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Contents Overqualified Employees: What should an HR manager do with an overqualified employee?
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Overqualified Employees: What should an HR manager do with an overqualified employee?
There are two sides of every story, similar to a coin. The same is true with an overqualified employee. It can end up with either long term productive happy employee. Here is a look at what makes an employee overqualified and the pros and cons of having such an employee. What makes an Employee Overqualified?
When someone is labelled as “overqualified,” it means that they have an exceptionally more extensive and more impressive profile than the hiring manager expectations. They have a higher educational background or too many years of work experience in the organisation making the job they are applying as a demotion rather than promotion in the career ladder. In 2018 over 3,700 PhD holders, 50,000 graduates, 28,000 PGs had applied for 62 posts of
messengers in UP police, whereas the post required minimum eligibility of class V[1]. This means that these people were overqualified for the applied job. In February 2017, Stephan Rose of the Urban Institute released a study demonstrating that one in four U.S. employees with a bachelor’s degree are overqualified in their current job [2] Gallup found out that 68% of employees who are currently working believe that they are overqualified, meaning they have more education than required for the role[3].
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Millions of workers in UK are overqualified for their jobs. Sixteen percent of 16-to-64-yearolds employed had more education than what was required for their role in 2017, National Overqualification is a form of resource under-utilization, which may have implications for the individual, firm and the economy. In many developed countries, considerable portion of workers are overqualified for their jobs. Below chart shows overqualification rates among workers in selected OECD countries in 2017. Statistics Office said. It estimated overeducation/overqualification among graduates at 31%.(Bloomberg 2017)
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Pros of having an Overqualified Employee Set higher expectations for the role. Employees who are overqualified will perform their tasks more effectively and efficiently than other workers. This is beneficial for an organization because its output will be of excellent quality. Achieve a fast return on investment. While delivering superior quality output and more revenue, they take home salary that is equal to ordinary employees. Beneficial to Start-ups. As it is so fluid and challenging and efficient work ethic rubs off on fellow employees. Elevate the whole team. An overqualified employee can motivate their peers and bring up the skill set of the entire group. Reduce Management required. They are most likely to be self-motivated and require less supervision than other employees. Managers can depend on on overqualified employees to step up when needed to. Reduce training cost. They require less training when first getting started. Maturity and richness stemming from experience. The organization can benefit from the maturity and richness that the overqualified employee will provide.
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Cons of having Overqualified Employees Boredom and Dissatisfaction – Saul Fine and Baruch Nevo, in a journal The International Journal of Human Resource Management, examined the concept of cognitive overqualification and found that possession of a higher level of cognitive ability than required for a given job leads to Job Dissatisfaction and development of “negative job attitudes”.
Unsatisfactory Job Performance – In the article Forbes Coaches Council, when an employee is overqualified for a position, he tends to be complacent, bored, and approach the job on auto-pilot. Boredom and poor job performance can lead to feelings of deprivation in which the employee feels the job is boring and refuse to do work or tries to pass it off to another employee. Disrupts Employee morale – when an overqualified employee comes in, other employees may see it as a threat to their future of advancement. The organization has hired someone who can do all the work – why would they promote someone with less experience? This could drive out current employees. Too Expensive – Overqualified employees may have to be paid more for the position than they were initially intended. Difficulty in Training – An Overqualified employee is already set in his/her ways making it tougher to adapt to the organization’s specific processes and thus taking more time to train.
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How to Deal with Overqualified Employees Understand their motives If an employee is overqualified, he has probably been earning more than what the company
is offering for the role. Why did he apply then? He might be going through some circumstance in life that obliged him to look for a downgrade in his career. Asking him about the events would help the interviewer understand his motives behind taking this job. It is better to clarify his motives before. If you don’t clarify, you’re setting up for another HR blunder. Candidates working for the short-term financial purpose will probably leave as soon they get better options.
