The Role of Incentives, Rewards and Recognition in Addressing Quiet Quitting

The buzz phrase ‘Quiet Quitting’ has been everywhere over the past few months, but what does it really mean?

Quiet quitting is a movement of disengaged employees who are no longer going above and beyond at work. So, it’s not about quitting their jobs; it’s more like a philosophy for doing the bare minimum to keep their jobs.

While it may seem like an overblown issue, quiet quitting has contributed to the steepest annual U.S. worker productivity drop since 1948, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. This productivity drop and subsequent low engagement have cost the global economy $7.8 trillion.

Researchers believe that the main cause of quiet quitting is an all-time low in employee well-being. Today, both mentally and physically, workers are not all right. With the rise in remote work, loneliness affects 40 percent of the American workforce. Employees are also stressed and burnt out. Inflation creates stress for everyone, and salaries have not increased to match their accelerating rent and other costs of living. Added job duties from vacant positions on their team mean more work and can lead to burn out. Overworked and stressed employees become disconnected - feeling more like cogs in a machine than individuals contributing to a meaningful goal.

Incentives connect employees and keep them engaged. Peer recognition, events, group incentive travel and awards celebrations bring people together physically and/or virtually. Reward designers should focus on providing incentives that connect people and that focus on mental and physical well-being in the workplace. Healthy, connected employees are more engaged, happier in their jobs and less likely to quietly quit.

Incentives and motivation professionals should work with leaders across organizations to identify barriers to full engagement and productivity, then use tangible and intangible rewards to address them.

Read the full Incentive Research Foundation article here.