Quiet hiring refers to a recent HR trend which consists in allocating existing employees to other roles, recruiting short-time workers, or using external resources rather than hiring full-time employees. As its name suggests, quiet hirers do not promote the open position and the entire recruitment process is done in a confidential manner.
Although quiet hiring has been a common practice for many companies, the practice has evolved in the past few years. What are quiet hiring trends you need to consider in 2025? Here is everything you need to know.
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Companies will remain careful about hiring new employees
In 2025, many organizations will think twice before they add new talent to their full-time headcount. Companies are looking to recruit less and make better, more strategic hiring choices.
In that sense, quiet hiring is a great way to either “hire” someone you already know is competent and culturally aligned with your company values or to try out short-term workers before you officially open up a new position. It can be an interesting strategy if you want to be more careful in your recruiting practices while reducing recruitment costs and risks of mis-hires and disappointments.
Quiet hiring will remain a good option for companies that cannot allocate a lot of resources toward recruiting efforts. It is undoubtedly to be a major recruitment trend in 2025 and for many years to come.
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Quiet hiring is still seen as a response to quiet quitting
You might have already heard that quiet hiring has expanded to counter recent increases in quiet quitting, which refers to workers slowly losing interest and motivation in their jobs until they are completely unproductive and checked out from their responsibilities.
Considering that career stagnation is one of the top reasons behind quiet quitting, quiet hiring is indeed a strategy that can reduce the rate of quiet quitting situations in your organization. Moreover, when you “quiet hire” inside your own company, you can consider that the employee already relates to your culture, values and mission, so there are fewer risks of disengagement and quiet quitting in most cases.
However, quiet hiring is not the magic quick fix to quiet quitting. The role you offer in this context still needs to fit with the employee’s ambitions, professional development plan and skills set. Of course, it is important to provide support and guidance to workers that have been quiet hired. Considering that they take on new responsibilities and tasks, they need to be trained to do their job in the best conditions.
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Workers are generally open but wary when it comes to quiet hiring
If workers are generally open to quiet hiring opportunities (8 out of 10 employees say they find the concept interesting), they are wary of situations where they are only given more work without getting more recognition or benefits. If most of them see that quiet hiring can lead to skill learning opportunities, they are also careful about what it could mean for the company – financial issues, stunted growth, managerial challenges, etc.
This wariness comes from experience: half of the employees who have been quiet hired have landed in roles that did not match their skill sets or ambitions. If employers want to set up successful quiet hiring practices, they need to consider each employee’s personal ambition and skills. When it comes to external quiet hiring, effective recruitment practices need to be put in place so that every hire brings something truly unique to the table.
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Issues of pay equity and compensation are likely to arise
Although this issue is often overlooked, you must remember that quiet quitting can come with total compensation and pay equity challenges. Think about how you want to treat internal quiet hiring: should these cases be considered as promotions or re-allocations? Should the employee’s salary align with their new coworkers’ wages? Frustrations and feelings of injustice may arise if you do not have pay equity policies in place.
Of course, total compensation also needs to be aligned with “regular” hires so that quiet hiring remains conducive to employee engagement and development and is not a major cause of quiet quitting or decreased productivity.
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Companies need to diversify their skills now more than ever
In order to remain competitive in an increasingly ruthless work market, employers need to diversify their skills (artificial intelligence related, new technologies, soft skills adapted to new expectations and hybrid work environments, etc).
This diversification of skills is not always attainable with quiet hiring. As such, you need to find a balance between the potential benefits of quiet hiring and the strengths of traditional recruiting. Top-notch recruitment processes need to be implemented to find the best talent that will bring skills that truly support business growth and success. When quiet hiring, you also need to carefully consider individual skills and the strategic reasons behind each quiet hire.
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Artificial intelligence is reshaping the way we work – and the way we quiet hire
We mentioned the importance of skill diversification in future years. This need comes in great part from the rise and expansion of artificial intelligence and the major impact it has on our work habits and processes. In the next few years, soft skills and specific hard skills related to AI tools will be increasingly in demand, and new positions related to the use of artificial intelligence will also arise.
Therefore, employers and recruiters need to stay on the lookout to open up new positions when it is necessary and look for skills that will really make a difference in the company, whether they are quiet hiring or starting traditional recruitment processes. All in all, recruiters will be more selective and need to make strategic choices to avoid mis-hires and the risk of opening potentially new positions that will potentially be useless in the short term.
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Quiet hiring is definitely here to stay. Depending on your organizational context, it can offer many benefits to your company and its productivity, on top of providing development opportunities to your current employees. However, employers need to implement more effective and strategic quiet hiring practices. Above all, quiet hiring needs to consider individual skill sets, business goals, and personal ambitions in order to be efficient in the long run. This will ensure that your quiet hiring does not result in decreased productivity and, ultimately, quiet quitting.
