Quiet Promoting: Why Must We Be Quiet?

Does it seem to you that there are a lot of ‘quiet’ things happening in the workplace? In 2022 “quiet quitting” was the hot topic and now we’ve moved on to “quiet hiring” or “quiet promoting”.

We won’t waste time explaining what quiet promoting is. If you haven’t yet heard about it yet, a quick search and you’ll find plenty of articles that have been published within the last few weeks. Instead, let’s focus on what leaders can do to handle this workforce strategy more effectively.

While we aren’t completely sure where all the workers have gone, we are certain we still have a serious labor shortage nationwide.

Ask any leader (in any industry) what the biggest challenges are they’re facing right now and undoubtably, staffing would be at the top of the list. For many companies that means realigning duties to accomplish goals.

Organizations are doing what they can to adjust and keep operations running, but in reality you can’t pluck employees out of the sky

So they have no other option but to adapt.

JobSage conducted a survey recently and found, of the workers surveyed, 78% say they’ve experienced increased workloads without additional compensation and 67% say it came after a colleague left the company. Even more startling is 57% feel their employer is taking advantage of or has manipulated them into absorbing the added workload, yet only 22% have refused to take on the added work. That potentially means the other 35% are either doing the added work with animosity and/or they’re looking for another job.

So, what do you do about it? First and foremost, you must have a good relationship with your team members. They need to know you care about them as people and value them as members of your team. Creating personal connections with your team must be an intentional act you practice regularly and can be accomplished by having purposeful one-on-one conversations on a regular cadence.

Secondly, and this only works if you have already established trust, you must have open, transparent conversations about the challenges you’re facing. We don’t always give our team members enough credit, but they know when your department has vacancies whether you’re talking about it or not. Or, perhaps your organization had to make the tough decision to do layoffs, they know that too; and talking about the challenges in a way that shows your team you’re clearly aware of the impact those business decision have on them will go a long way. Employees want a leader who is honest and open, plus - doing so makes you human!

Next, rather than guilting individuals into taking on more work, ask your team to help come up with ideas about how to handle the void.

Employees want and need to have a voice in the decisions that impact them.

They will appreciate you for asking, rather than telling, and you may be surprised at the creative solutions they come up with when you bring a group of high performers together with a specific problem to solve. Use empowering question to give them a platform to find solutions in both how the work will be divided, but also in efficiencies in how the work you do gets done. When employees have a say in what happens, they’ll be more inclined to embrace the decisions that are made.

Finally, when it comes to compensation, in some cases it may be difficult to justify increasing pay, particularly if the added workload is a result of layoffs; but talking about it will help eliminate or minimize some of the angst around this topic. If the void is because of vacancies, I challenge you to consider the amount of money you’re saving in salaries, wages and benefits and explore options to offer some financial incentives. Maybe you offer small discretionary bonuses while the person is doing the work of two (or more) people. You don’t have to double a person’s salary. In fact, we wouldn’t recommend adding to base pay because that would be painful to take away in the future, once you’re fully staffed.

And don’t forget, a dollar amount is not the only important thing to workers! Recognition and appreciation, support from the leader, work-life balance and respect, and investing in their growth and development are all cited as top needs of workers today.

If your organization is quietly promoting, reach out and let us help you navigate through the challenges you’re facing! We can walk you through finding solutions that won’t come at the expense of your team or sacrificing results.