelopME portal with a free 2-week trial, here is a link.  https://breathingspacehr.co.uk/developme/

If you need support with employee engagement, or reward strategies, why not give us a call?   We can also offer 30 mins free advice.

The Breathing Space team are here to help.  0113 426 7735