How to Hire Quietly 🤫

Amid economic uncertainty, rather than going for layoffs or a hiring freeze, some companies are opting for a more stealthy approach to staffing: Quiet hiring.

This approach is a way for companies to be more cautious and selective about their hiring, but also to ensure that they have the talent they need in case of a downturn.

Rather than filling old roles or creating new ones, quiet hiring is about addressing an acute immediate need. The idea is to prioritize the most crucial business functions at a given time. This could mean temporarily mixing up the roles of current employees or, for companies with fewer movable employees, hiring short-term contractors to help their internal teams and keep their business moving.

To ensure that current and new employees feel valued, and effectively master quiet hiring, business leaders can work to clearly articulate why the specific initiative is so crucial to the company’s success—and even to the employee’s personal career goals.

CHANGE MAKERS

How to Dismantle Subtle Sexism at Work—While Still Crushing It Professionally

Ever hear a comment at work that feels subtly sexist and incredibly awkward?

Angelique Bellmer Krembs knows the feeling all too well. She spent over two decades leading brand and portfolio marketing at PepsiCo, and comments like that piled up high enough that she and five of her colleagues decided to write a book about it. You Should Smile More: How to Dismantle Gender Bias in the Workplace has the answer to a very tricky question: how to deal with the subtle, real-life sexism that takes place in the office.

Casually sexist language is tricky precisely because it’s casual. The person saying it often doesn’t even realize what they’re doing. Krembs was once in a meeting where a male senior executive referred to an award-winning scientist as “the girl in the data department.” As much as she wanted to be ready with an appropriate correction—“you mean, the woman in the data department”—in the moment she froze.

It’s not easy! But with people like Krembs and books like this, we can be a little more prepared to handle all the subtle, awkward ways that sexism infiltrates corporate life.

Krembs just joined A.Team as our CMO-in-Residence, so we set up a Zoom call to dig into the best techniques she’s developed over the years for rooting out gender bias while still crushing it professionally.

This is the first of our new Change Makers interview series at MISSION: Insights from the people solving the biggest problems in the world through innovation.

CHART OF THE WEEK

Underrepresented Talent Hit Hardest in Tech Layoffs

The tech sector led layoffs in 2022 with more than 154,000 employees losing their jobs—but new data show that the layoffs have not been distributed evenly across all groups of workers.

According to a report from Revelio Labs, women and Latino workers represented 46.64% and 11.49%, respectively, of the tech layoffs from September to December 2022, while those segments make up only 39.09% and 9.96% of the industry’s workforce.

Layoffs risk further disrupting diversity pledges that many tech companies have made in recent years, such as Meta's commitment to doubling the number of Black and Hispanic employees in its U.S. workforce and doubling the number of women in its global workforce by 2024.

For underrepresented talent in tech, the layoffs also mean increased competition for entry-level roles as experienced workers settle for those jobs.

MISSION MUST READS

Why Fractional Teams Are the Secret to Hiring in 2023

There’s a new model for bringing in talent to accelerate product development while cutting fixed costs: fractional teams. 

Freelancers Are Happier With Their Pay Than Everyone Else

Feeling underpaid? More Americans are finding financial satisfaction and professional autonomy in freelance work. Being kind and willing to help others is more important than showing off one's skills or knowledge.

The Surprising Thing That Smart People Get Backwards About Trust

Being kind and willing to help others is more important than showing off one's skills or knowledge.

PARTING TWEET