FIghting Against the Quiet Riot: 3 Ways That Workday Users Can Minimize Quiet Quitting

Is anyone else feeling the summer doldrums? A few weeks into school summer break and a lot of people around me are mentioning they’re feeling tired or a little unmotivated. And, of course, that’s fair given everything on most plates these days. 

But extended periods of exhaustion on the job can also lead to employee disengagement, and a new trend you might have seen in the headlines: the quiet quit (coupled, of course, with the quiet hire). 

Both of these trends have been cycling through the HR news cycles as of late, but unlike most HR fads, this is one duo that experts predict will stick around for the long haul.

Quiet What? 

Before diving into the latest quiet quitting and quiet hiring trends, let’s level by defining the two terms. I’m guessing many of you bore witness to the wave of quiet quitting articles that swelled during the pandemic, but just in case you missed it, quiet quitting refers to doing the minimum requirements of one’s job. In other words, it means putting in no more time, effort, or enthusiasm than absolutely necessary to keep a job. 

Gallup estimates that at least 50% of the U.S. workforce can be classified as quiet quitters. The trend took over after the initial stages of the COVID-19 pandemic when burnout was at an all-time high and employee engagement at an all-time low. Then comes quiet hiring. 

Quiet hiring, on the other hand, describes the practice of training current employees to cover key roles or outsourcing critical projects to contract workers. The concept of quiet hiring hinges on the idea that a business can add new skills and fill gaps without actually hiring new full-time employees. 

Instead, the focus turns to the current team to fill in-demand positions, as there’s a good chance their desired skill set already exists in-house. Although the concept of upskilling workers isn’t new, firms popularized the official term“quiet hiring” back in the latter half of 2022, in response to the competitive job market and limited budgets. 

More specifically, internal quiet hiring means current employees might temporarily move to other roles or take on different assignments within the organization. This saves the firm time and money by reducing recruitment costs and limiting new hire headcount, while also raising employee engagement and rewarding high performers with exciting new growth opportunities. 

If that sounds similar to Employee Retention and Succession Planning, you’re right on target. Succession planning is one method that teams can use to put quiet hiring into practice. Keep reading to learn other ways to embrace quiet hiring in order to increase employee engagement and maximize retention. 

How to Use Quiet Hiring to Minimize Quiet Quitting 

As we’ve mentioned, internal quiet hiring involves preparing and developing in-house talent to take on new roles and responsibilities in the organization. While it sounds straightforward in theory, we find that the most successful quiet hiring plans work carefully to place employees in roles that are exciting and relevant to them. 

Below are four of our favorite ways that teams can dip their toe into quiet hiring practice: 

• Temporarily re-assign an employee to a new role
• Internal mobility programs 
• Job rotation programs
• Short-term side projects (gigs)

Leveraging these steps to keep employees engaged – even when personal pressures might be pulling them in different directions, can make a world of difference by showing your teams that you’re invested in their growth. 

Of course, any new engagement rollout strategy must be aligned with manager coaching and listening. Because rolling out new assignments in months when your team is stretched at every level isn’t going to net out the results the program is intended to solve. 

Leverage Technology [Workday!] to Enable More Quiet Hiring 

Exclusively focused on the Workday platform, we have three recommendations to help your teams better leverage the cloud-based platform to help your organization manage your workforce effectively. 

While Workday software cannot directly address quiet quitting and quiet hiring, it does offer several valuable features that help teams address the core issues surrounding quiet quitting: employee disengagement, communication silos, and limited development opportunities.

1. Employee engagement and sentiment analysis [Peakon]

First, Workday helps organizations track employee engagement and satisfaction, enabling teams to proactively identify and correct potential issues before they lead to employee turnover. By unlocking insights into employee sentiments, Workday’s robust surveys and feedback tools help employers address problems before it’s too late.

2. Career Hub and Talent marketplace to facilitate hiring and limit quitting

Next, Workday streamlines communication between managers and employees, so that employees can quickly and easily voice concerns or feedback to managers. Workday’s performance management tools and goal setting maintain clear job expectations so that all team members have a deep understanding of their career development plans, and can measure their growth against their goals. Further leveraging Career Hub and Talent Marketplace provides exposure and experience through gigs to develop new career pathing opportunities.

3. VIBE and succession planning 

Finally, Workday helps employers implement more inclusive and diverse hiring practices, which in turn reduces the likelihood of quiet quitting. With job posting templates that emphasize the importance of diversity and inclusion, as well as candidate tracking tools that allow employers to monitor and address potential biases in their hiring process, Workday helps teams to diversify their HR processes, making the entire organization a more inclusive, welcoming space. 

While Workday’s current software cannot directly address quiet quitting and quiet hiring, it’s a great solution for teams seeking a range of tools and features to build a more engaged, diverse, and transparent workforce.

Improving Employee Experience and Tapping into Engagement 

Some critics of quiet hiring complain that it’s a way for organizations to ask more of their employees without fairly compensating them. This can be true in cases where firms aren’t partnering with their team members to place them on projects and in roles that are interesting and relevant to their professional passions. That said, employees have much to gain from quiet quitting. 

Gartner HR published research back in 2021, reporting that 58% of the workforce needs new skills to complete their work responsibilities – and that the total number of skills required for a single job has increased by 10% Y/Y since 2017. Quiet hiring enables workers to remain competitive candidates in the job market, while also helping individuals increase their value to their employer so that they are less likely to be affected by recent layoffs. 

Quiet quitting is most often a result of burnout and disengagement among employees. When implemented correctly, quiet hiring can be a thoughtful way for teams to move into a new era of work: one that supports the organization at large and the development and engagement of individual employees. 

Want to learn more about how Workday can help upskill your team and increase engagement and retention? Sign up to talk with one of our HR experts today.