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A new phenomenon appeared in 2023 and it’s dubbed ‘quiet hiring’.
Ahead of our September HR Roundtable “Powering up on Productivity”, a recent article in HRM online (a valuable resource for us HR type) caught our eye.
“Is ‘quiet hiring’ the secret to boosting productivity and staff retention”?
Written by Paula Brown, the article puts the focus on organisations bringing in new skills from their existing workforce rather than bringing in new hires.
The antithesis to ‘quiet quitting’
To understand quiet hiring, we need to mention quiet quitting.
The trend of ‘quiet quitting’ came to light late in 2022, as a sizeable number of employees (particularly younger demographics) actively professed to be doing the bare minimum required to retain their jobs, and forgoing all tasks beyond their assigned duties.
Quiet hiring is simply offering more varied tasks and responsibilities to current employees.
A more varied range of tasks and responsibilities can potentially boost employee morale, provide a more stimulating and rewarding workplace environment and reduce attrition rates.
It appears more people are open to quiet hiring than against it. The article states that 63 per cent of workers are amenable to the idea, believing it a good opportunity to expand their skill sets.
Critically, a more engaged and fulfilled workforce will naturally impact both customer experience and operational efficiency and productivity.
The capacity conundrum
Stagnation in productivity is one of the biggest challenges facing Australian businesses today. Capacity is being squandered, and employers are not getting the most out of their current staff.
A recent study by ActiveOps revealed that almost a third (62 per cent) of Australian and New Zealand operations professionals recognise that there is spare capacity, but don’t know where it is or how to access it.
The problem stems from teams working in traditional structures and in silos focused on specific areas of a business. Since they do not have the flexibility or the capability to move workloads between teams, they struggle to cope with fluctuations and are unable to share the load. The same study found more than half of organisations (59 per cent) recognise they need to cross-skill or upskill as they weather the current economic turmoil.
The first step in quiet hiring is to identify the roadblocks and capacity issues across your organisation.
Brown goes on to say “Only by collating and analysing data on current capacity can leaders truly tackle workload balance issues at the root.”
“If organisations embrace this latest ‘quiet’ trend and move to operational structures where teams share a broader range of skills, they will make themselves more agile and better placed not just to survive, but to thrive, despite the current economic challenges.”
Paula Brown is Head of Operations and Group Operations Risk at ActiveO.
Further reading at HRM “Is ‘quiet hiring’ the secret to boosting productivity and staff retention“?
Harvest is hosting “Powering Up On Productivity” Geelong Harvest HR Roundtable 6 September, 2023. All are welcome to attend.
