Quiet quitting is a trend but managers have the potential to stop it.
The summer has witnessed a flurry of activity as graduation ceremonies, deferred due to the pandemic, occurred in abundance, allowing family, friends, and faculty members to celebrate the hard-earned success of graduates. The workplace today presents a vastly different scenario from when many of these graduates entered University. Emerging from the pandemic, global instability, and increasing recognition of the climate crisis creates new norms and attitudes at work. This summer has also seen the rise of quiet quitting, the phenomenon where employees do the bare minimum at work. Employees will not take on extra work, work overtime but it also refers to mentally checking out from work.
Never before has the role of line managers been more important in creating an engaging culture for their teams. While the dominant conversation for the last two years has focused on balancing working from home, wider trends will impact the retention of millennials and gen Zs in the workplace. Research by the careers platform Bright Network with over 700,000 members and 300 world-leading employers, presents data that helps leaders and line managers better to understand the lack of congruence with their recruits. Notable stats show that the quality and experience of working are essential and remain critical in the decisions made by graduates around recruitment. 89% of students consider an employer's commitment to Diversity and Inclusion, and 91% consider a company's commitment to employee mental wellbeing. 81% focus on the company's commitment to reducing environmental impact, and 78% focus on the responsibility to charitable projects.
What is the most important consideration when deciding where to work? Surprisingly it's not remuneration and career advancement opportunities (this comes in third at 21%). Culture and people are the primary factors influencing decisions 36%, followed by a quarter (26%) deciding on the characteristics of the role. The reputation and image of the firm come fourth at 18%. Three sectors, in particular, are considered to be lacking in diversity and inclusion; banking and finance (36%), technology, engineering, construction and manufacturing (29%), and law (28%). 67% of participants do not think companies do enough to support mental well-being. These statistics are compelling in the struggle to attract the brightest and most motivated talent as they demonstrate a significant shift in how graduates view employment opportunities and what influences their willingness to commit to employers. If we dig deeper, the views and attitudes towards diversity, equity, and inclusion are nuanced and demanding.
Forbes asked students to share their vision of leadership. Dawson Jope, an HEC Business School Paris graduate, highlights the challenges, "Many of these organizations are still embedded with inequalities. No matter how subtle, this creates opportunities to incorporate a greater understanding of gender towards improved leadership." Jope asserts the most significant progress will occur when leaders "create environments where even the person who has historically felt the least included feels comfortable and empowered to share their opinion. The least empowered and least comfortable person is often the canary in the coal mine of organizational rot." He continues, "the more people feel empowered, feel enabled to share their unique perspectives, the more opportunities there are for organizations to incorporate perspectives that widen the scope of group understanding, reduce groupthink, and provide antifragile measures into culture building." Thandiwe Mkhetshane, currently enrolled in the MBA program at HEC Paris, agrees with this perspective, "My vision is to see more companies embracing and emphasizing inclusion initiatives. They need to empower women with tools that enable them to make key and impactful decisions for themselves, their companies, and the society." Again, the focus is on shifting the workplace culture.
Mkhetshane states, "Organisations need to promote a culture that allows women to have more options in the workplace, including encouraging positive cultural traits such as open discussions about unfair gender biases and damaging stereotypes about what women can and cannot do. Including women in leadership succession planning should be long-term and sustainable. If the number of years it will take to close the gap continues to widen, our efforts might go in vain. We, collectively, should not only support initiatives that promote gender equality in leadership, but we have the responsibility to ensure that they are sustainable. They have bold and daring champions who will continue to drive the vision and mission of those initiatives." Jope argues; "Organizations and existing leadership structures must be able to exhibit and religiously practice humility: They must be able to lead not just bold initiatives, but also lead the addressing of ignorance(s), and to be able to stand up and say, "I don't know, but I want to learn ." They must also work to decouple values and actions that have gendered perceptions, the autocratic man and the empathic woman. Showing a willingness to decouple gendered expectations and behaviors at the highest levels would surely have a freeing effect throughout an entire organization."
Marcelle Laliberte, Chief Diversity and Equity and Inclusion Officer at HEC Paris, supports these views, "The viewpoints shared by Jope and Mkhetshane demonstrate the sophistication expected from managers and leaders in addressing these areas. Targets and flimsy diversity plans are no longer enough to attract talented graduates." "Increasing the visibility of women as subject matter experts, three factors are critical in nudging/accelerating change: understanding the individuals that make up our organizations, understanding the organizational culture of where we work (practices, languages, shared experiences), and also understanding the legal and political framework of where we operate. Failing to integrate these three elements often leads to frustration and disengagement, as witnessed by the great resignation or the phenomenon of quiet quitting. " Laliberte argues, "These are not easy topics as invariably, dealing with DEI within these three factors will force managers to step beyond their comfort zones to confront the necessary changes.”
The diversity agenda in organizations needs velocity, direction, and speed of progress as essential components. Vague goals and targets, grand speeches, and little action are not enough to gain the trust and commitment of graduates. Quiet quitting grows by stealth and the involvement of line managers is paramount in understanding the motivations of their teams, providing clarity and ensuring the expectations of recruits are aligned with the broader diversity goals set by the organization.
