India Inc turns to tech, outreach to get quiet quitters motivated, engaged

“I’m exhausted. That’s all there is to it, honestly,” says a junior engineer who works with a leading Indian IT firm in New Delhi. The 23-year-old, who does not wish to be named, says he’s unhappy on several counts: being asked to work from office when working remotely from his hometown Bhopal is an option; with the less-than-expected pay hike; and with the lack of recognition for the extra hours he puts in. So he’s decided to take his foot off the pedal and do just the bare minimum that his job requires.

Like him, in Bengaluru, another engineer working with a start-up is doing the same. “I’ve stopped caring about my employer’s expectations as long as the basic deliverables are achieved and the salary is credited every month,” says the 26-year-old. He has also been actively taking more leave than ever before to “compensate for all the extra hours I’ve put in in the past”.

Both these engineers exemplify what the working world has come to call “quiet quitters”, a term coined over social media app TikTok. 

Products of the pandemic, these freshers and mid-career employees who largely inhabit the IT or start-up space are demotivated and partially or actively disengaged from work. They are delivering, but only just. 

Worried about this trend, several companies are turning to out-of-the-box solutions to tackle the problem. Tech, too, is being pressed into service – even to recognise and laud an employee for a job well done.

For instance, an app called ‘Recognition Now’ is allowing managers and peers to recognise the efforts of team members at that very instant directly from their email handles without the need to log into any other app.

“Recognition today needs to be instant rather than the old-school way of acknowledging employees’ contributions on a monthly or quarterly basis,” says Sukesh Jain, CEO of BI Worldwide, India, which had developed the app.

The firm, which offers tech-enabled loyalty and engagement solutions, caters to companies like IBM, Lenovo and Genpact.

There’s also an ‘Equity & Recognition Advisor’, which removes biases towards repeatedly recognising the same team members. And, a ‘Recognition Advisor’, which nudges the manager to recognise team members.

However, if a public thumbs-up or a pat on the back alone isn’t cutting it, there are also brownie points to be handed out that can be redeemed to buy products or experiences. This, too, is being done through apps like ‘Experience and Merchandise Market Place’ that allows employees to choose from over 16,000 products, including consumer durables like refrigerators and washing machines, and experiences such as holiday packages that can be bought by redeeming points earned through recognition.

The high attrition rates among the younger workforce, who now have the luxury of choosing the company and/or job profile that suits them, have placed such employee recognition, rewards and engagement programmes at the centre of key organisational business priorities, Jain says.

A few companies are also stepping back to give their employees reboot time. E-commerce platform Meesho, for instance, recently gave all its employees an 11-day ‘Reset and Recharge’ holiday.

For companies that woke up to this reality earlier, things are better. “I haven’t sensed any quiet quitting happening at my company,” says a senior executive at one of the Big Four consulting firms, not wishing to be named. But then this firm also encourages employees to take time off and offers one long weekend every quarter as part of its ‘pens-down initiative’.

“Traditional engagement initiatives no longer hold in today’s time. We need to gamify our approach and show quick results to increase engagement and overall energy amongst our teams,” says Dipti Goel, head of HR at Paytm Insider, a ticketing platform for live events and experiences.

These include structured one-on-ones with the leadership, plus company-wide surveys. “Introducing policies like mental wellness leave or menstrual leave, too, help,” she says. “With most of us working from home, team catch-ups and outings also make a huge impact.”

Infosys, which increased employee engagement during the pandemic, is “continuing [with] our innovation around learning, employee experience, health and wellness, careers and benefits,” says Richard Lobo, executive vice president and head, HR. “We have also focused on improving the ability of our managers to lead in the hybrid world by constantly providing feedback and coaching so that it reflects in a better experience for their teams.” He adds that the approach is guided by specific needs thrown up by data and analytics.

At TCS, too, the focus and priorities in engagement have shifted – “from crafting employee experience to holistic safety and wellbeing during the pandemic to ‘engagement with purpose’ in the new normal,” says DP Nambiar, vice-president and head of HR.

The personal touch

The quiet-quitting phenomenon has compelled managers to rethink their roles, says Anjali Verma, people and culture officer at a law university in Bengaluru who has worked as an HR professional with various enterprises. While there is no need to agonise over it, “it is imperative to try and understand why it may be happening and how managers can help,” she says. “The role of both HR and leadership is to figure out structures where they can have one-on-ones with their employees.”

For example, sending out a common mail from the company leadership will not necessarily help. “The communication has to be at a waterfall level — managers speaking to team members. It’s best when people can feel that managers are actually invested in their work,” Verma adds.

With mental wellbeing at the core of keeping employees encouraged and motivated, firms are focusing on it like never before. So, cloud-based services firm Salesforce India offers employees access to Thriving Mind, which is a US-headquartered company that helps with anxiety, depression and behavioural issues. “We also have employee assistance programmes for support during difficult times,” says Michele Nyrop, head of employee success at Salesforce India.

TCS, meanwhile, runs an initiative called TCS Cares to provide counselling sessions, self-assessments etc. “We also have policies and interventions to allow people to take time off if needed. This helps our associates to deal with constant change and show up at work better,” says Nambiar. 

“Conventional work structures in organisations — like filling daily and weekly reports, or time sheets – and inflated expectations of managers have all led to some unhappiness in employees, which is showing up in the form of resignation,” says Jitin Chawla, a New Delhi-based career counsellor.

To cope, many employees have started creating strict boundaries between worklife and personal life. Verma says while having healthy boundaries is important and helps in the long run, these can’t be too rigid.

Tech's the way
 

Apps to acknowledge work

• Recognition Now: Allows managers and peers to instantly recognise efforts of team members
• Equity & Recognition Advisor: Removes biases towards repeatedly recognising the same team members
• Recognition Advisor: Nudges manager to recognise team members
• Experience and Merchandise Market Place: Allows employees to choose from over 16,000 products and experiences that can be bought by redeeming points earned through recognition