How to Identify and Manage Overqualified Candidates

As Malaysia enters recovery mode, hiring managers are facing another hiring problem: how to manage overqualified candidates?

It's getting harder to find top talent these days. Therefore an employer can't just turn these candidates away.

What do the experts say?

According to a researcher, recruiters are always hesitant to recruit overqualified candidates because of several presumed risks. They assume that the person will be bored and unmotivated so they will underperform or leave. But according to her research, these risks are not as high as they are perceived to be. In her study, sales associates who were thought to be overqualified performed better.

She said that overqualified employees rarely move on simply because they feel they're too good for the job; they stay or leave because of the working conditions.

Here are a few things to consider next time you are looking at copies of very impressive resumes.

Principles to keep in mind

Do:

Think about your company and its overall talent needs now and in the future
Consider how you could support a promising candidate's skill set by developing the job role
Onboard carefully and be honest about your plans for the new hire

Don't:

Narrowly define the hiring process as finding one person for one role
Confuse education and experience with skills. A candidate with a lot of experience still may not have the capabilities to do the job
Try to underpay an overqualified candidate.

Overqualified employees rarely move on simply because they feel they're too good for the job.

1. Overqualified or over-experienced?

Please don't assume someone is overqualified based on a quick screen of their resume. Many people misunderstood the meaning of overqualified, it means "meeting and exceeding the skill requirements of the job". Just because a candidate has a lot of education doesn't mean they're overqualified. This goes for the experience too.

It is wise to learn more about the candidate before you choose to pass. There may be reasons why they are interested in your open position, maybe they want to change industries, move to a new place, or get better work/life balance.

2. Think bigger than the job in question

If you think a candidate is overqualified, ask yourself "is there room to expand the role and make use of the skill they bring?"

In today's world, we need to do more than just filling open positions. We should also consider the talent opportunities that we have. Try to find the jobs that will be created or open for them, in the larger organisation.

Overqualified candidates can mentor others, challenge coworkers to exceed their expectations, and bring in areas of expertise that are not represented at your company.

3. Bring them on carefully

If you wish to hire overqualified candidates, you should have an effective onboarding program. If not, these top talents will leave, especially if their expectations are unmet.

Be clear with yourself, the new employee, and the rest of the organisation about what the job entails, as well as what it could become. It would help if you had a clear plan for the future, whether you're thinking of a promotion or a new project. Think and discuss beyond the early stage where the employee may be temporarily underused.

Overqualified candidates can actually help your company.

There's also an issue of a manager that feels threatened by the overqualified employee. Managers fear if they could not supervise the employee effectively. A superior with less experience than the new employee might be worried that the person will take their job, make them look bad, or be too hard to manage. This is not reason enough to say no.

What managers should do is to focus on the candidate's future. If the boss feels insecure, they should not bring the new employee without a plan to promote them soon.

4. Pay them their worth

It might be tempting to offer a lower salary since the market is on the recovery mode, but this is a bad strategy. Do not underpay an overqualified candidate. We need to reward employees in a way which is reasonably proportional to their effort and contribution, and fair.

If the candidate is as good as you think, you will compete with other employers for them. If you can't afford them, it's better to pass than to underpay. If they want the job anyway, have an honest conversation about their prospects in terms of promotion and compensation so that they fully understand what they're getting into.

Source: Harvard Business Review

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