Employee disengagement doesn’t happen overnight. It builds slowly, often quietly, long before anyone starts clocking out early, mentally checking out of meetings, quietly counting down the days, or handing in their resignation. When an agent disconnects, the effects ripple quickly through hold times, customer satisfaction, and team morale.
The real challenge isn’t addressing quiet quitting after it happens, but recognizing disengagement before it takes root. Let’s explore how you can spot the early signs of disengagement, understand what’s driving it, and take simple, effective steps to re-engage your people before it’s too late.
Understanding Quiet Quitting and the Disengagement Process
“Quiet quitting” has become shorthand for employees who continue to work but mentally check out. They do only what their job description requires, no more and no less. They stop volunteering for projects, limit their availability, and withdraw from workplace relationships.
While they haven’t submitted a resignation letter, they’ve resigned their enthusiasm and discretionary effort. But this visible withdrawal is actually the end result of a longer process, not the beginning.
According to Gallup, only 33 percent of U.S. employees feel engaged at work, while nearly 18 percent are actively disengaged.¹ This means almost one in five employees isn’t just coasting; they’re working against your company’s goals.
This translates to agents who handle calls mechanically, stick rigidly to scripts, and show little interest in resolving complex customer issues. The result: longer handle times, lower first-call resolution rates, and ultimately, customer frustration.
Read More: The Hidden Costs of Disengaged Agents: How Low Morale Impacts Your Bottom Line
Early Signs You’re Losing Your People
Before an employee reaches the quiet quitting stage, they typically display subtle yet meaningful changes in their behavior and attitude. These early warning signs offer a critical window for intervention. Here are the key indicators to watch for:
- Sudden minimal participation in team meetings or discussions
- Repeated missing deadlines without clear communication
- A noticeable negative attitude toward routine tasks or coworkers
- Sudden production of lower-quality work
- Increased absenteeism that starts to feel like a pattern
- Resisting change or new employee training opportunities
These behaviors don’t mean someone is lazy or checked out on purpose. Often, they’re signals that something deeper is off and that’s where your leadership matters most. Each of these signs may also seem small on their own, but they often point to a larger problem. Spotting employee disengagement early gives you the best shot at reversing it.
Read More: Why Call Center Turnover Rate is Now the Most Important KPI
Root Causes of Disengagement
Understanding why employees disengage is just as important as recognizing when it happens. Most disengagement stems from specific workplace experiences rather than personal motivation issues. Here are the primary factors that cause employees to mentally check out:
Some of the most common causes of employee disengagement include:
- Unclear job responsibilities or a lack of goals
- Lack of fair compensation or growth paths. Without a vision for the future, it’s easy to check out in the present.
- Limited or zero professional development opportunities
- A rigid structure that ignores the need for a flexible work environment
- Poor onboarding and weak peer relationships. Without a proper start, employees can feel like an afterthought from day one.
- Lack of feedback. Silence feels like neglect. People want to know where they stand.
- Poor leadership: Employees disengage faster under managers who don’t support, guide, or communicate well.
New hires and entry-level employees often experience these issues more acutely because they haven’t yet developed the workplace relationships that help buffer occasional frustrations. Without established connections to the team or organization, their engagement depends heavily on immediate experiences with management, training, and early successes or failures.
The same is true for more seasoned employees. When people stop feeling seen, challenged, or valued, they feel stagnant, overlooked, or misunderstood and stop giving their best. Over time, it becomes more than just quiet quitting it becomes burnout or complete withdrawal. The key is staying close enough to catch those early shifts and respond.
Rebuilding Engagement from the Inside Out
Effective re-engagement doesn’t require elaborate programs or major organizational overhauls. It requires consistent application of targeted approaches across several key areas.
Leadership is the First Line of Defense—Not HR
If you’re in a leadership role, your day-to-day presence has more influence than you think. While HR builds systems, it’s frontline managers who are most responsible for spotting employee disengagement and shaping the work experience.
Regular one-on-one conversations create space for employees to share challenges and receive personalized guidance. These meetings work best when structured around both performance and development, with clear action items that show you’re invested in their success.
When managers demonstrate they’re listening and responding to feedback, employees regain their sense of agency and connection.
Clear Expectations and Feedback
Disengaged employees often lack clarity about what success looks like in their role. Define concrete goals such as “resolving 85 percent of customer issues on the first call” or “achieving a customer satisfaction score above 4.7.” Show how these individual metrics contribute to team targets like reduced call escalations or department bonuses.
Provide specific feedback like, “I noticed you’ve improved your call handling time while maintaining quality scores—that’s exactly the balance we’re looking for.” Even small adjustments in your leadership style can renew someone’s sense of value. When team members feel heard, seen, and valued, they’re more likely to lean in.
Prioritize Employee Recognition and Appreciation
Retention is a result. Belonging is the work. In administrative and contact centers, public acknowledgment of contributions reinforces that individual efforts matter. Call out specific achievements such as “Sarah helped us create a new troubleshooting guide that reduced average call time by 40 seconds” or “Marcus handled a particularly difficult escalation that resulted in the customer renewing their contract.”
This targeted recognition connects daily work to meaningful outcomes that others can see and appreciate.
Skill Alignment and Development
Sometimes disengagement stems from a poor fit between an employee’s strengths and their current responsibilities. Before assuming someone no longer cares, take a step back and ask: is this role still right for them?
An agent who excels at complex problem-solving might be reassigned to handle technical support calls rather than routine inquiries. Another who demonstrates strong empathy might take on challenging customer retention calls where relationship building matters most.
Create advancement paths like “senior agent” or “team lead” roles that give top performers new challenges without leaving their teams. When you offer room to move, not just up, but across, you show that growth is possible, even in support roles. This can reignite interest and productivity.
Team Connection and Purpose
Build meaningful professional relationships through collaborative problem-solving and shared goals. Set team challenges like “reduce repeat calls by 10 percent this month” or “improve our knowledge base to address the top five customer pain points.”
Share customer success stories that resulted from good service, like “the business client whose system we helped restore before their major presentation,” to reinforce the real impact of quality work.
Read More: The Importance of Cultural Fit in Contact Center Hiring and How to Attract the Right Candidates
Exit Insights
When re-engagement efforts don’t succeed and employees leave, turn these departures into learning opportunities. Ask specific questions like “What could we have done differently in your first 90 days?” or “Was there a turning point when your enthusiasm for the role changed?”
According to the Society for Human Resources Management (SHRM), organizations that conduct structured stay and exit interviews and analyze themes are more likely to reduce preventable turnover within the following year.²
Look for patterns such as departures after specific training programs or from particular teams. Use this feedback to make systemic improvements that prevent future disengagement.
Want to build a stronger, more engaged team?
At Salem Solutions, we specialize in preventing disengagement before it costs you your best people. Our experts understand the early warning signs and help you build a workforce designed for long-term retention. We don’t just fill positions—we create staffing solutions that address the root causes of quiet quitting and turnover.
We work closely with you to find candidates with the right attitude, cultural fit, and growth potential for your specific environment. Let’s talk about how we can support your engagement goals before quiet quitting becomes loud attrition. Contact Us today!
References
- Harter, J. (2024, January 23). In New Workplace, U.S. Employee Engagement Stagnates. GallUp Workplace. https://www.gallup.com/workplace/608675/new-workplace-employee-engagement-stagnates.aspx
- Begeron, P. (2022, February 23). Stay Interviews Can Be an Antidote to Exit Interviews. Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM). https://www.shrm.org/topics-tools/news/employee-relations/stay-interviews-can-antidote-to-exit-interviews
