Quiet cracking, job hugging

Caroline Rowland at Zellis explains how technology can turn strain into strength

 

Conversations may have evolved from “quiet quitting,” but employee disengagement is still prevalent amongst today’s workforce. In fact, subtler behaviours are now being identified: quiet cracking where stress and pressure silently chip away at employee performance and confidence, and job hugging, a term used to describe when employees cling to familiarity out of fear of leaving or changing roles in a turbulent market.

 

However, both behaviours signal serious underlying challenges to employee wellbeing and workplace culture. At first glance they could be dismissed as passing buzzwords, but companies that ignore them do so at their risk: if ignored, they can erode trust, slow growth, and damage resilience.

 

As recent discussions around happiness at work have highlighted, now is a good time for organisations to reflect before these issues take hold. While no single solution can fix workplace disengagement, smart use of data and technology can make a real difference. By spotting patterns earlier, organisations can ease pressure on employees, provide clearer support, and give managers the confidence to step in swiftly, effectively, and with empathy.

 

 

Data as an early warning system

One of the crucial ways data can promote employee wellbeing is by acting as an early warning system. Subtle signs of employee disengagement can be easy to miss and busy managers may not have the time - or the training - to properly assess the ongoing wellbeing of their team. Employees may also be reluctant to raise issues out of fear that this could reflect badly on them and destabilise their position within a company - especially at a time when UK job losses are rising and the start of this year saw the biggest drop in UK job vacancies since August 2020. Missing signs of disengagement can be incredibly damaging. Unaddressed issues snowball and may have far-reaching consequences. Mental Health UK states that it can take anywhere between a couple of months and a couple of years for someone to recover from burnout.

 

The solution to addressing employee disengagement is acting with empathy, at speed. Technology supports this by creating greater visibility to allow managers to act much faster than they have historically. Companies who can unify their employee data, pulling information from a variety of different sources, gain an eagle-eyed view of an employee’s experience at work. Information such as increased overtime, or declined shifts and sick days, paint a vivid picture of an employee’s health and wellbeing, and changes in their work patterns can quickly show that something is wrong. This information, then, allows managers to take early action and prevent work struggles developing into full-blown issues or disengagement.

 

The use of data means businesses can work proactively, rather than scrabbling to firefight. It’s not about replacing human interaction with technology - it’s about enabling leaders with the information they need to step in early, and support and open difficult conversations. Data gives leaders critical insights and prompts that they may not reach on their own.

 

 

Technology as an employee support system

Another important role the right technology can play in improving employee engagement is in giving workers the tools to better manage work logistics and pursue personal development. Self-service HR elements - such as an AI assistant to provide instant, 24/7 guidance on topics like pay, rights and HR processes - allow employees to get immediate information and not wait days to get the answers they need. Tools that allow team members greater visibility and control of their rota help them plan their lives to achieve a better work-life balance. Features that help employees understand and navigate their organisation’s benefits programme, without having to involve HR, can help promote financial confidence and wellbeing.

 

Then there’s tech to support employees in self-guided learning. Artificial intelligence can now be used to personalise learning and development pathways to an individual’s unique skills and career goals, so they can easily access the specific training they need and at a pace that suits the individual. Professional and personal development is essential to employee engagement: Deloitte research finds that most workers believe it’s the primary responsibility of their organisation to support their long-term growth and employability.

 

It’s crucial that support is also offered to managers. Manager engagement has a direct and powerful impact on employee engagement: 70% of team engagement is attributable to the manager. Technology that can take overwhelming, boring, or low-level tasks off a manager’s plate will increase their engagement and, therefore, their whole team’s. Automation is a key part of this, freeing managers from manual, routine tasks and giving them the time and mental space to focus on meaningful work. Instead of chasing absence records they could be mentoring employees; rather than rectifying admin errors they could be working on a new initiative they want to trial. Technology takes unnecessary strain from managers - and their teams - and lets everyone play to their strengths.

 

 

Why happiness at work is business critical

Employee happiness isn’t just important from a moral perspective - it’s business critical. Gallup’s 2025 State of the Global Workplace report found that when global employee engagement fell two percentage points to 21%, between 2023 and 2024, it cost the world economy $438 billion in lost productivity. And lost productivity isn’t the only thing companies should be concerned about. Quietly cracking employees, experiencing burnout from mounting stress and pressure, will suffer both physically and mentally, resulting in absences for ill health, decreased team morale, and talent loss. The cost of replacing burned out employees isn’t cheap: the median average cost per hire for UK senior managers and directors is £2,000 and £1,500 for other employees. This cost relates to in-house resourcing time, advertising costs, agency and search fees and doesn’t begin to touch the cost of inducting and training a new employee. Burning through employees and simply replacing them is damaging to business.

 

The quieter forms of disengagement may be harder to spot, but they’re not impossible to address. By listening closely to the signals in employee data and using technology to support meaningful conversations, organisations can act early, with empathy and impact. This shift can turn hidden strain into visible strength, helping people feel supported, valued, and motivated. In a world where happiness at work is rightly seen as essential to resilience and performance, the message is clear: when employees thrive, so do the organisations they power. 

 

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Caroline Rowland is Chief People Officer at Zellis

 

Main image courtesy of iStockPhoto.com and martin-dm