Why is everyone talking about… quiet hiring?

There’s a high degree of likelihood that, at some point this year or last, you heard the term quiet quitting. In fact, organisations were sprinting to find ways to understand and counteract a sense that workers were only aspiring to achieve the bare minimum in their roles. 

The fact is that employee disengagement comes at a high cost. Recent data from Gallup suggests that not engaged or actively disengaged employees can cost about $1.9 trillion (€1.2 trillion/£1.5 trillion) to the economy in lost productivity. 

That’s where ‘quiet hiring’ may play a role. Quiet hiring is a form of strategic talent management that focuses more on upskilling employees from within an organisation. Especially in an era of talent shortages and emerging skills gaps, quiet hiring can expedite age-old employee development.

As Andrada Popescu, Senior Associate & Employment Law Specialist at Noerr, told Business Review: “Despite its name, quiet hiring is anything but silent and could be the catalyst for creating a dynamic, adaptable team for the future. Quiet hiring is actually a new term for a revived practice.”

In speaking with publication UNLEASH, Gaëlle de la Fosse, LHH President explains why 2024 might be the year for quiet hiring: “We are now entering the ‘Great Potential’ era where employers have the opportunity to invest more thoughtfully in talent, build stronger leaders, and fill critical skills gaps that will help improve employee engagement and retention for the long term.”

Organisations are coming to understand just how important positive employee sentiment is to business outcomes — and quiet hiring has emerged as a way to urgently address those needs. 

Andrada goes on to explain: “Internal promotions through quiet hiring can have a ripple effect on the broader workforce. When employees witness their colleagues being upskilled and advancing within the organisation, it creates a positive atmosphere of possibility and potential which can eventually lead to a higher retention rate.”

Given the fact that time-to-hire metrics are only increasing, making the most of the talent you already have on hand is only becoming more critical. By implementing practices that align with a concept like quiet hiring, your entire workforce can benefit. 

Here’s how that might look in practice: 

• Examine your workforce: Think about your career paths and the ways you can bring talent forward in your organisation. A solid career progression framework can help teams begin to think about how they nurture talent from within. 

• Focus on skills: What are the skills of tomorrow that you need to focus on today? For example, consider implementing AI training programmes that help your teams. Here, Perry Timms shares how to start. 

• Incentivise development: To enable quiet hiring, you need to make development a continuous and enjoyable process. Think about how your benefits (remuneration, time off or more) can help foster and reward continuous progression. 

The most important thing to keep in mind that quiet hiring is not simply about boosting retention and performance. In contrast to quiet quitting, it is a philosophy that helps boost employee engagement and enable a culture of continuous learning and development. 

• Perry Timms: How to upskill for the AI age

• Quiet quitting: A proper guide to a very real trend

• How to nurture and develop your people

That's all for this week's edition of Personio Pulse: This Week in HR. Check back next week as we continue to dissect the latest trends impacting the ways we work. 

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