The Globe and Mail: What is ‘quiet hiring’ and how can it benefit your organization?

This article was originally published in The Globe and Mail.

Spring Financial’s social-media manager was previously one of its customer-service representatives. One of its technology project managers used to work in sales. Its content writer was originally hired as a call quality auditor.

The Vancouver-based online loan provider has grown and evolved significantly since the pandemic. Not only has its head count increased from about 250 to 350, but its talent needs have also evolved along with its products, requiring a much broader range of skills.

Rather than letting go of old staff and hiring new ones, the company first seeks to utilize its existing talent.

“The labour market is quite tight, and it’s not always easy to find the exact skill that you’re looking for,” said Tyler Thielmann, president of Spring Financial. “Our preference is to find somebody inside instead of finding somebody from outside.”

Mr. Thielmann says that when skills gaps arise, he typically works with managers to identify internal candidates or puts out an open invitation to staff outlining needs and requesting volunteers.

After a three-month trial Mr. Thielmann says he conducts an evaluation, at which point the employee can either request to return to their previous position, or make the transition permanent, and receive compensation that matches the new responsibilities.

Not only does this strategy allow his organization to fulfill their talent needs at a relatively quick pace during a time of talent shortages, but Mr. Thielmann says it also increases employee retention, engagement, and internal communication.

“When you find that person who is able to make that lateral move it’s incredible, because they bring so much context to that team, and such a unique perspective, and it’s just super helpful,” he said.

Staff members who are moved around, meanwhile, get to explore new career paths and opportunities with minimal risk while upgrading their skills, and even potentially increasing their compensation. “A lot of people don’t know exactly where their career is going, and it’s not always easy to bounce around from job to job to find the right fit,” Mr. Thielmann said.

In a constantly evolving talent marketplace, more organizations are looking internally to fill their talent needs. This trend, dubbed “quiet hiring,” is both a response to uncertain economic conditions that have created budgetary constraints and a tight labour market that makes it challenging for employers to fill critical positions in a timely manner.

Canada’s unemployment rate reached 5.4 per cent in June, while job vacancies hit 4.4 per cent in the first quarter of the year, representing a gradual improvement from records set during the pandemic but a more challenging hiring environment compared with prepandemic norms.

“If ‘quiet quitting’ was a way that organizations were essentially losing skills and capabilities without losing head count, ‘quiet hiring’ is about adding skills and capabilities without adding head count,” explains Emily Rose McRae, a senior director analyst in the Gartner HR practice. “For a lot of organizations, it’s a much faster option and a more realistic option than hiring right now.”

The term ‘quiet hiring’ has been used previously to describe strategic talent redeployment – most notably by Google – but the trend really picked up steam in December after a report produced by Ms. McRae and her team, which named it one of the “9 Future of Work Trends for 2023.”

“We were talking about the one-two punch of talent shortage plus economic anxiety, which means a lot of organizations are feeling pressure to cut costs, or at least not raise them, at the same time that the talent market has gotten significantly more competitive,” she said. “It was a prediction in December, but almost immediately we started hearing from clients who were doing it – or wanted to be.”

The trend’s rise in popularity has not been without criticism, especially among social-media users, many of whom interpret the trend as a way for employers to save on hiring costs by overworking existing staff.

“When I hear things like that I’m always like ‘oh no, you got halfway there, and took the wrong lesson,’” Ms. McRae said. “If it is done badly – if it’s really just asking employees to take on more work without compensating them accordingly – then it’s not going to be successful, and will just lead to higher attrition, which will only make the situation worse.”

To engage in the right kind of quiet hiring Ms. McRae advises organizations to start by mapping out their strategic priorities, and identifying the additional skills or roles that will be required to reach those goals.

“Then you need to figure out who within the organization might be able to do the work, either with a little bit of upskilling, or right out of the box,” she said. “Sometimes that’s easier said than done, because one of the bigger challenges organizations have with work-force planning is knowing what skills they even have in their work force.”

Ms. McRae advises working with managers and department heads to identify potential candidates, asking employees to volunteer directly and even checking employee LinkedIn profiles for relevant work experience and skills. Ms. McRae also emphasizes the importance of keeping pay equity and DEI efforts top of mind, as moving talent around could create diversity-pipeline issues later.

“The next thing you need to be successful at this is to do some role design thought work,” Ms. McRae said. “What do you want people in this role to do? What are the tasks? What are the responsibilities?”

After identifying a potential candidate and defining the role or tasks, the next step is to engage the staff member in a constructive dialogue to determine their level of interest, what they need to be successful, and what they want in return for their efforts.

“The right way is to be open and transparent with the employee, to let them know what you’re doing, why you’re doing it, and how it will benefit them,” said Janet Candido, principal of Candido Consulting Group, a Toronto-based human-resource consultancy. “The wrong way to do it, which is not uncommon, is just to pile on the extra work.”

Ms. Candido explains that employers typically engage in quiet hiring to overcome major staffing and budgetary challenges, and it’s not uncommon for leaders to instinctively hide such challenges from their staff.

Doing so, she warns, only leaves employees guessing, and their assumptions are often worse than reality. Instead, she recommends transparency, especially when it comes to commitments and timelines.

“If you’re going to ask one person to do more it spreads their work to everyone else too, so think about the impact on the person, but also the department they’re coming from, and the one they’re going to,” she said.

Ms. Candido adds that if employers can’t afford to increase salaries, they should work with affected staff members to identify other perks, such as more vacation time, remote work, or other forms of non-monetary compensation.

“Workers, especially younger ones, are very focused on work-life balance, so if you’re asking them to increase their work, you can do something to help on the life side,” she said.

While the trend may be somewhat new in Canada, Ms. Candido says that, given the current economic landscape and employment market trends, it’s one that’s likely to last.

“It’s just starting to happen,” she said. “I do think it will become more prevalent in Canada.”