Proper questioning should be done during the interview process to the overqualified applicants to know their motives. Below are a few questions that we are supposed to ask to an overqualified candidate to determine if he is right for the organization to hire. • What is the motivation behind applying the job? • How can our company benefit from their expertise? • Is the experience they possess relevant to the requirement? • For how long have they been in search of job? • What are their long-term goals? • Are they willing to work for less salary than previously offered? • Do they understand what the job demands? • What type of managing style do they appreciate? • Is the applicant passionate about the company? • Is the person passionate about the job? 7
There is always a risk lined with hiring a new employee. Usually, hiring someone overqualified is more beneficial than risky. Even if a job candidate is overqualified, don’t
reject them. Know their motives. Be open and honest and let them know what the company is expecting if they are hired, check their references and previous employer to see if they would be a good hire. They could be the best employee the company would ever have. Engage them Differently If an employee is overqualified for a profile, he’ll get bored or complacent in that role very soon. They start doing the job on autopilot mode, which is not as productive as the
job requires. An overqualified employee must be engaged differently from others. Let him create new processes. Mentor others, and make valuable contributions. Doing this would benefit from the “overqualification” of the employee and also make him psychologically tuned into the company’s environment. Value their Advice Sincere and experienced employees genuinely want to contribute and provide value to the business. They feel restless when they sense something wrong in the business operations or the way things are being done. They don’t take the job for the salary but give necessary inputs to the business. If you have hired an overqualified candidate for the job, are you willing to listen to his advice and value his input? If not, you’d not have hired such an employee in the first place. Negotiate the perks It’s typically easier to provide flexibility in the perks added to a job than the pay itself. If you want to hire an employee who’s overqualified for the designated profile, you might not be able to compensate him with a higher salary than what’s been budgeted for it, but you may be able to give additional benefits to the employee in other ways. . For
instance, you can offer slightly greater flexibility to him than the rest of the employees regarding of working hours, assuming that senior professionals are
more autonomous in ensuring their responsibilities are met and thus don’t need to be tied up to rigorous office hours. 8
It is hard for people who’ve been working from an office/cabin to move into a desk when they change jobs. If that’s the case with your employee, you can at least make sure that their sitting place has enough space around them that lets them breathe comfortably. Taking care of these points will help you retain the employee that you hire, despite he being overqualified, and extract the benefits by letting him utilize his expertise in favor of your company.
It is best to know the motive of an overqualified candidate behind applying for a position before hiring them. Before hiring him/her, know their motivation, career plan, long-term and short-term goals, organizational culture fit, testing them on how passionate they are for working in your company, and digging up the roots of a candidate’s answer. Doing so allows the organization to ascertain whether the candidate will be a good organizational fit and won’t hamper productivity or make colleagues feel apprehensive. A special care must be
given by Start-ups towards hiring an overqualified candidate to understand his motive. When such a candidate is genuine and passionate to work for that Start-up, he or she can be a tremendous boon, while when feigned, he or she may disorder the Start-up. It’s essential for employers to think that money isn’t everything to everybody. An overqualified employee might choose o work in a role for numerous reasons. For instance, they might be willing to work in a less stressful role because they’re less motivated by money and status. By ascertaining why overqualified employees want to work for a particular job in particular organization, an organization can make wise hiring decisions that lead to productive working environment otherwise he/she would put you and your business in a tough spot down the road. Name-Shradhanand Ninnekar College-Indian Institute of Management Ranchi
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Overqualified Employees: What should an HR manager do with an overqualified employee? "Over Qualified" as the term itself implies and emphasizes the word "OVER" which means that the employee has additional training, skills, and experience than what is required for the designated job. Such individuals have additional in-depth and spectacular career profiles and knowledge than expected by the hiring manager. Overqualified workers can realize their roles not exigent enough to stay them occupied, they’ll not feel absolutely engaged in those tasks and responsibilities assigned to them as they feel their potential is much more than the assigned works which lead to Boredom and Dissatisfaction, Poor Job Performance also Disrupts Employee Morale. But it has been proven as a myth by Berrin Erdogan, Professor of Management at Portland State University. As an investigator, she studies factors related to worker engagement and retention. Her field includes relationships
between the workplace, person-job fit and anomaly, especially in the case of overqualified employees, and on-boarding new hires. The presumption is that the individual would be bored and not inspired to underperform or leave. Her research reveals, however, that these threats may be more assumed than actual. In reality, the sales associates in her research, who were considered to be over-qualified, actually performed better. And rarely do people move on simply because they believe they're too talented to do a job. People are not staying or leaving a business because of their skills. They stay or
leave due to working conditions. She also stated that there is a positive correlation between perceived over-qualification and turnover intentions. This may not be because they are bored, but because they have the expertise to leave. What Should the Managers Check before Hiring an Over Qualified Employee: •
Comprehend their motives: If the worker is overqualified, the individual is most likely been earning over what you’re planned to provide for the proposed role. Why did the individual apply for this job? Apparently, browsing some circumstance or innovate life that compelled the individual to appear for a ‘downgrade’ in career. Asking her regarding her circumstances? These would assist the HR manager to perceive the employee's motives behind taking this job. The sooner you clarify the overqualified employee's motives; the better you are in a stage to manage the employee. If not, then it would probably set you into a fault decision.
