By Ray Birch
LOMBARD, Ill.–The “quiet quitting” phenomenon isn’t quite getting the attention it once did, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t credit union employees who aren’t putting in any more effort than is absolutely necessary. Nor does it mean there aren’t ways credit unions can effectively respond.
Spawned by the work-from-home environment of the past few years, quiet quitting remains an issue in many organizations even in cases where employees have returned to the workplace, as labor markets remain tight.
According to a 2022 Gallup survey, at least half of the U.S. workforce consists of quiet quitters. But Bill Handel, SVP of research at Raddon, said there are strategies credit unions can deploy in response, including taking advantage of some of the innate traits of cooperative organizations. He added he believes CUs should do well when it comes to addressing quiet quitting, especially compared to other employers.
There are many reasons employees become disengaged, such as low wages, lack of flexibility in hours, or feeling their work is not valued, according to Handel. Furthermore, job openings that have vastly outnumbered applicants to fill them have given many people more choices, and with companies often reluctant to part with employees, some have taken advantage to quietly quit.
‘Detached’ Workers
“In a recent Raddon study, we found that 45% of respondents were disengaged—the word we use is ‘detached’—and the most detached group overall in 2022 is Millennials, ages 26–41,” explained Handel. “It's happening across industries and credit union workers are getting disengaged and just doing what they need to do to get by.”
Handel told CUToday.info there’s a huge generational transition taking place that credit unions must recognize.
“The perspectives of people in the older generations and people from younger generations are obviously different,” said Handel. “I think it's more of a notion of the passing of the guard, or passing the torch. So, what we find, in surveys, is the young people are looking for slightly different things.”
The younger generations, Handel said, are looking for more meaning in their work.
Bill Handel
“We found the younger demographics are less likely to be engaged in their work and that's not only true in this industry, but it’s true across almost all industries,” said Handel, citingo Raddon data.
Handel explained that when categorizing workers based on their level of engagement in their company, “You'll find that with Millennials and Gen Zs, the likelihood of them being considered engaged is less than the older generations. However, you have to take that with a grain of salt, because they have been in the workforce for a far shorter time than older generations. The level of engagement can grow over time. But we do find there is a pretty clear correlation between age and levels of engagement.”
Number-One Issue? It’s Not ‘Time’
And the pandemic has not helped the problem.
Handel told CUToday.info that while the pandemic shifted people’s priorities more towards time spent with family, friends, and hobbies, instead of just hours of work put in, “time” is not actually the number-one driver of disengagement.
Instead, he said that when Raddon polled Millennial employees on key drivers of engagement— such as the social aspects of the job, the duties of job itself, the company culture and rewards earned from the job—the research uncovered other concepts—like friendly colleagues, interesting work and managers recognizing their efforts—were at the top of the list of engagement-drivers.
Handel added, though, that over the course of the pandemic, fewer Millennials scored their job and company well on these metrics.
What Can Be Done?
What can credit unions do to turn around disengaged employees? Handel suggested CUs can turn to a solution few other organizations can. That’s because engagement often comes down to trust, which is a strong suit of credit unions.
“In some cases, employers may need to rebuild trust with employees. In others, they need to establish trust early on, such as with new employees. Whatever the scenario, trust is the first and best way to begin to save disengaged employees and to prevent disengagement in the first place,” Handel said. “When we surveyed financial institution leaders to rank the five most essential elements of a good culture, trust overwhelmingly was number one.”
And what that all comes down to, he said, is the credit union needs to build its culture.
“Culture is probably more important to an organization than it's ever been,” said Handel. “I think credit unions have more of an opportunity to move past this notion of quiet quitting. First of all, I'd say that unlike inflation, this truly is transitory to a certain extent. When we get to the point where labor markets correct themselves—I think this will sort itself out.”
Calling on Principles
Meanwhile, credit unions can call on their cooperative principles, Handel suggested.
“Credit unions have a better opportunity to solve this problem simply because of their mission and purpose,” said Handel. “If (the credit union’s mission) is described correctly and is communicated correctly to staff, it's something a lot of people will tie into—the notion that we're trying to improve the financial lives of people. If that's truly your mission as a credit union, that gives you a lot more meaning in the eyes of many people. As a result, credit unions may be less affected by quiet quitting than other businesses.”