Zoning out | 'Quiet quitting' is just bad employee engagement - is this how to stop it?

Is a lack of engagement why employees quiet quit?

In a recently conducted survey by Gallup, more than half of the respondents admitted that they planned to leave their job within the next two years, and a measly ten per cent said they'd stay longer than five years. While talent attraction may be tough, talent retention is actually just as much of a bugbear for HR and leadership. And losing employees doesn’t just mean that – the knock-on affect is that it’s really bad for morale and also can result in massive financial losses, on average costing one-half to two times the employee's annual salary—and that's being conservative in estimates.

HR Grapevine sat down with Jose Azares, Founder and CEO of NIDUM, a tech company that creates immersive learning and development programmes that takes into account neurodivergence and inclusiveness when creating training modules. While HR-focused L&D / training tech companies are hardly unique, NIDUM stands out for a few things. Firstly, despite having a worldwide remit, the firm is based in Kenya, not a typical hot spot for tech companies. Secondly, Azares has fully embraced the benefits of neurodivergent employees and his tech team is fully staffed with people on the Autistic spectrum. This gives the company a unique, diverse perspective that plays into how the team approaches L&D.

Azares strongly believes that firstly, having an L&D plan for each employee that plays to their skills and desires and secondly, implementing that well, will help combat 'quiet quitting'.

Below, Azares outlines why the pandemic and cost-of-living crisis have meant less employee buy-in to jobs they don’t like and bad managers and how you can combat 'quiet quitting'.

"Jobs have't become more difficult than they were in previous years, but the pandemic fully showed us the man behind the curtains," he says. "Without the arrival of free pizza announced loudly on the table in the office or a ping-pong bonding session at lunch, all workplace distractions were put on the back burner. From home, people could see their job for what it is and how it serves their lives or overall purpose.

He continues: "The current economic crisis is also in part to blame. Fuelled by ever-rising pressures and having to accommodate the skyrocketing cost of living, 53% of employees that we polled recently reported that their stress levels are higher than they were a year ago, during the height of the pandemic, and almost half would say they are burnt out from today's challenges."

Pandemic issues aside, the conversation around burnout has been brewing since 2019, when the World Health Organisation officially included it in the International Classification of Diseases. Since then, burnout has become a significant focus in workplace wellness, putting pressure on large and small companies to provide ethical working conditions and employee flexibility.

That, coupled with the realisations that Covid brought, means that employees have felt empowered to take control of their work and personal life. And that's where 'quiet quitting' - or, more accurately, lack of engagement - comes in. What was once a passive-aggressive, uphill battle of a challenging work-life balance is no longer something employees are asking for politely.

"It's becoming a demand," says Azares, "and if employers can't adapt to the current needs of the newer workforce, they'll continue to see themselves deep in the primary employment crisis sweeping the nation.

And just what are those current needs? For younger employees, a solid career path is really important. A PayScale survey found that those aged 18-30 are more interested in career development than anything else when scouring for their next opportunity. 72% of Millennials say they value these opportunities more than anything else, compared with just 52% for boomers and 64% for Gen-Xers.

"The traits Millennials and Gen Z bring to the workforce show they're not slackers," Azares explains, "so to fall into the trap of ‘generational superiority’ would be silly. Instead, wisely leveraging younger employees’ burning desire for improvement, and provide clear career progression and learning and development opportunities is what smart employers do – proving to employees that you're an employer worth sticking around for."

How can we improve L&D to stop 'quiet quitting'?

If it's more learning opportunities and further career development that most employees want, then immersive training could be an answer.

"Millennials believe they can achieve anything with the right opportunities and access to learning and development," says business consultant Peter Stark in his advice column for job finder site Monster. "However, less than 2% of Millennials feel they have an employer or supervisor who encourages their professional growth, which creates a real opportunity for leaders to fill this gap."

For Avares, employer brand is now just as important as overall brand: "Just as one must thoroughly brand to sell their product, employers must now ensure the same amount of effort to 'sell' working at their company. To 'sell' their company culture. To 'sell' an experience rather than a means to ends. Immersive learning has also shown to be effective in maintaining higher retention capabilities through visualisation methods. Regardless of your personal opinion, this is how it is now. You either adapt, or you risk failure."

Make sure your training isn’t boring

Having employees click their way through career development training brings a mundane and outdated approach to training instead of immersing those craving growth in an engaging experience. Think back to being a student flicking through a textbook in high school. Were you engaged? How much do you remember?

"Immersive learning has also shown to be effective in maintaining higher retention capabilities through visualisation methods. Employers can create workplace simulations that are highly engaging and easily accessible on a laptop or iPhone through the use of 360 degrees cameras. By leveraging this technology, we can create immersive career development modules intentionally crafted as alternative experiential learning methods that simulate the employee's mind, allowing them the freedom to grow within their career and, most importantly, your company," Avares explains.

Companies implementing immersive tech in their career development plans show they're willing to adapt to modern times and aren't stuck in their ways, making them more attractive to a generation whose main priority is growth opportunities.

It shows that they are looking for ways to connect further with staff, thus, gaining higher retention rates and skyrocketing employee happiness, seeing a significant decline in staff turnover, and making their workplace one that the workforce wants to immerse themselves in.

Avares concludes: "Simply throwing PDFs, video modules, and PowerPoint presentations in an employee's face and calling it 'training' is no longer acceptable. The newer workforce wants to change.

"If you’re serious about employee training, learning and development, offering real challenges and opportunities, using the right tech to back it up, quiet quitting can be one of those things that just happens to other companies, not to yours."