Table of Contents:

also known as quiet hiring

Quiet hiring – what is it?

Quiet hiring – what is it?

Quiet hiring, as the name implies, refers to the practice of 'silent hiring'. Contrary to its name, this process does not involve secretly acquiring new employees. It's not about 'poaching' specialists from other companies (that's known as employee poaching!) nor about hiring people off the books.

Quiet hiring is the process of acquiring new skills within a company to fill staffing gaps and increase productivity, without hiring new full-time employees.

Simply put, quiet hiring involves expanding the competencies and responsibilities of current employees, or offering work to individuals who will not be permanently associated with the company. These might include external experts, freelancers, or temporary staff. Employers can therefore:

assign more new duties to current employees,
transfer employees to new positions, using rotation in Department A to fill staffing shortages in Department B,
hire external specialists exclusively for specific projects, for example, under a B2B contract (freelance) or a contract for specific work.

Emily Rose McRae, Senior Director of Research at Gartner, stated in an interview with Good Morning America (goodmorningamerica.com):

“With quiet hiring, we’re talking about an organizational strategy where leaders are looking across the organization for talent and for critical gaps that those talents can fill. So, they’re trying to gain new skills and capabilities for the organization without bringing in new people.”

Quiet Hiring vs. Quiet Quitting – Employer Retaliation or Misnomer?

Quiet hiring is often confused with quiet quitting (a term for silently resigning). This trend significantly concerned employers and refers to situations where employees cease performing any tasks not explicitly covered by their employment contract.

Therefore, "quitters" stop working overtime, engaging in company life, answering work calls before and after hours, or performing any additional tasks. They do the absolute minimum. And while such widespread quiet quitting is driven by good intentions (among other things, it aims to protect employees from burnout and improve their work-life balance), in many companies, it has led to a general decrease in productivity and the emergence of skills gaps.

Is quiet hiring meant to be a kind of "revenge" for quiet quitting? Generally, no. However, quiet hiring is certainly, to some extent, a reaction to the quiet quitting trend. At least in the sense that with the cessation of unpaid after-hours work, gaps related to uncompleted tasks emerge within companies.

Quiet Hiring – A Strong Recruitment Trend

It was predicted as early as 2022 that quiet hiring would be an important trend in the HR world. This "announcement" appeared, among others, in Gartner's report "9 Future of Work Trends in 2023," published in December 2022. Gartner ranks quiet hiring in first place.

Reasons for Quiet Hiring

According to Emily Rose McRae, the main reasons for implementing quiet hiring are:

the uncertain economic situation in many countries worldwide
widespread talent shortages.

As she stated in an interview with GMA, "[...] for months we've had the lowest number of job seekers, so we're not in a situation where it's easy to find a lot of new talent." She points out that due to the candidate shortage, it can take companies several months to fill skill gaps. What's more, many businesses are still recovering from lengthy COVID-related shutdowns, meaning employers cannot always afford additional recruitment efforts.

To save time and money, companies will therefore change the level of responsibility for current positions or transfer employees from one department to another – either permanently or temporarily. They may also focus on talent outsourcing – depending on which solution proves more cost-effective and what opportunities the employer's current size and staff workload allow.

Quiet Hiring: The Google Example

An interesting example of the quiet hiring process is the silent recruitment conducted by Google. The company currently has approximately 120,000 contractors/freelancers and only 102,000 full-time employees.

Looking at quiet quitting at Google from a slightly different perspective, it's worth noting their interesting approach to internal recruitment. The company has established recruitment teams made up of its own employees. These teams identify internal talent, conduct interviews, and evaluate candidates.

For every open position, Google forms an employee recruitment committee consisting of 5-6 employees. The company then assigns several candidate evaluation categories to the roles it's recruiting for. Committee members rate each candidate in all categories on a scale of 1-4, then sum the scores. Interestingly, one of the candidate evaluation categories is internal referrals.

What's important in this case is that during quiet hiring, Google recruiters focus on employees who are already exceeding their core responsibilities, giving them an additional opportunity for growth. Unlike typical internal recruitment, where a call for applications is announced and then employees are awaited, here, employees are 'quietly' selected based on their past achievements.