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Negotiate the perks: Having versatility within the advantages related to a position is usually better than the salary itself. If you would like to employ an overqualified associate degree worker for the chosen position, however you would not be able to provide a better monthly payment or higher compensation than what the company has budgeted for the specific job role, though, you will be able to give the worker side edges or extra benefits in various ways. For
example, you could offer flexibility in terms of working hours for them as the senior professionals are more independent in ensuring their responsibilities are completing them on time. Valuing their Suggestions and Advices: Sincere and experienced employees would feel restless if they sense anything wrong in a business’s operation. They don’t simply work in the mind-set to earn at the tip of every month. They really wish to contribute and supply price, and therefore the first step for them to do is to spot the issues that exist within the company’s procedures. If the HR manager hired an employee who is really overqualified for the work, square measure you willing to concentrate on her recommendation and price her input. If not, you would possibly not offer the work to the individual in the first place. What Measures does an HR manager do with an overqualified employee: •
To keep overqualified staff engaged, enable additional autonomy, and assign them additional inventive assignments. Delegate longer-term comes or have them collaborate with different groups inside the corporate. Though, be conscious that this could produce even additional ill will within the team towards the perceived overqualified staff.
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Discuss with the team why some individuals are chosen for those special assignments for proper team dynamics so as the overqualified too gel up with the team.
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Work along with the human resources employees and facilitate the overqualified staff chart out personalized methods for ascension the company ladder and reach their potential. Find ways in which to assist the overqualified employees to acquire new skills and find exposure to alternative elements of the organization. Coach them to use for roles that probably don't nevertheless warrant their expertise and experience.
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Expand the leadership capabilities of overqualified employees by assigning training, coaching,
and mentoring responsibilities. 11
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When a hired employee is overqualified for a grip, the individual may get bored or rather self-satisfied in this role in no time. The standard means for individuals to sort out this problem of self-complacency is to begin doing the duty on autopilot, which is not as productive as the job requires. If you've got employed an overqualified worker, engage and have interaction along with the employee differently from others. Let the individual produce new processes, mentor others, or create alternative added contributions. Doing this would not only let you benefit from the additional talent you've got employed, however conjointly make the individual psychologically tuned into the corporate atmosphere.
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If overqualified employees interact and work with others at their level that is a similarly talented coworker, that can keep those employees around.
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If overqualified staff feel valued by the corporate and management, they’re conjointly a lot of probably to remain that is by providing appreciation to the employee. And if workers have chosen to figure at jobs wherever they're clearly overqualified for a few reasons not associated with the particular job that produces a distinction too.
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Researchers find that the sense of over-qualification can be significantly minimized by dynamically modifying the job climate to give the overqualified individual a great deal of autonomy.
