Our latest research, combining leadership interviews and a US-wide employee survey, reveals that an employee experience of radical empowerment and fearless trust is essential if businesses are to energize quiet quitters and get back to growth.

The leaders we spoke to talked about a critical disconnect, with employees burned out and disengaged just as businesses need focus and innovation like never before.

Our research was unequivocal about the role of empowerment in re-engaging the workforce; we discovered that 74% of employees said they would feel more motivated, and 80% reported that they would be more likely to stay with their current employer if they had more influence in the workplace.

The data revealed that as well as energizing disengaged employees, empowerment also provides an essential accelerator to businesses looking for sustainable growth, too.

Our survey of 500 U.S. employees also revealed that when it comes to openness and transparency in the workplace, a huge majority, 88%, want their leaders to be straight with them, even if they don’t like what they’re hearing.

Furthermore, employees shared that when businesses do create a place of trust and openness, it unlocks innovation and invention too - 70% believe that it’s fear of blame that holds people back from trying new things.

During the course of our work we spoke with senior leaders at Penguin Random House, Sony Music Group, Burberry, Verizon and NBCUniversal. Everyone recognized the dangers of quiet quitting – the idea that millions of people are silently coasting under the radar – but they equally shared a sense of optimism: that when employers truly place faith in their people, they can unlock incredible benefit both for the culture and the business.

“The answer lies in radically empowering employees in a space of trust, to accelerate decision-making, ramp up performance and improve customer experience - creating a positive culture where employees have more control and influence, and work has more meaning,” said Brook Calverley, Founding Partner of People Made.

The survey also found that not only does this answer provide a powerful driver of engagement, motivation and commitment, but it also could have a huge impact on problem-solving, customer experience and productivity.

“The bottom line is that 69% of employees claim they’d get more done if managers placed more trust in them. 77% said they’d deliver better customer experience,” Calverley added.

These new People Made findings are in line with Gallup research which concluded that quiet quitting makes up at least 50% or more of the U.S. workforce and is a major challenge for management. According to Gallup, in order to solve the quiet quitting dilemma, employers must first address manager engagement. Only one in three managers are engaged at work, according to their findings that were based on a random sample of 15,091 full- and part-time U.S. employees aged 18 and over, surveyed in June of 2022.

The People Made findings were based on a random sample of 500 U.S. employees, surveyed in October 2023.