How the Great Detachment is transforming workplace dynamics

During the Great Resignation, people across the country vacated their roles. Their departures were due to various reasons, including low salaries, unhealthy work environments, limited opportunities for career advancement, and other factors impacting their work satisfaction. 

According to a 2024 Statista report, between November 2021 and April 2022, about 4.5 million workers per month left their roles to seek better opportunities. While the Great Resignation is largely considered over, companies nationwide now face the Great Detachment. 

Companies must strive to create healthy, uplifting, and exciting work environments. By doing so, they decrease the odds of the Great Detachment impacting their teams. Luckily, there are some helpful techniques you can implement at your organization to keep workers engaged. 

What is the Great Detachment?

The Great Detachment is a growing movement among dissatisfied employees that is leading them to “quiet quit” their roles or leave the company entirely. Quiet quitting occurs when an employee slowly becomes disengaged from their employer. They can lose job satisfaction as a result of having few growth opportunities, an unhealthy workplace, burnout, or other work-related issues. If you’re experiencing these symptoms, you may be feeling detached. 

Post the Great Resignation, a Gartner report from late 2023 stated that only 31% of employees felt engaged and excited by their role and company. At the same time, a Gallup report found that 51% of employees would consider leaving their current jobs. 

Gallup’s Director of Research and Strategy of Workplace Management, Ben Wigert, noted the Great Detachment as one of the most important workplace trends. Employees might feel discontent in their workplace but trapped due to a slow job market and increased layoffs. All these factors combined resulted in the Great Detachment.

Employees might feel less motivated or connected to work for a handful of reasons: 

• It’s an unhealthy work environment.
• There’s a lack of work-life balance.
• Employees are experiencing burnout at work.
• There are few opportunities for growth.
• Employees feel overworked.
• The company offers little recognition for work accomplishments.
• There’s a lack of exciting projects.

If left unaddressed, the sentiment can influence a company’s entire team. Additionally, it’s important that companies strive to work with every generation present at their company.

The Great Detachment: why Gen Z workers are disengaged 

By 2030, it’s estimated that Gen Z will make up 30% of the country’s workforce. The generation has gained a reputation for being disengaged — yet it’s more complicated. Here are a handful of the leading concerns of Gen Z and how they impact the generation’s approach to work:

• They value work-life balance: Many Gen Z workers are more focused on work output than working for a set number of hours. Likewise, they value maintaining a healthy self-care and work-life balance, seeking roles that allow them to do so. 
• They have an increase in mental health concerns: Gen Z is 27% more likely to report mental health issues. As a result, protecting their mental health is essential when considering where and how they work. 
• They desire work flexibility: Gen Z wants to work in a style and environment that feels most natural to them. It increases their focus and productivity. Almost 75% of Gen Z workers note that work flexibility is their top value. 
• They feel undervalued: 86% of Gen Z workers want to find purpose and value in their work. They want to feel that their work impacts the company, their coworkers, and their careers. 
• They feel that pay is unfairly low: Gen Z employees are among the first to speak openly about salaries, noting that a company’s discretion around salary discussions is a red flag. An estimated 55% of Gen Z and millennial workers say competitive pay is a “must-have” for a new role.

As the generation that grew up with social media and the proliferation of overwhelming national and global news, Gen Z members are more stressed overall. However, Gen Zers boast the same ambitions as earlier generations. Still, they may feel disengaged if they aren’t fairly compensated or allowed space to maintain good practices for their well-being. 

Additionally, Gen Z tends to have higher expectations than previous generations. For example, 80% of survey respondents for LinkedIn’s Workforce Confidence survey said it’s highly important their company’s values align with theirs.   

Employers can create new initiatives and goals to re-engage all employees. Doing so makes a healthier work environment conducive to supporting workers, helping them achieve their professional goals, and moving the company forward. 

How to combat the Great Detachment by re-engaging employees

Companies have an opportunity to reassess their employee engagement strategies and ensure they work for every generation in the workforce.  

Build a culture for growth opportunities

Most employees seek roles at companies that invite them to grow their business skills. At the same time, they want to find value and purpose in their work. Building a culture around growth signals that you value their career development, too. It’s up to company leadership, managers, and the people team to create these opportunities.

Consider these ideas for how you can create a culture around employee growth at your company:

• Ensure employees know all the resources and opportunities available to them.
• Build a culture around mental health awareness and taking breaks.
• Make the leadership team available for questions, concerns, and ideas.
• Encourage employees to express areas of interest and help them pursue it.

Pro tip: As you build a culture that fosters employee growth, try viewing your employees as customers. You’re aiming to meet their needs so they can help strengthen the company in return. 

Prioritize employee development

Employee development is linked to professional development opportunities. By creating an environment for employee growth, you’ve completed step one. Next up is establishing definitive routes for employees’ career strides. 

Here’s how you can establish processes to ensure employees achieve their goals:

• Work employee development into your budget.
• Create step-by-step career paths for promotions.
• Offer stretch assignments that invite employees to grow.
• Create a program for job shadowing.
• Build an internal mentorship program.

Creating tangible steps to help employees reach their goals shows that you are invested in their career success. 

Invite employees to focus on mental health

A 2021 Work and Well-being Survey by the American Psychological Association (APA) found that nearly three in five employees (59%) report that work-related stress impacts their lack of effort at work. About 21% of employees note that stress makes it harder to focus, and 26% lack energy to work.

