“Quiet quitting” is a trend that took off at the end of 2022 in which employees stopped going above and beyond in the workplace, choosing only to do the work and put in the hours they were paid for. No more accepting collateral assignments. No more contributing unpaid overtime.
Not wanting to miss out, employers started their own trend of “quiet hiring” in 2023. This term describes how employers reward employees who continue to put in the extra work by giving them stretch assignments and upskilling them to take on a greater variety of roles in the organization.
According to this article, quiet hiring is a way “to acquire new skills and capabilities without adding new full-time employees.” Another article adds that focusing talent searches on people who exactly match job descriptions is short-sighted. “You need to focus less on credentials and more on skills.”
Applying quiet hiring is a balancing act. Leaders need to identify an area where a talent gap exists and find an employee who has a skillset that generally aligns with that role and who isn’t crucial in their current position. Once the leader finds the right person, it can be fairly easy to make the shift. For instance, if a data scientist position is open, moving a data analyst to fill that gap is a low lift. But if someone needs to be grabbed from, say, HR, then that may necessitate that the employee receive additional training to prepare them for the new role.
Companies benefit from quiet hiring in several ways. As mentioned, adding to the skills of current employees, rather than hiring from outside, inspires greater loyalty from the employees, which leads directly to more retention. Also, positions can be filled more quickly if traditional hiring procedures are avoided. Seeking outside hires requires that candidates be identified, screened — possibly from hundreds of applicants — and finally selected. This can take months and pulls the company’s resources, including managers, away from their day-to-day work to conduct interviews, usually with all but one of which leading to rejection.
Quiet hiring makes employees more valuable too. Sliding current employees into various roles increases their skills and knowledge of how the company works. This allows them to see processes from different perspectives, which creates a more competent, efficient staff. The additional training and the variety of hats employees wear also makes their resumes more attractive. Furthermore, to keep the staff motivated, they can be compensated through pay increases, bonuses, or increased time off.
These are just some of the reasons that quiet hiring is good for both employers and employees. And this trend is a perfect way to adapt to the uncertain economic times that are predicted throughout the first part of 2023. If you’re interested in using quiet hiring to improve the footing of your company in shaky times, you can read articles here y here to get a more complete idea of how this trend can benefit you and your employees.
Need help bridging the skill gap? Want to leverage quiet hiring? Contact us! We’re happy to help you create a solution that fits your situation.
Spanish 
English