HR experts say quiet hiring is to prioritize crucial business functions at a given time.
While 2021 gave the world ‘The Great Resignation’ and 2022 gave rise to the term ‘Quiet Quitting’, 2023, less than two weeks in, has made HR executives go weak in the knees at the mention of ‘Quiet Hiring’.
Quiet hiring involves employees taking on other roles within the organization. For instance, if there is a workforce shortage to complete a job due to the sudden resignation of an employee, another employee from another division with knowledge of the task is “quickly transferred internally” to temporarily fill the role.
“Earlier, this process used to be known as restructuring, and this is the first and quickest explanation of the term,” said RP Yadav, CMD, of Genius Consultants, an HR consultancy firm.
Secondly, he said the term is also applicable when the company hires people temporarily from outside to complete the task or project at hand. A third instance is when an organization restructures by permanently transferring employees from one division to another to handle a manpower crisis.
Yadav believes “quiet hiring” has been practiced by Indian organizations for a long time under the guise of “restructuring,” but the intensity has increased because of sudden manpower shortages in light of recent trends.
HR experts say quiet hiring is to prioritize crucial business functions at a given time.HR experts say quiet hiring is to prioritize crucial business functions at a given time.
While 2021 gave the world ‘The Great Resignation’ and 2022 gave rise to the term ‘Quiet Quitting’, 2023, less than two weeks in, has made HR executives go weak in the knees at the mention of ‘Quiet Hiring’.
Quiet hiring involves employees taking on other roles within the organization. For instance, if there is a workforce shortage to complete a job due to the sudden resignation of an employee, another employee from another division with knowledge of the task is “quietly transferred internally” to temporarily fill the role.
“Earlier, this process used to be known as restructuring and this is the first and quickest explanation of the term,” said RP Yadav, CMD, of Genius Consultants, an HR consultancy firm.
Secondly, he said the term is also applicable when the company hires people temporarily from outside to complete the task or project at hand. A third instance is when an organization restructures by permanently transferring employees from one division to another to handle a manpower crisis.
Yadav believes ‘Quiet Hiring’ has been practiced by Indian organizations for a long time under the guise of “restructuring” but the intensity has increased because of sudden manpower shortages in light of recent trends.
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Of the total vacancy, Genius Consultants has observed that 15-20 percent of the workforce is filled through ‘Quiet Hiring’, particularly in medium and large-scale organizations.
The impact
HR experts say quiet hiring is to prioritize crucial business functions at a given time. Meaning, role enhancement or rotating employees internally is one way of quiet hiring. However, shifting employees internally has the potential to create resentment in specialist roles and make them feel undervalued, which, in turn, might trigger them to see the move as a sign to start looking for a new job,” Suman Kumar Ghosh, Head of HR at Bajaj Electricals, told Moneycontrol.
But it remains a fact that without reacting through quiet hiring, many companies would be forced to increase hiring. The initiative’s success rests on how it is presented to employees. Employers cannot be quiet about ‘quiet hiring’, said Ghosh. “An announcement of a change is not enough as employers should be able to clearly articulate what the initiative means for their company.
Organizations that have internal career advancement programs can be said to be already practicing quiet hiring since they intend to fill higher management roles from the existing cadre.
“In terms of statistics, functions such as Product Management and Consulting have internal mobility rates of over 20 percent in India, indicating that domestic companies are adept at employing quiet hiring based on functional needs,” said Girish Rowjee, Co-Founder and CEO, of Greytip Software, an HRMS company based in Bangalore.
