Quiet hiring is already an integral part of personnel planning for many companies in order to counteract the shortage of personnel and skilled workers. Existing workers are often critical of the silent hiring.
silent attitude
The phenomenon of quiet hiring refers to the practice of filling new positions internally, changing positions or assigning additional tasks to existing staff. The term talent mobility is also often used as a synonym. Job board Monster conducted a survey on Quiet Hiring in January 2023. Of the workers surveyed, 80 percent said they had been silently hired at least once.
opportunities and disadvantages
For reasons of cost and time savings, it makes sense for many employers to consider whether some tasks could be outsourced internally. This allows staffing gaps to be filled without spending time and money on external recruitment and onboarding. There is also no risk of new employees dropping out during the probationary period.
New avenues of professional development are opening up for the current employees and the opportunity to achieve a higher position by accepting additional responsibility. In the aforementioned Monster job exchange survey, 63 percent of workers surveyed said they see the silent hiring as an opportunity to learn new skills.
Nevertheless, the attitude towards quiet hiring remains rather critical. 50 percent of those surveyed felt that the new role did not match their skills. In addition, 15 percent are not willing to take on the new responsibilities without clear communication and 27 percent would even consider resigning.
In practice, it often happens that the extension of the area of responsibility is not discussed with the employee in advance, but often comes as a surprise to the employee in addition to the regular area of activity. Moreover, not all workers want to leave their current jobs, take on additional responsibilities, or are forced to relocate. Quiet hiring could consequently intensify the opposite phenomenon of quiet quitting. In addition, silent attitudes are often seen as an indication of disorganization and the lack of concrete future prospects for the company.
Sufficient communication and support are required
It is important to have sufficient and open communication between employee and employer. In addition to financial compensation, companies should also offer sufficient support through further education or training so that employees have enough strategies to be able to cope with the additional tasks. Well-executed, quiet hiring can be a strategy for employee development and long-term retention within the organization.
Editorial office finanzen.net