It’s easy to get tired of the odd workplace terminology that bubbled up during the global pandemic and lockdown.
The terms seemed to blossom like dandelions in the yard – things like The Great Resignation, Quiet Quitting and other many headache-inducing terms people love to coin about the state of work.
These many terms seem to come and go quickly, but the latest is one we might want to hold on to for a while. It’s also very relevant to the work we do here at Fuel50.
Not sure of what we’re referring to? It’s this: Quiet Hiring.
Training magazine described it in a story titled How Quiet Hiring Is Changing the Workplace for Employers and Employees:
“Quiet hiring, in a nutshell, is the practice of using existing human resources — that is, the employees your company already has on its payroll — to fill additional roles, complete additional work, and otherwise tackle the growing needs of your business.”
A win-win for employers and employees
That’s a narrow definition, but Gartner explained it a little better in Why Quiet Hiring is a Win-Win for Employers and Employees:
“Quiet hiring isn’t just a win for the organization. It provides employees with the opportunity to work stretch assignments, grow their current skills, learn new skills, extend their careers — and ultimately become invaluable to their current organization and more marketable to others.
There are also more immediate benefits to employees — quiet hiring doesn’t mean employees who volunteer for these kinds of assignments shouldn’t be compensated or rewarded in some way. To capture the benefits of quiet hiring without risking attrition, organizations should expect to offer incentives, such as additional compensation, one-time bonuses, extra personal time off, flexible hours and working conditions.”
Beyond that, Gartner explains further what “Quiet Hiring” looks like in action:
“For organizations, quiet hiring will manifest in a few key ways:
- A focus on internal talent mobility to ensure employees are deployed against the priorities that matter most without changes in headcount. This includes offering additional compensation or other benefits for new roles and responsibilities.
- A renewed emphasis on stretch assignments and upskilling opportunities for existing employees. This provides growth opportunities while meeting both evolving organizational needs and supporting employees’ career aspirations.
- Alternate approaches to sourcing, such as leveraging alumni networks and gig workers, to bring in talent only as needed.
Employees should be looking for ways to participate in these programs — and even urge their organization to provide them with opportunities if they see high-priority roles that they could perform some or all of.”
Quiet Hiring sounds a lot like what we do at Fuel50
A focus on internal talent mobility? Stretch assignments? Upskilling opportunities for existing employees? Tapping non-traditional talent pools? Better retention? That sounds a lot like elements of the talent experience that we help so many great organizations and companies with here at Fuel50.
Not that long ago, Fuel50 Founder & CEO Anne Fulton wrote about Why You Need to Start Building a Human-Centric Workforce which sounds a lot like what we’re hearing today about Quiet Quitting. Here’s part of what she said:
“Crafting a talent experience that encompasses these human-centric capabilities requires HR technology that puts people first. A talent marketplace like Fuel50 is grounded in human centricity and focuses on understanding the needs, values, and aspirations of employees to enable organizations to better understand their people and align internal career opportunities to match.
Having a deeper understanding of the values and goals of your people and utilizing that information to fuel employee initiatives is the backbone of the Fuel50 talent experience that employees will love.”
This is why it’s important for everyone to keep up with what is going on in the wider world of work, and how something like Quiet Hiring zeroes in on what we do here at Fuel50.
A long-term talent strategy
When asking the question, “Can quiet hiring be a long-term strategy?” Gartner answers it like this:
“Yes. When done correctly, quiet hiring can be a critical workforce development strategy: Boosting employee retention and experience, cultivating home-grown skills and helping to keep payroll costs under control.
For many organizations, fighting for new, full-time external talent will be a challenge going forward, so quiet hiring can be key to filling skills gaps. For employees, it’s a good opportunity to modernize their skills and retain their market value.”
In other words, Quiet Hiring describes many of the ways that Fuel50’s Skills-Powered Talent Marketplace helps organizations leverage reskilling, talent agility, and the ability to build better career pathways to not only develop a highly flexible workforce, but to also increase engagement and overall retention as well.
It’s true that The Great Resignation and many of the other modern workplace terminologies confuse people and don’t hang around long before some new term takes center stage, but Quiet Hiring isn’t one that’s likely to disappear any time soon.
That’s because, as Forbes observes, “Ultimately, quiet hiring saves the company time, money and resources.” And that also describes what Fuel50 is all about.
