Quiet Hiring & The Age of Automation
Like so many things, the modern office is in a constant state of flux. So too must we be in flux, ready for imminent change around the next corner. This isn’t to say that we should abandon the stability gained by recent work-life flexibility movements. Rather, to maintain stability, we must prepare for perpetual fluidity.
Conveyed here by Dr. Nathaneal Fast, artificial intelligence and automation have become increasingly prevalent in our professional lives. We use modern technologies for monitoring productivity or for assistance with a variety of tasks. As L&D researcher Josh Bersin observes, we soon may even turn to technology to interview and hire employees for us.
As technology evolves, so too must we evolve with it. The fairly recent–and cringeworthy–buzz term for employee evolution is “Quiet Hiring.” Seen in the above video, quiet hiring is simply the upskilling or reskilling of current team members. Sometimes, in the case of upskilling, this is done to facilitate the adoption of new technology into current roles. Or, in the case of reskilling, it’s to help our teams develop entirely new skills around current organizational needs.
Though the term “quiet hiring” might be new, the practice is certainly anything but. For years, many organizations have offered continual education programs, sometimes even including reimbursement or full coverage of college tuition. Expressed here by the National Bureau of Economic Research, these continual growth programs are advantageous for organizations and employees alike. Through these programs, employees can expand into new opportunities, usually within the same organization.
Continual expansion of our abilities is crucial in the volatile world of work. In the above TED Talk, consultant Viputheshwar Sitaraman warns against the pitfalls of complacency, especially in this new age of automation. As artificial intelligence develops more creative abilities, we would be remiss to not similarly expand our own skills. We must grow with our technology.
Continual growth births continual value, not just for our organizations, but for ourselves.
“What you were taught 10-20 years ago is fast becoming obsolete. Upskill yourself and recreate your world.”
― Nicky Verd
Author
by Faraz Gafoor
Faraz Gafoor is a content strategist, writer, and human-data aficionado. His passion for scientific analysis of everything—from the presentation of data to the way we communicate—is driven by a deep love of understanding how we process and make sense of our surroundings. His curiosity and a never-ending search for prolific and poetic perfection poignantly fit his Prism Personality of a double Scientist.
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