What is Quiet Hiring? All You Need to Know

Indeed, the world of HR has stepped into a gray area, with layoffs and hiring freezes caused primarily by the mixed signals sent by an economic slowdown. Remember that our economy is cyclical, and downtimes occur approximately every 15 years, so this isn’t a new phenomenon after all.

However, this macro situation has affected the talent pipeline resulting in talent shortages and skills gaps. This has led to the development of a new workplace lingo and practice, in addition to other buzzwords like quiet quitting and quiet firing, well-known as QUIET HIRING. Although this is a new term, the concept of quiet hiring has been around for quite some time. This blog will discuss everything you need to know about quiet hiring. Let's get started.

TL;DR

• Quiet hiring is an essential and game-changing recruitment strategy, applicable to organizations’ strategy-making activities.
• It turns unruly with unfair compensation and an inadequate understanding of skills proficiency concerning employees.
• Key benefits include effective strategizing, performing workforce and succession planning, and budgeting.
• Its implementation helps identify skill gaps, assess capabilities, and maintain legal compliance.

What is Quiet Hiring?

"Quiet hiring is one of the several trends identified as potentially having a major impact in 2023. For some organizations, it would be a game-changer. For some other organizations, it might be one of the other trends on their priority list. It depends on their biggest challenges," said Emily Rose McRae, Senior Director, Gartner, to CNBC during an interview. Being a trendsetter for 2023 and beyond, HR professionals must stay current with what quiet hiring means.

Quiet hiring is an alternative recruitment strategy where organizations acquire the essential skills and capabilities to meet their business goals within their organization. It is initiated by redeploying employees, offering training programs, and even redesigning roles. If the required talent isn't available within the organization, contractors or gig workers are recruited to meet goals and bridge the skills gap. Besides this, alumni networking also helps with quiet hiring.

Quiet hiring is a form of short-term redeployment to overcome talent shortages, especially in times of reduction of HR budgets and economic downturns. However, while initiating quiet hiring and looking for talent internally, ample compensation and recognition must be offered to redeployed employees. It is because it can be considered as labor abuse and exploitation if quiet hiring is not performed strategically and correctly. This can hamper the organization and employer brand, adversely impacting the process and the results to be gained through this initiative.

During challenging times, making such talent trade-offs can be a blessing in disguise for the organization to manage talent needs. Although it is a temporary move, an organization can bring permanence based on its requirements and employees' decisions. Regardless, while performing quiet hiring, employees and their skills must be valued.

Quiet hiring techniques can be implemented internally. Organizations like Google have deployed quiet hiring strategies even while it was hiring, to avoid bad hires. In this process, Google created a hiring committee to review and score candidates, where two out of five key aspects to score are internal references and employee referral notes. By doing so, as per Inc. and Entrepreneur, Google and similar organizations endeavor to give employees and candidates the power to move ahead based on their performance.

Thus, quiet hiring is a strategy that, when used correctly, can help organizations reduce talent shortages while hiring internally and externally.  

Things to avoid while initiating quiet hiring in your company 

Quiet hiring is a way to maneuver through the competitive hiring landscape and HR budget cuts, especially for retaining top talent and attaining business growth. But, when done poorly, it can do more harm than you might think.  

A few things an organization should avoid while initiating quiet hiring:

• Performing quiet hiring without communicating with the employees and understanding their perspectives.
• Performing such an activity without consent might cause labor abuse, discourage employees, and lower employee retention, thus reducing productivity
• Conducting quiet hiring without giving the employees the proper compensation, benefits, and recognition
• Forcing your employees to redeploy as part of quiet hiring
• Loading your talents with extra tasks without considering their bandwidth, skills, and mental health
• Initiating quiet hiring without adequate research and gathering information on your employees' skills and proficiencies
• Organizing quiet hiring without considering the need to upskill, reskill, or cross-skill your employees

What are the benefits of Quiet Hiring for employers?

