Quiet Quitting seems to have taken the recruitment commentariat by storm over the last couple of weeks.
From major national newspapers to reams of LinkedIn conversations and thought leadership, the concept behind Quiet Quitting – when staff members coast along at their job, not overperforming, not underperforming, but just slowly and almost invisibly pulling back from engaging with their work over time – seems to be the magnet for which conversations around general unproductivity in the UK workforce is attaching itself to.
Quiet quitting is nothing new, it’s just a new tagline for a perennial workplace issue – that of workplace disconnect.
As companies scour the digital and physical leadership world for productivity hacks and quick fixes to dysfunctional teams (most of which are sticking plasters and don’t address systemic cultural malaise), the solution could be lying right under our noses – the tech that has embedded itself into our every-day working lives.
Targeted, cross-functional tech can be an immensely positive weapon against burnout, unhappiness and, indeed, quiet quitting.
Tech could be the method and the means of connection that workplaces are struggling to maintain in a disrupted working world…if senior business leaders knew how to deploy it properly!
Tech, and Rectec, Origins.
We’ll admit that one of the driving reasons we created the Rectec Marketplace was to draw recruiters and agencies towards recruitment-adjacent tech that could complement any employer’s or agency’s tech stack.
The reason why is, on the surface of it, pretty simple – it’s a more streamlined way for recruitment companies and agencies to connect with a wide variety of innovative recruitment solution services they didn’t even know they might need. It’s a chance to open the door to tech creators that are changing the way we do business, and through this, we like to think our Marketplace is doing the good work of promoting innovation in the world of HR and talent acquisition.
But as anyone who’s had their working lives turned positively upside down by tech over the last decade (hello, cloud applicant tracking systems!), the platforms we now do so much of our work on should be considered a part of the solution to novel forms of presenteeism, burnout and work disconnect.
Indeed, the universality of our online and always-on culture means tech should be leading the way on how to help reduce incidents of quiet quitting.
Here’s how we think tech, and specifically recruitment tech, can help:
Performance Management.
A large part of the quiet quitting mentality is a complete lack of enthusiasm for work, caused by, well, you name it – toxic work cultures, too-remote work, a lack of connection, a lack of brand alignment, a disbelief in the product or service, or simply that they don’t feel heard or seen.
During the pandemic, tech was the communication saviour. Messaging apps, workplace networks, Slack, Teams, Zoom, these solutions combined to create not just great products, but a culture of support and visibility as companies rushed to work remotely.
As people return to the office, some of the remote work cracks are starting to show – digital burnout, Zoom Fatigue, and quiet quitting.
Many of the above issues can be somewhat mitigated by one, simple, leadership shift – creating continual feedback loops utilising tech.
Continuous feedback isn’t a new concept, but it’s come into its own as remote working has exploded. Many recruitment and HR tech providers offer easy, hassle-free platforms on which leaders and employees can offer seamless feedback, reviews, project updates and more – all essential cogs in creating a more supportive machine of workplace culture.
An open forum approach to communication between peers and seniors is verifiably good for team engagement, happiness and productivity!
The power of a good CRM.
When two of the primary complaints of candidates stuck in a convoluted hiring funnel are “the process takes too long” and “they don’t communicate with me where I am in the process” it’s easy to fixate on poor recruitment practice and lazy recruiters as the sole reason.
But the channels on which some consultants have to work on (legacy CRM, mostly) simply aren’t up to the task of offering efficient, personal communication channels suited to our now multi-channel online existence.
Contemporary recruitment CRM providers prioritise communication and data access, giving consultants peace of mind they can keep on top of comms.
The search for meaning.
Another reason quiet quitting is ascendant is a lack of meaningful connection to an employer’s purpose, or indeed the work employees are doing.
It’s imperative employers use every means at their disposal to help employees reconnect with their brand, vision and mission.
This is where tech helps the process along – by being a vector for employer brand messaging, recruitment tech can be the vessel in which staff are shown how, where and why the company continues to trade the way it does.
Employer branding is one of the most important recruitment and retention tools in a business leader’s hands, so utilising every opportunity to remind staff of that brand and what it means will make a massive difference to staff morale, connection and meaning.
Tech is the means, and the method, by which this messaging continues to hit home.
At Rectec we help organisations to find the best Applicant Tracking System or best Recruitment CRM to suit your needs, accompanied by our unique complementary technology marketplace, to help you build the perfect recruitment tech stack for your business.
You can click here to register for Rectec Compare – and best of all, it’s completely free of charge.