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Australia, along with the rest of the world, has seen a rise in ‘quiet quitting’, which has sparked discussion over the effects it could have on businesses. For employees, it’s about reclaiming time and setting well-defined boundaries to regain separation of home and office. The most dangerous part of quiet quitting for all parties, however, is that it is quiet. Business leaders need to maintain communication with employees to help rebalance work and life effectively and set healthy boundaries.
The question is, how can leaders ensure their workforce has a healthy work-life balance that will positively impact business outcomes?
Model from the top
By setting a positive example and openly engaging with employees on healthy work-life balance, leaders will ensure quiet quitting doesn’t disrupt business success.
Workcations and working remotely from different locations remain increasingly popular, however, it’s important for employees to still take time away from work to avoid burnout. If business leaders set the example by having a healthy work-life balance it will foster an inclusive, supportive and respectful working environment, encouraging employees to be healthy, happy and productive.
Set up for success
Ensuring employees are set up for success will result in higher productivity, a better work-life balance and a lower probability of quiet quitting. The aim is for business leaders to make work easier, more enjoyable, more effective, and more collaborative, especially when meeting increasing demands for flexible work. Investing in remote support tools that empower employees to get work done on their own terms, while also eliminating or refining technologies that steal time is key, as technology is supposed to make work easier, not more complicated.
With the possibility for staff to be located all over the world, it’s vital for leaders to utilise the features and benefits provided by innovative tech solutions to effectively gauge employee engagement, productivity, performance, burnout or other health and wellbeing concerns.
Unified, simple software and tech platforms will help in this regard, but it is essential that businesses adopt a strong security model with zero-trust already built in, so everyone is safe at every step.
Overall, tech functionalities should bring a higher ROI in terms of driving business productivity and performance, stronger communication and collaboration while ensuring IT teams have fewer headaches. Without the right people and tools in place, businesses can’t enable, nor can they secure, their organisation to work productively and successfully from anywhere.
Embrace flexibility
Recent Frost & Sullivan research commissioned by GoTo found that flex work is good for productivity. More than three-quarters of respondents (78 per cent) said working at least some of the time out of the office boosts employee productivity. One reason is that it lets workers catch their breath without wasting time on things like long commutes.
Nineteen percent of respondents named reducing staff burnout a benefit of flex and remote work. Doing away with or at least reducing commutes surely plays a role too; cutting commuting time made it to the top five benefits of hybrid and remote work, named by a third (33 per cent) of respondents. More than one in three business and IT leaders (36 per cent) also cite employees delivering high-quality work as a benefit of remote and hybrid work arrangements.
The clear message from these results is to give employees the freedom to choose the flexible work style that works best for them, and help small businesses and their workers do their best work from anywhere. It’s not about the tools, it’s about growing businesses, boosting workplace satisfaction and removing the potential for quiet quitting.
At the end of the day, technology should just get out of the way and allow businesses, employees and customers to seamlessly connect in order to thrive.
Foster human connection
People crave human connection and strong workplace culture. Yet it should come as no surprise that company culture can be more challenging to maintain in a disparate workforce, especially where there is an air of quiet quitting and high employee turnover. People disengaging, leaving, and new staff coming in, can have a negative impact as collaboration and productivity decrease, stress levels rise, and the building of personal connections and relationships has to start all over again.
Since the start of the pandemic, many companies have found creative ways to bring people together remotely and virtually, reinforce existing connections, build new relationships and create a path of open communication, collaboration, and engagement.
Business and HR leaders today view collaboration technology as a strategic business tool. It is not just for getting work done, it can be used to enable team building as well as new employee orientations and onboarding. Most multi-national organisations these days are hosting online welcome sessions with the global CEO and executive team – rather than only the local leaders – proving to be an extremely powerful way to build stronger engagement and connection between new hires and the wider organisation.
The businesses that will thrive in the months and years ahead are those with forward-thinking leaders that put their employees first, by fostering human connection, communication and collaboration, enabled by technology.
Lindsay Brown is the Vice President and General Manager, Asia Pacific for GoTo
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In a hybrid work environment, individuals are allowed to work from a different location occasionally but are still required to come into the office at least once a week. With the phrase "hybrid workplace," which denotes an office that may accommodate interactions between in-person and remote workers, "hybrid work" can also refer to a physical location.
Shandel McAuliffe
Shandel has recently returned to Australia after working in the UK for eight years. Shandel's experience in the UK included over three years at the CIPD in their marketing, marcomms and events teams, followed by two plus years with The Adecco Group UK&I in marketing, PR, internal comms and project management. Cementing Shandel's experience in the HR industry, she was the head of content for Cezanne HR, a full-lifecycle HR software solution, for the two years prior to her return to Australia.
Shandel has previous experience as a copy writer, proofreader and copy editor, and a keen interest in HR, leadership and psychology. She's excited to be at the helm of HR Leader as its editor, bringing new and innovative ideas to the publication's audience, drawing on her time overseas and learning from experts closer to home in Australia.
