Quiet quitting. You’ve probably heard about this trend if you’ve tuned into the news or checked your LinkedIn feed in the past few months. While the name is new, the concept isn’t. It’s simply a form of employee disengagement where team members stop going above and beyond and do the bare minimum to keep their jobs.
Gallup estimates that quiet quitters make up at least 50% of the U.S. workforce, so chances are, you have at least one in your firm right now.
If talent were plentiful and easy to hire, this statistic might not be so alarming — you could simply start looking for a replacement. But as every firm leader knows, finding experienced staff is no easy task. That’s why it’s crucial to find an antidote to the quiet quitting trend — a cure I like to call roaring retention.
To help you out, here are the four symptoms of quiet quitting and the roaring retention strategies to help you overcome them.
Symptom 1: Not attending meetings
Cure: Hold fewer meetings and improve meeting quality.
According to a survey of over 500 knowledge workers by the engagement app Polly, people spend five times more time in meetings today than before the pandemic. While some meetings are beneficial, not all of them are.
We’ve all felt stuck in a meeting we felt served no purpose or was poorly managed. Chances are, you know what makes a good meeting. But are you walking the walk? Before scheduling a meeting, ask yourself whether it’s really necessary and who actually needs to be there.
According to the Harvard Business Review, there are three reasons to hold a meeting:
- To inform and bring people up to speed;
- To seek input from people; and,
- To ask for approval.
If your meeting serves none of these goals, it doesn’t need to happen.
Every person invited to the meeting should be a resource, able to contribute knowledge, experience or both.
Ensure every meeting has a written agenda that’s shared with all participants ahead of time. Consider allocating a set number of minutes to each agenda item and stick to the schedule during the meeting. And instead of scheduling every meeting in 30- or 60-minute blocks, change your default length to 15 or 25 minutes. You’ll be surprised at how much you can accomplish in a short, well-planned, well-managed meeting.
Unproductive meetings take a toll on energy level and capacity, so is it any wonder they’re one of the first things a quiet quitter pulls back on? Start holding only essential, productive meetings, and people won’t feel the need to check out.
Symptom 2: Arriving late or leaving early
Cure: Encourage flexible work arrangements.
Office hours are 8 to 5, but some employees consistently arrive late, and others leave early. If you’re losing sleep over start and stop times, it’s time to get over it.
Having greater “time sovereignty,” or control over time, positively impacts employee satisfaction. People with more say over their work hours feel less stressed and more satisfied with and committed to their work. In fact, according to a 2021 study published in the Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, changing one’s schedule decreased job stress by 20% and increased job satisfaction by 62%.
Allow employees to flex their working hours around “core hours,” such as 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. And measure results instead of measuring productivity by hours spent at a desk.
Symptom 3: Reduction in productivity
Cure: Align individual goals to the firm’s strategic plan.
Do your team members know how their work connects to and serves the firm’s strategic plan? You might think they do, but if every team member isn’t aware of your strategic plan (or worse, you don’t have one), they probably can’t see the big picture.
Ensure you have a one-page strategic plan that incorporates the firm’s vision, mission and core values, strategic objectives and measurements of success. Once completed, distribute it to everyone in the firm and provide regular updates on how the firm is progressing toward its goals.
Aligning individual goals and professional development plans with the firm’s strategic plan can help energize people that may feel stuck in a rut or don’t feel like they’re moving forward as they should.
Symptom 4: Lack of passion or enthusiasm
Cure: Make sure people are in the right roles
People who don’t enjoy doing their jobs will naturally be less engaged. Work on aligning each team member’s unique talents and strengths with the expectations and responsibilities of their roles.
Strength assessments, including the Kolbe A Index, DiSC, CliftonStrengths and Myers-Briggs, are an excellent place to start.
It’s also helpful to regularly check in with people to learn about their interests, passions and goals. When you know what kind of work they enjoy doing, you’re better prepared to assign projects they find meaningful. When people are excited about their work, they’re more interested in putting in time and effort.
Finally, most people who leave the profession aren’t going elsewhere because they hate the work or don’t like their coworkers or clients. Instead, they’re leaving because of the long hours that public accounting demands.
If we want to hold on to great talent, we need to change that perception. That means changing how we work. So what steps can you take today to start lightening the load? Outsourcing, automation, process improvement, client filtering — these initiatives ensure your people can work efficiently, rather than spending hours performing mundane manual processes or dealing with clients who don’t value their work.
The key to overcoming quiet quitting is to make your firm a great place to work. When people are in jobs they love where their efforts are recognized and rewarded, then going the extra mile becomes exciting rather than taxing. That makes engaged and motivated team members willing to stay.
