Are you a quiet quitter or top performing remote worker?
A quiet quitter who does precisely what the job requires within the pre-established work hours. Going the extra mile, working during lunch and after hours, helping colleagues, when not part of the prescribed job description is frowned upon.
Maybe you don’t have it in you to be a ‘quiet quitter’? We share a common trait. But you don’t yet hold the experience to be considered a top performer?
StaffAdvisors defines a top perfomer as an employee who has a vested interest in generating the business results needed. A top performer not only has a passion for achieving results he/she also holds the requisite skills, experience and knowledge to take ownership to make it happen. For these reasons, top performers and not quiet quitters are heavily demanded, even in a down economy. This article will explain the steps you need to take to be actively recruited for a remote job.
In this regard we will take an extremely different tact from the quiet quitter. Let’s strive to be a top performer. High flyers may earn more pay, better perks, more recognition, and faster promotions than their “slacker” colleagues. Further, this leads to more options. The question then is, “how can you position yourself to be actively recruited for a remote position?
Top performing remote worker benefits
Maybe to quietly quit is not the best approach. Striving to be recognized as a top performer may be a better strategy. Harvard Business Review says that employers aggressively recruit top talent because these high achievers “can have an enormous impact on business results.” Research cited by Gartner show that companies brutally fight against their competitors to attract the top talent they need to maintain and expand their market position, increase market share, and increase profitability.
Some of the benefits packages offered by human resources to high achievers are:
- Remote work options and hybrid work schedules
- Signing bonuses
- Increased base pay
- Disentangling pay and location
- Tuition reimbursement
Societal acceptance of quietly quitting
Quietly quitting may coincide with a wider acceptance of socialistic efforts to equalize outcomes, incomes, and opportunities; there is an unseen world of neanderthalistic rituals, routines, and practices that help make civilized society function smoothly. Namely, paying above market wages for labor and expertise to realize a quick and/or steady return on investment. Why? So that the company will have the ballast and critical mass of intellectual and human capital to survive and thrive during economic uncertainty and downturns.
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Believe it or not, this strategy helps keep civilized society balanced. Similarly, during an economic recession, as a lost sheep or millennial, would you rather work for a company led by other sheep or would you choose to work for a firm with wolves at the head? Or, should we ask, “which company is more likely to survive?” When one thinks of one’s own financial livelihood, most considerations for ‘the betterment of society’ is thrown away.
How to position yourself as top talent in a remote workforce?
So this discussion takes us back to the initial question, “how can you position yourself to be considered as top talent in a remote workforce?”
- Keep track (using data metrics) of your individual and group accomplishments.
- Conduct a root cause analysis to improve upon your personal areas of deficiency.
- Write your own personnel improvement plan and monitor your own progress weekly.
- Learn and apply a new skill each quarter that is directly related to your job.
- Maintain a personal account of client, customer and supervisor positive feedback (copy emails with spontaneous and randomly obtained positive feedback).
- Volunteer to participate in a group or committee project to tackle a high profile problem (only when beneficial to do so, with relatively little downside).
- Seek out the nomination committee of the executive board of the association that advocates for your profession and obtain a board position.
- Take on a side gig or hussle to obtain experience in a growth area or obtain a related skill that could be in the future, associated with your current job.
- Write articles on topics of importance to your industry’s leaders.
- Volunteer to conduct surveys, research, obtain industry feedback to devise a best practices fact sheet.
- Give presentations at conferences, study groups and governmental policy meetings.
- Meet with your peers on a regular basis to get a broader understanding of their roles and responsibilities.
- Stay in contact with your references (yes the people who vouched for you to land your current job).
- Help your colleagues.
To gain an appreciation for top talent and to help you acquire and work upon the attributes generally considered to be held by top performers, let’s look at the research.
Eight characteristics of top talent
ERC identifies these eight characteristics of top talent as employees who:
- Achieve results,
- Are sought after because they are dependable, are knowledgeable about their job, and are easy to work with,
- Go above and beyond the mere requirements of the job,
- Take self-initiative,
- Internally motivated,
- Far-sightedness, see the big picture and inter-connected relationships. They are not myopic,
- Team players. Back-stabbers are not allowed, and
- Demonstrate integrity.
Top remote talent excels in productivity
While these eight characteristics may be difficult to develop if you don’t already innately possess them, let’s take a different approach. Research conducted at Indiana University, Kelly School of Business, found that out of all of the characteristics of high flyers and top producing employees, there are a few that are shared amongst them all.
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Roughly 10% of output (productivity) is generated from the top 1% of employees. Further, the top 5% produce 26% of the output. How is this high productivity rate achieved? Employers participating in the survey reported that their highest producing achievers shared these traits: problem solving, drive, self-direction, strategic thinking and initiative.
These attributes appear to be the antithesis of those who hold a ‘quietly quitting mindset.’ If this faulty belief is deeply ingrained, maybe quietly quitting may metamorphosize to ‘unwanted termination.’
