How to handle 'quiet hiring'

(Image: Adobe Stock)

A new year and a new workplace trend — quiet hiring. It’s the latest buzzword in workplace trends and was even declared 1 of the 9 workplace trends of the year by Gartner. On the surface, quiet hiring seems like another “quiet x” term being touted by news outlets or made famous via TikTok. But this is not a “new” trend; it’s just a shiny new name for a practice that many companies have been doing for years. Google’s used this strategy for years to identify the “brightest minds” within the organization and move them into open positions. Quiet hiring, simply put, is hiring internally-which is a smart strategy. It eliminates the hefty costs of hiring (which SHRM says costs nearly $4,700 per position) and solves labor shortages. So, what’s different then, and why all the attention?

According to the U.S. Department of Labor, the talent wars we experienced in 2022 will continue into 2023, with over 10 million jobs still open and not enough workers to fill them. Quiet hiring could be the correct strategy to win the war for your organization. If done the right way, employers can show the trust and value they have in their employees, retain high producers, and fill job openings within the organization.