Quiet hiring was recently named one of the top 2023 workplace trends by Gartner. But in reality, it’s a fancy name for a tried-and-true practice businesses have used for decades. Instead of searching for outside talent to fill workforce gaps, quiet hiring involves upskilling and reskilling current employees to fill internal roles. This approach gives employees opportunities to learn other functions in the company and assigns new responsibilities outside of their core role.

Given the combination of labor shortages and economic uncertainty, quiet hiring presents an opportunity for companies to do more with less. Rather than hiring additional workers, companies tap current employees to meet critical talent needs in areas where they are struggling to find qualified external candidates. But while the practice can be beneficial for both employees and employers, it’s important for companies to avoid overwhelming employees with extra work before equipping them for the challenges ahead.

Learning and development (L&D) professionals play a crucial role in ensuring quiet hiring is effective and not exploitative. L&D leaders must ensure the practice is equitable and that employees are given sufficient training and support to succeed in their new roles. Armed with best practices, organizations can implement quiet hiring with intentionality, ensuring their existing talent pool can meet current and future business needs.

Quiet Hiring: What Not To Do

When done right, quiet hiring is a win-win. However, if done incorrectly, it has the potential to take advantage of employees’ skills and energy without giving them adequate training and/or compensation. Most employees don’t want extra responsibilities just for the sake of having more to do — especially if they’re already overburdened as a result of staffing shortages. Managers shouldn’t make assumptions about employees’ capacity to take on additional work without considering their current bandwidth and career aspirations.

Managers also shouldn’t limit their selection to their favorite or best-performing employees. While high-achieving employees may be willing to take on more responsibilities, it could lead to burnout or detract from their performance in their current role. More importantly, workplace favoritism leads to inequity since most employees aren’t given the same upskilling or reskilling opportunities.

If managers don’t consider how more work or additional responsibilities impact employees — or who receives the opportunities — it can lead to lower productivity, reduced engagement, increased turnover rates and inequality.

To avoid negative outcomes, companies must develop a comprehensive upskilling plan that assesses which employees are ready for increased responsibilities, ensures these assignments align with their career goals and provides a framework of support to help employees succeed. An intentional approach supported by data-driven insights can help organizations foster employees’ career growth and meet business needs at the same time.

How To Create a Quiet Hiring Strategy

Quiet hiring can help organizations cultivate expertise from within. However, without careful consideration of the who, why and how, the practice can easily become biased and exploitative. This process requires an intentional strategy to ensure it serves both business and employee needs. Data-driven insights are key to making the process more effective and inclusive.

Here are four steps to help your organization create an intentional, data-driven quiet hiring program:

1. Uncover skills gaps.

It’s important to evaluate current employees’ skill levels to ensure your upskilling programs offer the right resources to help them succeed. The process often begins with an informal discussion between leaders and managers about present and future workforce needs. But this conversation is only a starting point.

People data can also help you identify skills gaps. For example, needs assessments can yield valuable insights into employee’s perceptions of their performance, skill level and future career aspirations. And implementing a 360-degree assessment model can help you gain a comprehensive understanding of employees’ performance from multiple perspectives.

From there, you can conduct a gap analysis to measure current employees’ capabilities compared to the desired skill level competencies for your organization. Combined, this data can help you discover opportunities to address gaps and prepare for future business needs.

2. Identify the right employees for advancement.

Most managers have regular one on ones with their employees, and they’re in the best position to understand who is ready for L&D opportunities. When it’s time to identify employees who may be good candidates for internal mobility, managers are your go-to resource.

Data can help managers avoid favoritism, biases and assumptions. There are several talent tools that can help you and your managers understand employees’ growth potential, including personality assessments, performance evaluations and self-reviews.

Consider this example:

Suppose your company wants to expand its data analytics team by upskilling existing talent. You start by asking managers to identify employees who would be interested in this type of role. Next, you work with the managers to evaluate people data and confirm the identified employees who have the right skills for the position. Finally, you compare results with other team members’ performance to ensure you’ve chosen the most qualified and interested employees.

3. Develop targeted upskilling opportunities.

After you identify current skills gaps and employees who are ready for advancement, it’s time to develop tailored learning opportunities. The creation of customized upskilling plans ensure each employee has the tools and resources they need to succeed in their new position. When you create personalized training programs, consider the following questions:

• What are the skills or knowledge that employees will take away from this program?
• How long will the learning opportunity last?
• How will the upskilling program help connect employees to potential coaches or mentors?
• How will this experience support the employee’s career advancement?

These questions can help you create clear guidelines for employees’ development. When you establish specific objectives, you ensure upskilling programs equip employees with the necessary skills and resources to maintain a high level of performance.

4. Set up employees for long-term success.

If employees aren’t recognized for extra work or new responsibilities, they may feel undervalued and underappreciated.

The solution: Work with leaders and managers to ensure employees feel seen, heard and valued, especially if they’re going above and beyond to take on additional work.

Opportunities to express appreciation might include:

• Personalized messages.
• Shoutouts in internal communication channels.
• Increased compensation (e.g., a raise or bonus).
• Promotions.

Another way to drive employee recognition in the workplace is to listen to employees’ suggestions, concerns or observations. You can implement pulse surveys to collect employee feedback about their upskilling experience and then use these insights to shape future iterations of the program. Employee feedback can also help you understand how to better support team members as they continue to learn and grow in their new role.

Looking Ahead

Quiet hiring offers benefits for both employers and employees. But it’s important to ensure you’re doing it in a way that benefits employees’ career growth, rather than simply overwhelming them with more work. Data-driven insights, targeted learning opportunities and continuous support can help your quiet hiring efforts stay on the right track — and empower your employees to achieve their full potential.