The Real Cost of Quiet Quitting and How HR Can Address It

The term "quiet quitting" may have originated on social media, but the phenomenon it describes is anything but superficial. At its core, quiet quitting reflects a growing disengagement in the workforce—employees choosing to do the bare minimum required, withdrawing from discretionary effort, and emotionally detaching from their roles. While not a new challenge, the post-pandemic work environment has brought it to the surface in new and urgent ways.

For HR leaders, the concern is not just about reduced productivity. Quiet quitting is a warning sign of deeper issues: misaligned expectations, inadequate recognition, lack of psychological safety, and poor management practices. Addressing it requires a strategic, multilayered approach that goes well beyond surface-level engagement tactics.

Understanding the True Impact

Quiet quitting erodes business performance from the inside out. It leads to stagnation in innovation, degraded team morale, customer service decline, and increased friction among actively engaged and disengaged employees. According to Gallup, employees who are not engaged or are actively disengaged cost the global economy nearly $8.8 trillion in lost productivity each year.

From an HR lens, this disengagement has a domino effect:

• Performance drag: Team velocity and cross-functional collaboration slow down.
• Talent risk: Top performers burn out compensating for peers who are checked out.
• Culture decay: Apathy spreads, weakening accountability and shared purpose.
• Retention instability: Disengaged employees rarely give notice—they simply disconnect, and many eventually leave without warning.

Root Causes: Beyond the Obvious

While lack of compensation and burnout are common explanations, the drivers of quiet quitting are often more complex and organizationally embedded:

• Lack of role clarity: Employees unsure of their scope or expected outcomes tend to reduce effort to avoid overextending.
• Transactional leadership: Managers who rely on control and tasks over coaching and purpose fail to inspire sustained engagement.
• Unrealistic workloads: Excessive stretch assignments without proper resources or recognition drive detachment.
• Invisible contributions: When employees do not see their impact or are consistently overlooked, discretionary effort declines.

HR must take a diagnostic approach to identify what quiet quitting looks like within their unique organizational context—often through a combination of pulse surveys, manager feedback, and productivity data.

Strategic Responses from HR

Addressing quiet quitting requires coordinated action across three core areas: culture, capability, and connection. Below are high-impact interventions aligned to each domain:

1. Redesign Performance Enablement Systems

Move away from traditional performance reviews and implement continuous performance enablement—an approach focused on frequent coaching, real-time feedback, and development alignment.

• Introduce quarterly check-ins tied to business outcomes and growth goals
• Empower managers with tools to facilitate conversations about purpose, impact, and contribution
• Connect individual success to team and organizational performance in visible, measurable ways

2. Build a Culture of Recognition and Psychological Safety

Recognition remains one of the most underutilized retention tools. It is not about awards or perks—it is about feeling seen and valued.

• Implement peer-to-peer and manager-led recognition tied to values and behaviors
• Train leaders to actively listen and respond with empathy, especially in hybrid or distributed teams
• Create safe channels for employee voice, feedback, and ideation without fear of negative consequences

3. Rebalance Workload and Expectations Strategically

Conduct role audits to identify structural issues contributing to disengagement:

• Map effort versus impact for critical roles and reallocate non-value-added tasks
• Introduce guardrails around after-hours communication and overtime
• Use capacity planning tools to forecast resourcing needs and avoid burnout

4. Re-engage the Disengaged through Internal Mobility

Quiet quitting is often a signal of stalled career growth. Internal mobility strategies not only reinvigorate employee motivation but also build workforce agility.

• Launch career pathing initiatives supported by skills frameworks and development plans
• Publicize stretch assignments, shadowing programs, and internal gigs
• Monitor participation and progression metrics to identify at-risk populations

Leveraging People Analytics to Detect and Predict

HR teams should harness people analytics to anticipate disengagement before it results in attrition. By integrating qualitative and quantitative data, organizations can:

• Track changes in engagement survey responses, absenteeism, and productivity
• Identify patterns by manager, department, or tenure that signal cultural or leadership gaps
• Model attrition risk using AI-driven tools and flag early warning indicators

Predictive insights allow HR to take proactive, targeted action—ensuring the right interventions reach the right employees at the right time.

The Cost of Doing Nothing

Ignoring quiet quitting does not mean it goes away—it compounds. A disengaged workforce silently erodes performance, frustrates leaders, and increases hidden turnover costs. It also undermines employer branding efforts, especially in competitive labor markets where employee experience is part of the value proposition.

Progressive organizations treat quiet quitting not as an isolated trend, but as a systemic call to action. It is an opportunity to realign culture, improve management capability, and design a more human-centered employee experience.

Final Thoughts

Quiet quitting is not a passing HR buzzword—it is a reflection of broken connections between people, purpose, and performance. For HR to meaningfully address it, the response must be strategic, data-informed, and embedded in long-term workforce planning.

Organizations that invest in re-engagement, performance enablement, and employee voice will not only reduce attrition—they will unlock discretionary effort, drive innovation, and sustain long-term success.

Need help diagnosing or addressing quiet quitting within your organization?

Partner with Stoppler Hughes to uncover the root causes of disengagement and implement tailored, high-impact solutions. Our strategic HR services combine data insights, organizational diagnostics, and customized re-engagement plans to rebuild employee commitment and performance where it matters most.