How employers can address quiet quitting: Fix the performance review

The term “quiet quitting” has gained a lot of traction. It describes workers who are now scaling back their work efforts, “checking out” and not pushing to go the extra mile without some kind of recognition or compensation.

This isn’t so much about quitting as it is about disengagement, and it’s not a new phenomenon. The term seems to be gaining momentum now because, in the aftermath of the pandemic, there’s been a bigger focus on mental health, balancing work/life commitments and not burning out.

For employers though, having disengaged, less productive workers is an issue, and indicates a dissatisfied, underperforming workforce.

Employers need to recognize and reward the people who are making an impact. If that’s not happening — whether it’s due to a “bad boss” or because companies don’t know who their true superstars are — they’re more likely to see “quiet quitting.” When people, especially top performers, aren’t recognized for the contributions they make, they tend to turn into flight risks.

To prevent this stage of employee disengagement and avoid quiet quitting, employers should focus on fixing their performance review process and measuring with real data the impact of each employee, and not rely on only managers’ perspectives.

Traditional employee performance reviews are broken. They are based on an antiquated system that no longer reflects the way we work today. They take a top-down, hierarchical approach, where feedback on performance is based on a single manager’s opinion, presenting a limited point of view. Employees often feel overlooked, not given specific feedback for improvement or advancement, and they rightly feel that office politics are too often at play in reviews and advancement decisions.

Employers should know who their top performers are and how to identify if someone has mentally checked out of their job and why. Instead of relying on manager-only performance reviews, they should be using ONA (organizational network analysis) that takes into account the network model of work, where all employees can weigh in on who at their company they turn to for advice and help, and who energizes them. ONA can also track signals of “quiet quitting” among employees and delve into areas of development and opportunities for top performers that are starting to disengage.

Some of these signals ONA can track include:

• The people who this employee is regularly influencing or helping
• The employee who is seen by less of their network as doing outstanding work
• The employee who is getting feedback that deadlines are being missed or reliability is dwindling

Managers can catch issues early using the above signals, then have honest and frank conversations about employees’ concerns, and pull in the appropriate HR and leadership stakeholders as needed.

Employers need to identify their top performers using ONA, engagement surveys and manager NPS scores to assess employees’ current “happiness” and their view of their manager. By analyzing this data, they can identify top performers who are flight risks or may be “quiet quitting”, take steps to ensure compensation is matching performance, and give opportunities for more rewarding work.

Performance reviews should ensure advancement is based on data, rather than company politics or the loudest voice in the room. Using ONA data in performance reviews can help employers address the issue of “quiet quitting” head on and proactively build a more satisfied and productive workforce and ensure they aren’t losing their top performers.

Josh Merrill, CEO of Confirm. 

Opinions expressed here are the author’s own. 

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• Avoiding employee burnout and the Hidden Resignation