Ongoing workplace stress can lead to exhaustion and burnout. A reason for employees falling into the Great Detachment is a desire to prioritize mental well-being but feeling as though their company doesn’t share those values. The good news: there are a handful to strategies you can use to promote mental health at your organization:

• Incorporate mental health days into your compensation package and company holiday schedule.
• Encourage taking regular breaks throughout the day.
• Avoid creating a culture that encourages working overtime.
• Allow for flexible working schedules and remote work.
• Create expectations around work responsibilities that support work-life balance.

By providing the necessary resources and support for employees to focus on their mental health, you foster a trusted workplace environment that cares for its workers. 

Pro tip: Consider teaching employees conflict management skills for the workplace. For example, grey rocking is a strategy wherein you avoid showing any physical response to a toxic person. It’s a way for employees to avoid engaging with unhelpful and unhealthy people that might be in their workplace.

Recognize employee accomplishments

Celebrating wins is important for workplace enthusiasm and encouragement. It’s a way to strengthen relationships between people. Get creative with how to recognize employee accomplishments. Here are a few employee appreciation ideas to help you get started:

• Celebrate employee birthdays and work anniversaries.
• Provide lunches or treats.
• Give shoutouts during meetings for real-time recognition.
• Have a company awards ceremony.
• Plan a team-bonding day or outing.

It’s important to celebrate wins in all areas of life. Doing so in the workplace increases the odds of boosted employee morale and overall sentiment toward work. 

Source improvement ideas from employees

One of the best ways to start making improvements is to ask for employee feedback. Examine the psychological safety of your workplace. A work environment that is psychologically safe for employees invites them to take reasonable risks, voice concerns, and share ideas. Employees are more likely to provide honest feedback if they feel comfortable and safe. 

At the same time, seeking your employees’ thoughts and ideas helps build a collaborative culture. You can use this information from employees as a jumping-off point for creating an environment that employees are enthusiastic about. If you’re looking for impactful ways to encourage employees to voice their ideas, consider these strategies:

• Encourage managers and executives to lead by example.
• Create opportunities to give ideas privately.
• Engage with the ideas and ask questions.
• Send out multiple employee feedback surveys via email.
• Ask employees for feedback during reviews.
• Schedule idea brain-dump sessions to help think outside the box.

A feedback culture creates a North Star for making company-wide changes. Not only does it ensure you provide employees with the benefits they want but it also makes them feel heard.

Implement employee feedback

It might feel overwhelming to start implementing employee feedback if you have a large workforce. To help, here are some easy tips to analyze the feedback and roll out changes:

• Collect all the feedback in one place and analyze it.
• Identify trends or common areas of feedback among employees.
• Rank the different areas by the number of employees that mentioned them.
• Use these rankings as your checklist for addressing employee concerns.

As you start to make changes, do so slowly. Making broad, sweeping changes in quick succession can be too much to handle at once. It can also make it difficult to know which initiatives work and which are unsuccessful. 

Instead, let one improvement at a time settle in, then ask for more input from employees. If the feedback is positive, well done. If they have a couple of ideas for tinkering with the new initiatives, you can consider those as well. 

Ensure a fair overall compensation package

The cost of living is rising nationwide. Employees need compensation that keeps up, allowing them to live comfortably. As the company that employs them, you’re responsible for making this possible.

First, pay transparency can build trust with your employees. Consider posting your salary tiers somewhere that all employees can access. For each seniority level at your company, you share the potential salary range based on years of experience, time spent at the company, and performance. Take Buffer as an example — it publishes the salaries of its employees and explains how it calculates salaries based on someone’s role and cost of living where they reside. 

As you brainstorm what additional perks to work into the total compensation package, consider asking your employees for input. Alongside the basics, like quality insurance coverage, 401(k) matching, generous paid time off (PTO), and parental leave, you can stand out to potential employees by going above and beyond.

You could consider offering access to meditation platforms, complementary therapy, and mental health days. Additionally, you could reward long-time employees with sabbaticals or offer unlimited PTO.

Pro tip: If you offer unlimited PTO, create a work culture around taking time off. HR company Namely surveyed its users in 2018 and found that people with unlimited PTO only took an average of 13 days off per year. That number dropped to 12.09 in 2022. So, it’s important that you ensure employees actually take time off work. You could say it’s recommended that employees take a minimum of three weeks off per year, not including holidays. 

Offer greater flexibility for remote work

Remote work is on the rise. According to the World Economic Forum, remote jobs should grow by 25% — or 90 million jobs — by 2030. 

Remote work affords employees greater flexibility in their lives. For example, they can more easily schedule appointments during the day or squeeze in a house chore during a work break. They can be more present for their families while still being high performers at work. In sum, it grants employees a better work-life balance. 

Additionally, many employees report an increased ability to focus and be productive at home. They aren’t distracted by office noises and movements. 

Creating a remote-friendly work environment offers benefits to companies as well. It allows you to seek the best talent across the globe. You’re not limited to hiring individuals in your local city. Rather, you can attract a strong team of individuals that capture your company core values and boast the right skill sets.

Remedy the Great Detachment by re-engaging employees

The Great Detachment is a signal for many companies to re-evaluate their internal initiatives to boost employee engagement. By seeking input from employees, keeping employees connected, and reconsidering your current offerings, you’re on the right path. You can create a workplace that helps employees learn how to flourish. 

However, it’s a big task to overhaul, or even make a handful of small changes, to your employee benefits. To help cover some basics of employee growth opportunities, consider collaborating with career coaches. You can create a happier and healthier workforce with the help of a BetterUp Coach.