The 8 Top Ways To Re-Engage Quiet Quitters In Today's Workforce

Before the pandemic, supervisors, managers, and bosses became accustomed to employees that hustle hard without anyone asking them to. But now, the work landscape is quite a bit different. In fact, a Gallup poll found that quiet quitters make up around 50 percent of the workforce. But rather than pointing fingers and berating those who aren’t engrossed in the office, why not try to reflect on what your organization could be doing better to re-engage these quiet quitters?

We've broken down the eight top ways to re-engage quiet quitters, below.

1. Improve your benefits

One of the top reasons that quiet quitters might be leaning away from work is that they don’t feel appreciated. And the most effective way to make an employee feel appreciated is to guarantee that they’re receiving fair compensation for the work they do. While it seems counterintuitive to pay employees more when they’re doing less, there are more creative ways to ensure compensation is fair. One of them is checking on your benefits policies and developing robust mental and physical health support. In a culture where employees feel like they’re valued for their personhood as much as their output, they’ll be more willing to participate with gusto.

2. Review your managers

A study from GoodHire shows that 82% of respondents would consider quitting if they had a bad manager – so why blame the quiet quitter when there could be bigger problems at hand? Just like a parent should be well-educated on how to best facilitate their child’s growth, a manager should be well-educated on how best to ensure their employee’s productivity. Micromanaging, putting down team members, and insisting upon overtime with unrealistic standards are all reasons an employee may quietly quit. And it’s a manager’s duty to look inward and find out how they may have played a part.

3. Stop punishing and start incentivizing

While it might seem like punishing a quiet quitter is the best way to get them back on track, that’s hardly accurate. Research from the Harvard Business Review shows that to get workers to be motivated in terms of the hours they’re in the office or their quality of work; rewards trigger the release of more positive neurotransmitters. However, if you want to stop someone from acting, like reducing office gossip or unethical behavior, punishment is the way to go. If your quiet quitter needs to re-engage, try offering small rewards that will make them feel like they’re appreciated.  

4. Just ask!

Communication is key when re-engaging a quiet quitter, and chances are that you got into this mess in the first place by not communicating enough or communicating in the wrong ways. If your quiet quitter has begun slacking on their necessary duties, ask them: Why are you doing less? What could we be doing to help you re-engage with work? Come to a compromise that allows the organization to feel like the quiet quitter is contributing and for the quiet quitter to feel like they’re being seen, heard, and validated.

5. Don’t be afraid to restructure

Quiet quitting has a number of definitions. But no matter how someone thinks of the act, someone who’s quietly quit is just someone who’s doing a little less work than they did before. Maybe they’re scaling back because the things they were doing before weren’t strictly their responsibility, or perhaps they don’t feel like they’re justifying working extra hours for doing things that aren’t of great importance. Explore automating some of a quiet quitter’s duties, and soon, they’ll re-engage with the things they feel they can contribute to using their own strengths and abilities.

6. Test out new things

Work can get pretty routine when you’re doing the same thing day in and day out, and quiet quitters are the type to disengage when things get boring. To get them back in the fold, there are a few different ways to make work more interesting. There are gamification tools for some of the most widely-hated tasks around the office, such as email or scheduling meetings, and software that helps streamline processes in a way that feels fun and easy.  

7. Have personal brand coaching

Not everyone is an Instagram model, but everyone has a personal brand they take with them from job to job. Especially if you ever want to go out on your own one day when it comes to consulting, writing books, or giving talks, you want to be known for who you are. And quiet quitters are those having a crisis in their work life – perhaps just clocking in from paycheck to paycheck, unsure of what the next year is going to look like. To help them get back into a productive headspace, try to provide services that help them strategically hone where they want to go in their careers and who they want to be.

8. Adjust your expectations

Not every day at work needs to be life-changing, and no proof or a round of editing will change history. There’s a chance that your quiet quitters are burning out under the pressure of an oppressive hustle culture, so give them the benefit of the doubt. Some argue that the definition of quiet quitting is that an employee does the job laid out in their job descriptions and nothing more – so why expect more? There’s a way to encourage and motivate employees without making everything a life-or-death decision. Because if you set unreachable goals, you’ll just get unhappy employees.

9. Use a project management platform

If you really want to re-engage quiet quitters, implement using a project management tool like Hive to ensure that everyone feels on the same page about what they're working on, and how they prioritize their workload, and ultimately, make working with others on the team more streamlined. Being more efficient, organized and on track can certainly bring everyone — including quiet quitters — back into the flow,