Do your team members do more than the minimum? Are you tired of employees merely phoning it in? What can you do to encourage your staff to want to go above and beyond?
Here are six proven strategies to maximize engagement and improve discretionary effort among your core and contingent employees.
1. Strive for shared purpose and goals
If you want your team to feel invested in the work they are doing, make sure they understand and appreciate the end goal. It's hard to feel truly connected when your assignments lack valuable context, the reasons for tasks are vague, or you haven't had any input on the process.
In addition to job clarity, it's important to share your big-picture vision and philosophy. People want to be part of a group effort and to make a difference. Define and communicate your collective mission. Help employees understand why they do the jobs they do.
Having a shared purpose - and mutually agreed-upon pathways to achieving it - is key to keeping employees engaged.
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2. Make the effort to check in
Soliciting feedback is an essential leadership practice. So is active listening. Put them together by periodically checking in with your employees. Don't assume they will come to you if they are feeling detached or unsatisfied; it's human nature to avoid difficult conversations, especially if someone feels it might cost them at work.
So, check in: Ask how they are feeling. Ask if there is anything they need. By regularly taking the temperature of your team, you can help prevent unaddressed issues that might lead to them putting forth minimal effort.
Apply this same concept to yourself; do self-check-ins. Honestly ask yourself if you are doing okay and what you might need. Including yourself in this exercise will enhance empathy and understanding.
3. Create a psychologically safe environment
In addition to proactively checking in with your staff, you should also create an environment in which it's easy and comfortable for them to speak up of their own volition. After all, the "quiet" part of quiet quitting is when people choose not to directly say what's wrong, insufficient or unsatisfying.
Let your team know you want to hear them, whether in meetings, by email, or in face-to-face conversation. Have a system in place for feedback solicitation, acceptance, and analysis. Show appreciation when employees speak up and follow through as needed.
Your staff needs to feel that their views will be heard and taken seriously, and not be ignored, ridiculed, or punished. When your employees feel safe to ask questions, offer ideas, or voice concerns without fearing repercussions or negative pushback, they're able to openly problem-solve and are less likely to resort to passive disengagement.
4. Nurture employee ownership
Work accounts for a lot of our time, and most employees want more from that investment than simply collecting a paycheck. Long term, what drives their desire to put in maximum effort is a sense of ownership in their work: feeling like their job is a valuable and positive part of their identity; getting personal satisfaction from a job well done; and wanting to challenge themselves and seek feelings of accomplishment.
You can help nurture a sense of ownership by consistently helping your workforce understand how their individual roles fit into a bigger picture, both short- and long-term. Clarify the very real benefits they are bringing to the company or the community at large.
Make sure they understand and feel connected to both the why and the how of their roles. Include your team in the process of figuring out how you will collectively and individually accomplish goals. If employees have no agency and simply feel like isolated cogs in a machine, they will not give all the effort of which they are capable.
5. Try to spark internal motivators
While there are many things a leader can do to motivate another, sometimes motivation is internal. It is possible to do things that help activate your employees' intrinsic motivators.
For example, give your staff greater autonomy; let them make decisions about how to best achieve the results you desire. Clearly identify a shared purpose; ideally, they not only know the goal but were part of the process of setting it. Support their sense of mastery and expertise.
Everyone deserves to feel competent and valuable at their job. Such actions will help spark employees' internal motivation to give their all at work.
6. Support your staff through communication, connection, and upskilling
Cultivate trust by consistently communicating authentically and honestly. Make sure your employees feel heard and valued and understand their role within the organization.
Demonstrate empathy; set an example; and build connection and community. Such efforts promote workforce engagement and satisfaction - the opposite of quiet quitting.
Lastly, provide workforce growth and development. Educate, train, support and develop your employees and you will end up with a skilled and enthusiastic staff that wants to work to their best ability.