Glossary

Climate quitting is when people quit their job because their employer is not committed enough to environmental and climate protection. This trend mainly affects younger generations, such as Gen Z or millennials.

Employers must take "climate quitting" seriously

The arguments for such a dismissal include - in addition to moral expectations that are disappointed: Employees doubt the future viability of the company and consequently see job security at risk.

With "climate quitting", also known as "conscious quitting", people take a clear stand and state the reasons for their dismissal. This is a clear difference to "quiet quitting" (or "silent quitting"): Here, employees perform less and less quietly and unnoticed and ultimately resign - often due to dissatisfaction, overwork or underperformance.

Climate quitting has an impact on employer branding

The phenomenon of "climate quitting" not only affects employees, but also job seekers. They may rule out a company or brand from the outset because they do not like its environmental and climate protection strategy.

Meanwhile, 60% of job seekers consider environmental protection to be important to very important when choosing their employer (kununu job evaluation portal study, 2023). And more than 40% of Gen Z and millennials have already left a job or are planning to do so because they feel their employer's commitment to environmental and climate protection is too low (study by Deloitte, 2023).

This shows that "climate quitting" is an extremely relevant topic for brands and should definitely be included in employer branding.

How to prevent climate quitting

In addition to a strong commitment to climate protection and clear brand positioning on environmental issues, a brand can do the following:

• It can support employees in implementing environmentally friendly measures. For example, with a program and a fixed number of hours per month with which they can volunteer for climate and the environment.
• The brand should involve employees in climate issues and be open and interested in suggestions for improvement.
• It could offer a platform where ideas can be exchanged on how the company can become even more sustainable.
• Incentives for environmentally friendly behavior should be created, for example through a competition in which employees collect sustainability points.
• Training courses on environmentally friendly behavior are also popular.
• A brand should demonstrate openness by reporting honestly on the measures it has implemented. It should also provide information on why some ideas may not be implemented.

Under no circumstances should a company engage in bluewashing in employer branding. Instead, an environmental commitment that matches the brand positioning is an advantage in attracting talent and top employees and counteracting climate quitting.

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