What are the benefits of quiet hiring?

Practicing quiet hiring correctly—meaning in compliance with labor laws, with respect for employees, and considering their needs—can bring many tangible benefits to both the company and its employees. Quiet hiring can offer employers opportunities such as:

Cost Reduction – Wherever it's possible to enhance the skills of current employees or hire a new person only temporarily, savings arise. Instead of permanently paying additional salaries, the employer is obligated to increase current pay or provide appropriate bonuses, and for external project workers, temporarily pay additional remuneration.
Employer Branding – Offering ambitious employees the chance to take on additional responsibilities or transfer to a different department can significantly boost the satisfaction of engaged employees. The same applies to temporarily hiring external personnel for an overloaded team that couldn't handle an additional project. All of this contributes to building an employer's image as one that cares for its people.
Reduced Risk of Burnout – The two aforementioned advantages of quiet hiring can also translate into a decreased risk of employee burnout. Those who need change and development will fall into routine more slowly, and those who are overworked will be relieved.
Increased Productivity – A more satisfied team is also a better-performing team, leading to a more efficiently operating company. The increase in employee productivity is also influenced by the very fact of enhancing employee competencies or hiring new people only during periods of increased workload.

Employees, in turn, can benefit from quiet hiring:

Skill Development – Assigning new responsibilities to employees or temporarily moving them between different departments gives them the opportunity to enhance their skills without needing to train themselves. They gain access to training or workshops for which they not only don't have to pay but are actually compensated.
Increased Market Attractiveness – The skills employees acquire through quiet hiring translate into greater opportunities for future employment with other companies. This makes them more attractive candidates in the eyes of employers.
Opportunity to Participate in Interesting Projects – Assigning current employees to new projects also breaks routine, making their work more interesting and exciting as a result of quiet hiring.
Increased Base Salary/Bonus – Adding more responsibilities or increasing the level of accountability for employees should be accompanied by a salary increase or at least a discretionary bonus, for example, for participation in a single project.
Workload Relief – Quiet hiring also helps relieve pressure on employees whose teams face significant staffing shortages, requiring other internal personnel to be assigned or temporary external staff to be hired. Quiet hiring thus helps balance employees who always have too much work or show little ambition and engagement with those who would like to do more.

Risks Associated with Quiet Hiring

Quiet hiring also carries certain risks. These are primarily related to the consequences of implementing this process without sufficient forethought.

The American company Monster, owner of a job search portal (not to be confused with the energy drink manufacturer), conducted a study on quiet hiring in January 2023. It yielded many interesting data points, including the information that as many as 50 percent of respondents who experienced quiet hiring were assigned positions that did not match their skills.

If an employee is thrown in at the deep end, meaning the company demands they learn many new things without providing adequate time or tools for such training, it can quickly lead to employee frustration. And as a result – to them quiet quitting or even threatening to leave the company if they don't return to their previous duties.

Another threat is employees' concern about the organization's health, which can lead to rumors of layoffs. Therefore, effective communication about quiet hiring changes is crucial. The team should receive clear information explaining why additional responsibilities are being assigned, employees are being moved between teams, or external hires are being made. The aforementioned Monster survey revealed that 27% of employees would ask their employer if the company was failing if quiet hiring was implemented. What's more, as many as 41% would perceive the company as disorganized and lacking a clear vision. Further numbers are even more concerning: 27% of respondents would consider leaving the company, and 4% would leave immediately.

Poorly executed quiet hiring also carries risks such as:

leading to employee overload and burnout,
instilling a feeling that their current position will be eliminated/no longer important to the company,
organizational chaos due to regularly hiring people 'temporarily'.

The key is therefore to meticulously plan quiet hiring, including conducting a detailed analysis of staffing levels, and to maintain open communication about all changes.

Stay on top of things with an HR app. Sign up and enjoy a free 30-day trial.

HR apps Create an account

Back to the HR glossary

Quiet Hiring