Leadership Coaching: Should You Hire Overqualified Workers?
Are you going to jump at an offer the exceeds your expectations for the same price? Putting this in the business scenario, let’s say your outsourcing vendor offers to staff your team with only level 2 agents if you renew your contract for another year. And the (good) thing is that your team is getting a combination of level 1 and level 2 agents at the moment. The vendor’s offer comes at the same price. Should you go for it?
You would apparently say that the best thing to do is accept the improvement, especially because it wouldn’t cost you more. But some managers are actually reluctant to hire people who have more talent and experience than what the job requires even if they can get them for the same price. These kinds of workers are termed as “overqualified workers”- they have a more extensive and impressive resume than what the manager expects. Typically, HR screens out resumes of overqualified candidates and they never make it to hiring manager’s desk. This is clearly a disadvantage to the willing applicant, and even to the company as well. Such candidates would never have the opportunity to prove that they are the best fit for the job and the manager might end up passing up somebody who could have done the job well right from day one. Instead, they hire a less qualified worker and spend more resources for training.
Nonetheless, there are managers that do no like to hire overqualified workers. Here are some reasons, some valid and some not in certain cases.
Reasons Why Managers Don’t Hire Overqualified Workers
It’s more expensive. Employees with above level skills know how much they can contribute, that’s why they would sometimes ask for a higher salary.
They’re hard to train. Workers with more skills and experience might want to do things their own way than stick to usual office proceedings. Make this clear during the interview process. Ask them if they’re amenable and adjusting to your culture. Dump the candidate if he/she insists doing things their way. However, if they say they can offer valuable suggestions while at the same time keep to company rules, then it’s okay.
They will be bored. Being more skilled and experienced, working could become less challenging for them, and eventually boring.
They might leave when things improve. This is a possibility for both regular and overqualified workers, though. The management then should make means to make employees feel appreciated and motivated so they will stay with the company.