Analysis: Quiet hiring may be a new buzzword, but training and developing existing employees to do other tasks is very much an old idea
If you read the business press, it seems like there is a new buzzword every week. The buzzword of the day is "quiet hiring", the decision to train and develop existing employees to accomplish new tasks rather than seeking to hire external applicants with the knowledge and skills required. This buzzword may be new, but the idea is a very old one that refers to one of two strategies employers might follow if they require certain skills, knowledge or experience to accomplish specific tasks, to master new technology, or to complete unique projects are lacking.
These strategies are often labeled "build it" vs "buy it". Organisations can either use training and development to build skills and knowledge in the existing workforce - or they can go outside the company to acquire (buy) the skills and knowledge required. This is done by either hiring new employees or by working with contractors or consultants to accomplish specific projects.
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The "build it" strategy is best if specific knowledge or easily developed skills are needed. For example, if you acquire a new lathe in a tool shop, you might need to train one or more operators in its use. Broad and general skills, such as working effectively in teams, often take significant time and effort to develop, and programs designed to build these skills have a mixed record of success.
Some skills require such extensive training to develop that it might not be practical to develop these in-house. In the case of such skills as complex statistical analysis or obotic surgery, the "buy it" strategy sometimes seems appealing, but it comes with potential risks. While hiring consultants with specific skills can help move projects along, skilled consultants are often costly.
Hiring a new employee can bring a permanent increase in your personnel budget. If the project that required the new hire's specific skills and abilities is completed quickly, you may be stuck with an expensive addition to staff whose contributions were vital to a specific project, but which are not as necessary once that project is completed.
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Nevertheless, the business mantra "build small, buy big" is probably a reasonable one. If you need to acquire specific, easily learned knowledge or skills, it makes sense to do this through employee development. If you need to acquire knowledge or skills that take substantial time and effort to develop, it usually makes better sense to search for consultants or applicants who can bring this to the organization.
Interestingly, many companies engage in expensive and time-consuming training and development efforts to solve a problem quite different from the need to acquire new knowledge and skills. Training and development is often used as a tool to help in attracting and retaining valuable employees.
Businesses in which training and development is both ongoing and extensive may find themselves in a situation that has both benefits and risks. If large numbers of employees learn things and develop knowledge and skills that make them more effective at their jobs, the organisation is almost certain to benefit. But such training and development activities can make your employees much more competitive in the job market, and you might spend a lot of time and money developing people who eventually offer their skills and knowledge to your competitors.
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Perhaps the greatest risk that ongoing training and development poses is that it can lead to employee expectations that are difficult to fulfil. Employees who have developed useful knowledge and skills might reasonably expect that their prospects for promotion will increase as they have become more valuable to the organisation and rewards should reflect this value.
One of the worst mistakes an organisation can make is to use quiet hiring as a way of getting more difficult, complex and valuable work out of employees without rewarding them for the increased value they bring. Companies sometime assume that because they have invested time and money to develop employees, employees "owe" them something in return, such as loyalty, harder work or longer unpaid hours.
This is rarely true. Companies devote resources to training and development because it is in their interest, either directly (because valuable skills are being developed) or indirectly (because it helps them attract and retain top talent). Organisations are sometimes altruistic in their decisions. Early in its development, Google promoted the altruistic idea "Don't be Evil", something they removed from employee handbooks in 2018.
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In most cases, organisations are not investing in you solely because of altruistic concerns. Whatever you think you owe a company for the skills and knowledge you have developed, keep in mind that they invested in that training and development because it served their interests.
In the best companies, training and development can create a virtuous cycle. If you offer extensive training and development, you can find it easier to attract and retain top talent. The more you invest in training and development, the better your workforce becomes.
If this is such a winning strategy for organisations, why don’t more of them make this sort of investment? One possible explanation is that the odds that training will be effective appear to decrease once you move beyond to goal of acquiring specific knowledge or narrowly defined skills. It is difficult to develop broad skills, especially if these involve changing stable aspects of one’s personality or opinions.
If 40-plus years in education has taught me anything, it is that teaching does not always result in learning. If you are going to invest heavily in training, make sure that there is credible evidence that it works! If you want to make large-scale, wide-ranging changes in the way people behave and perform, prepare for a long and expensive program of training and development, and above all, prepare for failure. "Build small, but big" is often sound advice, and adding new people to organisations is sometimes well worth the trouble and expense if they bring something vital to your team.
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The views expressed here are those of the author and do not represent or reflect the views of RTÉ