However as an optimistic hand, such over-qualified individuals might provide business with extra and additional talent at a lower cost which would benefit the economy of the organization than they otherwise could acquire while it seems that employers benefit vastly if they hire overqualified employees like Brings Expertise to the Role, Out Performs Co-Workers and Willingness to Step Up. It shows that there are advantages and also drawbacks additionally as blessings on hiring an overqualified employee. Good managers, however, welcome overqualified employees. They perceive that thus on induce promoted; they have to possess someone ready to take over their job. These managers welcome overqualified employees as results of they perceive these staff will manufacture them look wise and unit a stepping stone to their own promotion. An overqualified worker, though only for a year or two, can produce major contributions every in term of personal output and of mentoring different employees inside the cluster. The good news is that if they are managed at the correct means these employees can become fast-forwarded entities to the company’s growth and prosperity. 12
Hiring over-qualified applicants will help you achieve much higher efficiency, growth, and prospects that you might not even be dreaming about exploring right now. Over-qualified people may have a lot of opinions on how things should be handled differently, and they can feel disappointed if they are not listened to. Encourage all workers to come up with suggestions to enhance productivity – many of these ideas are likely to come from over-qualified staff that would, in turn, support the organization. These employees can mentor others, challenge peers to exceed current expectations, and bring them to areas of expertise that are not represented in the company. Managers can rely on over-qualified employees to step up when they need to. For example, when faced with particularly challenging situations, many managers find that assigning
responsibility to over-qualified employees produces outstanding results. Someone with more experience is likely to need less hands-on supervision, at least during the on-board process. For over-qualified applicants, not only do have more learning experience, but they are even more likely to have more job experience. This produces an individual who has already reached the frontlines and is more than happy to step up to the most demanding positions. In reality, supervisors facilitate more challenging assignments and activities for overqualified workers to prevent them from getting bored with easier tasks. Hence HR Managers need a clear
and explicit plan for the future, whether you're thinking about a promotion, a sideways move, or a whole new project. You need to think and discuss beyond the initial stage where he or she may be temporarily underused. Human resource Managers should think broadly about the company and your potential talent requirements now and in the future. Consider how you can match a promising candidate's ability set by shaping the job. On-board wisely and be specific about your plans for a new employee. Nurturing and keeping overqualified workers will produce a robust foundation for tomorrow’s management team. By following the recommendations higher than, managers of overqualified workers will use the positive impact of authorization to beat the negative impact of perceived over qualification. Taking care of these points will help the HR Managers to retain the employees they hire, despite them being overqualified. Name-Arpitha Susan Sunny College-Saintgits Institute of Management (SIM), Kottayam
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Overqualified Employees: What should an HR manager do with an overqualified employee? The overqualified employee Mr. Ramakrishna Menon, 46 years old, with an experience of 20+ years in the IT Sector was someone who qualified for all the departments in the IT sector. As an engineer, he joined Infosys and worked there for 7 years as an executive in the Business Development department and was a Senior Analyst when he left the organization. While he was working with Infosys, he had completed his MBA in Business Analytics. After leaving Infosys, Mr. Menon had been selected as a Senior Consultant in Arvind Mills. Close to 15 years of working with the company, he had a wide exposure and experience in all the IT departments. He was a much recognized employee but the pandemic had caused him a job loss. Arvind Mills didn’t have any shortage of experienced employees, and so laying off Mr. Menon was not a difficult choice. For Mr. Menon, all his qualifications couldn’t save him his job. Background AR Textile Co., located in Chennai, was one among the many pandemic hit companies. The company incorporated in 2000, had the initial business of textile manufacturing. Its major products were jeans, kurta sets and suit materials. The company could capture a good share in the South Indian market. All was going well till the company noticed a continuous dip in its sales from early 2017. A team was setup to conduct a market research and find the reasons for its losses and to conduct an inter-firm analysis with its competitors. The report from the research team attributed the company’s loss to its lack of an online platform. The traditional way of selling through agents was not profitable considering a saturated market of young customers. By mid 2019, the company had established a whole new IT department for its online platform. The IT department itself had 200 plus employees including customer service executives; core IT executives handling the online platform and an analytics team. From early 2020, the company started facing the pandemic waves. The small scale manufacturers located in small towns of Tamil Nadu had to shut down its units due to the social distancing norms. The company’s supply was affected. The demand also reduced during the initial months into the 14
pandemic. But from the last 2-3 months, customers were again placing orders through AR Textile’s
online channel. But by now, the company had already laid off many of its IT employees and it could not afford hiring the same number back. The website had to be updated continuously in order to sell off
the goods in the godown and also to ensure the limited possible supply.
Dilemma behind hiring an overqualified employee Production was limited, profit margin was going down and the demand was on the rise. But with less people deployed on the website and customer service, the available demand also could not be handled properly. This could be handled to an extent if the HR was able to source an able IT Professional with a vast experience. The management now wanted to employ someone to supervise the three departments – customer service, core IT and analytics at the minimum possible cost. The HR was on it, they were trying to get the best option from the market. This is when the HR Department receives an application from Mr. Ramakrishna Menon. The HR manager, when told about the application, could not believe it. If the pandemic never hit the country, the HR managers of AR Textiles would never imagine approaching him. Mr. Menon’s contribution in increasing the sales of Arvind Ltd. with his analytical skills was not unknown to many in the sector. His administrative skills were also proved when he was appointed the head of the IT Department for Analytics in Arvind Mills. Arvind Mills was a competitor for AR Textiles, but the scales at which they operated, was very far from each other. Arvind Mills had established itself as a Multinational company whereas AR Textiles had its share in the South Indian market only. What this meant was, AR Textiles was not even considered a rival by Arvind Mills or by its employees, to be specific. But the circumstances had changed now. The fact that an experienced employee like Mr. Radhakrishna Menon lost his job and had to apply to a company that was younger than the tenure of his career was itself an example of COVID-19 19’s impact.
