What does Quiet Hiring mean?

Before understanding what quiet hiring means, you have to understand what quiet quitting is. Quiet quitting refers to the trend of workers taking a stand against being overworked by their employers and establishing a healthy work-life balance. Quiet hiring refers to the opposite. When an employer notices that you’re doing well at your job and doing extra work not required by your role, your employer slowly pushes more work by your way. But the employer does not pay you for that extra amount of work you are doing.

Companies may quietly hire by promoting internal staff, hiring contractors/freelancers, and reassigning existing employees. This trend is getting great traction in 2025. So, there is a strong possibility that your next job will never get posted online. 

Why Are Companies Quietly Hiring?

Quiet hiring has become a trend mostly because of economic uncertainties, the inability to hire and pay new employees, and the rising need to be fast in a business environment. Quiet hiring is a good practice because many companies are hiring employees based on their skills. Therefore, some positions can be filled by upskilling or reskilling employees already in the company rather than looking externally. This approach to hiring is flexible for employers, because they can shift talent quickly without a long onboarding. They can manage risks by testing candidates in a freelance/contract role first. Then decide to keep them on board by looking at their progress and quality of work. 

What Does Quiet Hiring Look Like?

1. Internal promotions and role changes: Employees are moved into new positions that better align with their skills and the needs of the company better. This involves expansion of responsibilities, additional work, and possibly overtime work. Often, employees who take these responsibilities are given incentives, bonuses, and overtime pay. They can take extra time off for the additional work they do at the company.
2. Contract employees: Some companies give the responsibility to another company or agency that employs people to take on this additional work. An employee who works in a contractor company is not considered an employee of the main company. Therefore, if they get underpaid, they can handle this only through the contractor company and not the main company. Many events of wage theft can occur in this scenario.
3. Freelance contract to full-time work: Some companies hire employees as freelancers. As freelancers, you can choose the hours of work. But later on, the company takes you on as a full-time worker.
4. Short-term work: Sometimes you get to work on a short-term project for a company. The company may have reached out to you via LinkedIn.
5. Landing jobs through referrals: You can get a job while socializing with fellow workers in the industry and get a job through recommendations or referrals.

How Job Seekers Can Tap into Quiet Hiring

1. Put skills into focus

People are more than just their roles. No job description can fully describe an employee’s skills, interests, goals, and expertise. Companies use many tools and platforms to keep an eye on current trends in much-needed skills. They constantly watch the talent marketplace. Therefore, it is important for you to optimize your LinkedIn with keywords and clear expertise. So that employers can see whether you have what they are looking for.

2. Network intentionally

You should let people in your social network know that you are open to short-term project-based work. An ideal way to do this is by posting your needs, skills, and past experiences in detail on your LinkedIn profile.

3. Upskill smartly

Try to learn new skills at your workplace even if it is not your cup of tea. For instance, you may be an Arts degree holder, but there is no harm in learning programming to expand your skills. Make sure that you’re learning in-demand or rare skills. This attracts internal recruiters.

Signs a Company Might be Quietly Hiring

1. Job listings are vague, or roles disappear quickly

Sometimes job posts may not be detailed. They are brief in nature. This is done intentionally. For instance, a company may post broad titles like ‘Digital Specialist’ or ‘Business Associate’ with less details about specific responsibilities of the job. Mostly, such an action shows that the company already has someone on its mind but the post is made out of formality. Sometimes the post vanishes quickly within a day or few hours, which shows that someone had been quietly hired for the role.

2. Hiring managers may post frequently about team growth without listing jobs

For instance, some LinkedIn posts of companies mention that they are expanding their teams across several departments. But, there’s no direct link to a job post or application. This is often an invitation for referrals or passive candidates to reach out. Hiring teams may be trying to recruit without a full recruitment process.

3. Current employees share about expansion or internal restructuring

Sometimes you may come across a post suggesting the expansion of a particular team or department. It denotes that new roles may be forming, often quietly filled by internal promotions or shifting of existing employees. This creates new job opportunities that are empty and ready to be filled by another employee.

4. You’re contacted for “opportunities” without a formal job advertisement

In this case, you may be directly contacted by recruiters. They might be looking forward to having a casual conversation for a new role they need to fill. Thereby, they are testing the interest and scouting for talent for future or project-based work. This is a classic way of quietly hiring.

Be Careful about Wage Theft

You have to keep an eye out for wage theft when you are hired quietly. When you are paid hourly for your work and your employer asks you to work overtime, it is not unethical. If your employer asks you to work overtime, check the terms of the contract or employee agreement for when you have to do overtime. See how much you will be paid for overtime. For employees who get paid a monthly salary, overtime rules are not usually applied. But that doesn’t mean your employer can drop 50 hours more than your normal working hours in a week at your desk. 

Want to get hired even when there’s no job posting? Explore our career tips, resume advice, and freelance opportunities from private organisations, government ministries, or international institutions at CareerFirst.lk Your next opportunity might already be there.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. What is quiet hiring?

Quiet hiring is when a company fills roles or expands responsibilities without going through traditional hiring processes. This can involve promoting existing employees, hiring freelancers, reassigning staff, or using referrals often without posting a formal job advertisement.

2. How is quiet hiring different from quiet quitting?

Quiet quitting is when employees stop going above and beyond at work to maintain a healthier work-life balance. Quiet hiring is the opposite; employers identify high-performing employees or external talent and quietly give them more responsibilities, often without clear communication or additional compensation.

3. Why are companies using quiet hiring in 2025?

Due to economic uncertainty, hiring freezes, and the need for agility, companies are turning to quiet hiring as a cost-effective way to fill skill gaps quickly. It allows businesses to test and move talent without the long process of recruitment and onboarding.

4. What are some examples of quiet hiring?

• Promoting an employee into a new role without a job posting
• Expanding a current employee's responsibilities with or without a raise
• Hiring freelancers or contractors temporarily, then offering full-time positions
• Assigning internal staff to new short-term projects
• Hiring based on referrals instead of formal applications

5. Can quiet hiring be a good thing for employees?

Yes, if managed fairly. It can open up new career paths, fast-track promotions, and help employees grow their skill sets. However, it must be accompanied by fair compensation, workload transparency, and clear communication.