How EPM Solutions Can Prevent ‘Quiet Hiring’
You’ve heard of quiet quitting - when an employee disengages from their job, doing the least work possible - but are you familiar with its counterpart, quiet hiring?
Gartner defines quiet hiring as “the practice of an organization acquiring new skills without hiring new full-time employees” and listed it as its top work trend of 2023. It’s a cost-effective way for businesses to get the talent they need without going through the time and expense of hiring a new, full-time team member.
Businesses choose to quiet hire for many different reasons, but the most common is to address urgent skill gaps, support other employees, and/or fill a position in the short-term while searching for a long-term replacement. In an environment where talent is in short supply and resources are increasingly stretched, quiet hiring is often a business’ best option.
Taking on new contractors comes with challenges, however, and top of mind for many organizations is the question of how to monitor their work without set deliverables in place.
Employee Productivity Monitoring (EPM) can help. Tracking an employee’s interaction with core business tools paints a picture of how, when, and where they’re working - giving managers much-needed insights into their contractor’s performance and behaviors.
How Employee Productivity Monitoring Solutions Support Quiet Hiring
Taking on new contractors is always daunting. Managers can take a lot of guesswork out of the equation by ensuring they have complete visibility into how their new hires are spending their workday - even if those new employees are working remotely.
EPM platforms surface data around how individuals are using cloud-based business applications. This data is used to create individual and team productivity scores which can be tracked over time to pinpoint patterns and trends.
Using the easy-to-navigate Prodoscore interface, team leaders can spot any red flags in real time so they can respond promptly to anything that might disrupt workflows. If a contractor isn’t pulling their weight or not using their tech tools effectively, managers will know about it.
One of the biggest challenges in quiet hiring is communication. External contractors aren’t always confident enough to speak up when they hit a roadblock or need extra training. Using an EPM means they don’t have to - managers can readily identify these issues just from watching the data. This kind of unobtrusive oversight fosters transparency, accountability, and greater employee engagement.
It also removes the need for unnecessary check-ins and evaluations. It’s tempting to schedule numerous one-on-ones with your new hires as you get to know them, but these can quickly become a hindrance rather than a help.
The data produced by EPM gives managers a heads up before they start blocking off their calendars. With actionable insights around engagement productivity, they’ll know when to schedule a meeting to course correct and when that meeting would just be a waste of time.
Speed is a major consideration in quiet hiring. Companies are generally looking to plug urgent skill gaps as soon as possible. Meetings, training, and onboarding all take up valuable time that ramps up the pressure on an already overstretched workforce.
With EPM, new hires can hit the ground running. Training is customized to their needs, meetings are kept to a minimum, and managers can closely monitor their performance from day one.
Prodoscore’s actionable insights are ideal for helping senior staff ensure that quiet hiring policies meet their organization’s operational needs and drive growth.
