You've probably seen headlines about these
workplace trends. First, it was the great
resignation, then quiet, quitting.
Well, that was 2022.
And 2023 has a new buzzy workplace trend.
It's called Quiet Hiring.
Managers across multiple workplaces are trying out
a process called - get this -quiet hiring
Quiet hiring is really in the news right now.
Quiet hiring is one of several trends that we've
identified as potentially having a major impact in
2023 for the future of work.
And some organizations, it's going to be a game
changer. For some organizations, it might be
one of our other trends that's more of a priority.
It depends on where their biggest challenges are.
There's a difference is how you do it.
If you do it the right way, perfect.
If you do the wrong way with the wrong intentions,
I say, quiet hiring is not going to work.
It's going to not have the employee engagement
the way that you want to.
So with all the economic uncertainty going around,
employers are looking at ways to fulfill their
needs without actually having to commit to
growing their workforce.
One way of potentially doing that is what has
been called quiet hiring.
Quite hiring is actually not a new concept.
Companies have been using quite hiring for years now
to fill talent gaps.
It basically means hiring
short-term contractors or reassigning your existing
employees to new positions, or asking them
to take on additional responsibilities.
Fundamentally, we don't have enough talent right
now. We don't have enough people to do the jobs we
need. And even if we are eventually going to be
able to hire them, the hiring timelines are very,
very long. That's one of the major forces that
started shaping quiet hiring.
I think there is a relationship and a trend
almost between the great resignation, quiet
quitting and now quiet hiring. And I'm sure
there'll be something quiet down the road.
I think it's the evolution of how the
workplace is changing and trying to adapt to the
post-pandemic world.
Tech companies like Google, Amazon and
Microsoft have been laying off tens of
thousands of workers.
The larger economy, however, remains
relatively strong. Demand for workers is high, and
unemployment is low.
Many economists still think a recession could
happen in 2023, and companies are turning to
quiet hiring as a way to trim costs ahead of a
potential economic downturn.
So the way this trend works in relation to the
broader economy is that it is the case that the
economy is slowing down.
So we have seen mixed economic signals, but
there's no question about the economy slowing down,
which makes employers hesitant to hire, but the
work still needs to be done. So, in that case,
the employers are willing to lean on their current
workforce a bit more in order to get the job done.
There are parts of the job market right now where
there are pretty severe labor shortages.
Industries like health care is one of them.
So in these industries where there are labor
shortages, quiet hiring may be a way for employers
to fulfill their needs.
It's incredibly expensive to hire new talent, and
it's a little bit cheaper to retrain existing talent
that you have, and it's definitely a little bit
cheaper to also do it with contractors if you
design it correctly so that you're not breaking
law in terms of where you're classifying your
workers. When we look at how much it costs to hire
someone, say it's a replacement hire.
You're looking at the impact on my team, but
also on my managers and on my colleagues.
There's a lost productivity. As long as
that position's open, the recruiting team and the
hiring manager is going to spend it's expensive
time doing the sourcing of candidates, their
viewing of applications, the interviewing, the
conversations to make the decisions, and then you
add in bringing in additional things.
So there's a relocation bonus, there's a signing
bonus. It's expensive.
There can be many negative attributions to the idea
of quiet hiring, such as you're effectively causing
people to work harder for no change in their
compensation. And I don't doubt that there are
instances of that.
I don't think that's the most important part of the
phenomenon.
I think it's labor abuse and wage theft when not
done the right way.
Let's put it an example, if you are busy and if you
are cross-training your employees left and right,
you are literally cross-training them for
four or five roles wearing multiple hats and
then paying one salary.
No, it's not going to work.
How about you go back and see the root cause of why
you're trying to cross-train the employees?
How about you are not forecasting those
headcounts? Whose fault is it?
It's a resource planning.
It's a workforce planning. So let's go back
and hold the leadership team accountable.
Why are you back feeling it?
I mean, why are you not paying them?
If you're back feeling it, It creates burnt out
for employees. And normally, the high
performer are the ones who are going to take on
that. They always go above and beyond.
And this is why people are quitting.
If an organization isn't really thoughtful about
how they do quiet hiring, there is absolutely a risk
that you could end up worsening some of the
diversity, particularly if, say, you're moving
people into an opportunity that gives
them access to more leadership roles in the
future. Have you thought about the diversity of the
group that you're moving in there from an equity
perspective? Are you making sure that the
compensation that you're offering doesn't create
inequity within the organization in terms of
people with similar skills and similar
responsibilities being paid differently?
Quiet hiring is smart business strategy.
And as we look for the future, organizations need
to understand where their talent sits in the
organization so they can deploy that talent along
the way as they continue to move their organization
forward.
Quite hiring is actually a great opportunity for
employees because they get an opportunity to own
their growth. They get an opportunity to invest in
themselves, build a skill set, and actually bring
that skill set and their diversity of thought into
areas outside their purview or job
responsibilities within an organization.
It's also an opportunity for employees to
accelerate their careers, because when would you get
an opportunity to hop on to new responsibilities
and take on new job roles?
Exhibit your impact?
I think it's going to be even more important going
forward in this year and beyond.
It's a win-win. It allows them to keep costs down
and also gives opportunity to existing
employees to really grow and develop and advance
within their careers.