At an organizational level, quiet hiring has different benefits or perks in your talent acquisition strategy. They include:

• Helping organizations meet their strategic business goals while staying competitive
• Creating opportunities for internal talent mobility
• Providing employees with growth opportunities, which can improve employee engagement and employee retention rates
• Assisting in leveraging internal talent and resources without opting for lengthy recruitment processes
• Aiding in saving money, time, and resources while filling skills gaps
• Building workplace efficiency without being burdened by financial constraints
• Helping build institutional knowledge and assisting in workforce and succession planning
• Acting as an alternative talent-sourcing method
• Improving employees' skill sets by engaging them in stretch assignments, which also benefits the organization's business growth and productivity. These activities can be conducted by employers efficiently by relying on a skills intelligence platform
• Helping overcome layoffs by redeploying talent within the organization or, on a much more permanent scale, opting for talent redeployment to a talent partner, which several organizations performed during the pandemic

What are the benefits of Quiet Hiring for employees? 

It is a known fact that quiet hiring offers benefits to employers. But, in reality, it is a win-win situation for both the employer and the employee. Here are some top benefits of quiet hiring for employees.

• Provides employees with opportunities to build new and competitive skill sets
• Opens growth opportunities for employees via career pathing
• Helps employees document performance, primarily after communicating their expectations and while working with their manager
• Aids in preparing employees for handling leadership roles
• Improves chances of attaining promotions and bonuses
• Provides them with a pay increase or other benefits, like a bonus, flexible timing, additional time off, paid time off, etc.
• Assists in building robust networks with existing employees in different business areas of the organization
• Improves exposure both internally and externally
• Provides employees with the opportunity to become invaluable assets
• Enhances employee engagement, productivity, and satisfaction

How to implement Quiet Hiring in your organization strategically?

In a recent research survey from Littler with over 450 respondents from different industries, from technology to healthcare, 77% are confident of their current business status. But most have concerns regarding workforce management and planning, where 71% are considering implementing employee restructuring within the organization, aka quiet hiring. Thus, in the current scenario, enforcing quiet hiring can benefit organizations. Now, let's explore the to implement this strategy within your organization.

• Identify skills gaps within your organization and prioritize based on your company's business requirements.
• Gain an understanding of your employees' skills and proficiencies, which can be done easily by relying on the skills insights available on a skills intelligence platform.
• Shortlist employees who can take up these responsibilities, especially opt for employees who perform their roles above and beyond. While doing so, identify if your employees have the bandwidth to complete these tasks efficiently without hampering their mental health and wellness.
• Create a strategic plan for implementing quiet hiring in your organization.
• Transparently communicate the purpose of quiet hiring within your organization. Drafting and implementing an efficient communication plan can be handy for that purpose.
• Understand if your employees are willing to take up additional responsibilities.
• Ensure that you facilitate compensation to your employees as pay increases, paid time off, flexible work timings, bonuses, or other benefits.
• Make sure your quiet hiring policies comply with your country's legal framework.
• Provide upskilling, reskilling, or cross-skilling opportunities for your employees.
• Measure the results gained and ensure they match the expectations. If not, analyze the process and work on improving it.

Conclusion

Thus, when implemented strategically, your organization and employees can reap the benefits of quiet hiring. As an HR professional, you can initiate these activities and perform them efficiently while relying on tools like skills intelligence to understand your employees' skills better.

You must also ensure that you create a transparent communication channel with your employees to avoid deviating from the right path while implementing quiet hiring.

FAQs

1. Why has quiet hiring become more relevant in recent times?

‍Because economic slowdowns and hiring freezes have created talent shortages and skills gaps, pushing organizations to find internal solutions.

2. How does quiet hiring differ from traditional hiring?

‍Quiet hiring focuses on redeploying existing employees and using contractors rather than hiring new full-time staff.

3. What risks can arise if quiet hiring is not managed properly?

‍It can lead to employee exploitation, burnout, and damage to the company’s reputation.

4. How can companies ensure fairness during quiet hiring?

‍By providing fair compensation, clear communication, and respecting employees’ workload and consent.

5. What role does skill assessment play in successful quiet hiring?

‍It helps in identifying skill gaps and employee capabilities to match the right talent to new roles or responsibilities effectively.