A new hiring trend that prefers part-time employees and contract workers to fill gaps in specialized skills is set to dominate in 2023, according to labor market researchers.
In 2022, trends such as quiet quitting, quiet firing, and fast quitting were new issues employers and employees had to adjust to in their work environments. Companies are countering with the latest strategy — quiet hiring.
Emily Rose McRae, a researcher with Gartner, told CNBC that a new trend called quiet hiring is set to help organizations thrive by finding qualified workers without the expense of hiring full-time employees.
Quiet hiring can be an internal or external phenomenon. Internal quiet hiring is when employees may be asked to temporarily move to other roles or take on different assignments within their existing organization, while external quiet hiring is when HR managers prefer onboarding contract or part-time workers to keep their organization running without employing and training additional full-time workers.
“The reality for the next year is — whether or not we go into a recession — everyone’s a little nervous,” McRae said. “In a lot of cases, organizations are not necessarily doing a hiring freeze or layoffs but maybe slowing down a little bit on their hiring.
“The talent shortage that we talked about throughout 2022 hasn’t gone away,” McRae added. “So, you’re in a situation where it’s harder to get head count, and you have a desperate need for talent.”
Google is one major company that has utilized the strategy to avoid quiet quitting, when employees do not commit to extra work, or quiet firing, when employers treat their employees so poorly they simply leave.
According to Inc. Magazine, Google‘s recruitment strategy looks first at existing employees to assess whether they are a better fit for certain specialties or responsibilities. Existing employees are given a position they want or believe they will be more successful in, helping Google save money on recruiting, on-boarding, and training.
Those looking for hybrid remote or fully remote gigs could also benefit from the quiet hiring trend, as it allows workers to offer specialized talent to more than one organization. It also enables HR departments to generate growth and save on costs such as full-time benefits.
McRae added that organizations are turning to existing employees to fill immediate roles, making it easier for workers to ask for a promotion or be coached to broaden their specialized skills.
“This is a really good chance for employees to sit down and say to their managers, their HR people, and the company as a whole, ‘Yeah, I’m willing to do this. Let’s talk about what this means for my career,'” McRae said.