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The pros of hiring an overqualified employee From the organization’s perspective, the advantages of hiring the overqualified employee could include the following: 1. The hired employee, in this case – Mr. Ramakrishna Menon, would bring multiple benefits to the organization. His experience and qualifications could be utilized in many ways. Hiring him would mean broadening the skill sets of the complete department and a huge learning and development for its employees. 2. The company has an upper hand in this scenario as the candidate has come to the organization for a job and the HR have not approached him. The HR is well aware about Mr. Menon’s situation. This means that many factors, mainly the salary, work allocation, etc., could be decided with more weightage to the company’s terms.
3. High return on investment is another advantage that AR Textiles would get. AR could pay according to its budget, and reap very high benefits using his skills and knowledge. 4. Management required would be less. To whichever department Mr. Menon would be appointed, the requirement of hand-on management would reduce. This could be attributed his well known administrative skills. 5. Goodwill is another beneficial factor. HR will be able to source more able professionals for the company
who would be attracted to the opportunity of working under such a personality and elevate their skills. Growth in the market. If Mr. Menon could cause a growth in sales for an MNC like Arvind Mills, he could definitely do the same for AR Textiles. Hiring him would surely increase the company’s growth opportunities. Cons of hiring an overqualified employee i.
The greatest risk is of the employee leaving the organization within a short span. Someone like Mr. Menon who is used to working with MNCs like Infosys and Arvind Mills, could easily feel demotivated and bored in a regional company like AR Textiles. He has been working with the most efficient professionals but here, he would be involved with a newly developed IT Team and most of the team members would be freshers. 16
ii. Payroll is another major decision. The HR will have a notion that the candidate would be expecting a salary equal to or higher than what he was drawing from the previous company. Hence, finalizing the amount that the company is ready to invest on this human asset is a huge task. The salary should not be so low that it turns away the candidate; neither should it be so high that it crosses the company’s budget. iii. Hiring of Mr. Menon could intimidate the existing employees. As mentioned earlier, the employees of AR Textiles are not as efficient as Mr. Menon is used to working with. The skills and style of Mr. Menon could cause anxiety among his superiors and this may lead to their silence and lack of opinions. iv. Another risk is that Mr. Menon could end up making many changes in the organization to which the other employees might not be able to adapt. The changes may be right from his view and plans for the organization but this could cause resistance from other members. Mistakes to avoid i.
The candidate’s worth should not be ignored. His vulnerable situation should not be taken advantage of by paying him less than what he is worth. Employee satisfaction is applicable to overqualified employees also. Hence, keeping him satisfied would be helpful in gaining his loyalty towards the company which could go a long way. Also, it should be understood that ROI will be higher from such
an employee. ii.
The candidate should not be given any unrealistic hopes. He should be made clearly aware of the company’s operations and its employees and should be asked if he would still be comfortable working there.
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The existing employees should be made comfortable about the newly hired boss. Rather than intimidating them, they should be shown the pool of opportunities of learning from that person and how that is beneficial in the long run.
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The company’s objectives and its vision should be clearly communicated. HR should ensure that it doesn’t contradict with the newly hired employees plans and objectives.
Conclusion – The decision made After much thought, the HR and the management decided to take Mr. Ramakrishna Menon onboard.
Before officially starting with his job, he was asked to join a meeting with the management. He was asked the reason why he came to AR Textiles and not to any other MNC. To this, he replied that he was unable to leave the state due to family commitments and since AR Textiles was coming in the same sector as of Arvind Mills, he decided to join them.
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The management welcomed Mr. Menon and along with that, gave him a thorough view of the company’s operations. They were suggested by the HR to not give any false hopes. Hence, all facts were laid down along with the company’s present loss-making situation. AR Textiles could not pay Mr. Menon what Arvind Mills did. But they promised a raise with the development of the company. He was asked the position in which he would want to work. The employees in the IT Department were also given a brief about Mr. Menon and about all the new opportunities that he brought along with him. The management finally welcomed him with honour and a promise of taking the company to new heights together. Name-Lakshmi Balakrishnan
College-Saintgits Institute of Management
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