Hiring the Overqualified

Contrary to conventional wisdom, hiring overqualified job candidates doesn't necessarily translate into turnover. In fact, a recent study shows that many such employees stay longer and perform better on the job.

By Katie Kuehner-Hebert

Hiring managers take note: Not every overqualified job candidate will want to leave your company the minute a better offer comes. In fact, some may want to stay much longer so they can spend more time with family or on outside creative endeavors, such as writing the next Great American Novel.

That was one of the conclusions of a recent study by Anthony Nyberg, a Darla Moore School of Business researcher at the University of South Carolina, which was recently published in the Journal of Applied Psychology.

The study, co-authored by Mark Maltarich of St. Ambrose University and Greg Reilly of the University of Connecticut, was based on the analysis of the labor-force behavior of more than 5,000 U.S. adults over a 25-year period. The data were taken from the Bureau of Labor Statistics National Longitudinal Survey of Youth.

The authors found that, in positions with low cognitive demands, such as garbage collectors or car washers, employees with higher cognitive ability were less likely than others to voluntarily leave.

"We found that being more qualified than the typical person for the job, they are not any more likely to leave a job faster -- in fact, they are more likely to stay -- especially for the lower-tiered jobs," says Nyberg.

"We presume that a lot of people do not want to work in a job that was less demanding than what they were capable of doing but, in fact, a lot of people want to devote a certain amount of brain power or time to other ventures."

Overqualified candidates also may take a less-demanding job for a lifestyle or health choice, an affinity for a company's values or the simple need of earning a paycheck, he says.

The main takeaway for hiring managers: Don't automatically disqualify an overqualified candidate.

"One of the excuses we often hear from companies why they didn't hire an overqualified person, is that they were afraid the person would leave them as soon as times change for them, but that is not the case," Nyberg says. "These people not only stay, but they also tend to perform better than average and they may even want to move up in the organization."

Hiring managers should probe overqualified candidates on the reasons they want a lower-tiered job, to gauge whether there are legitimate reasons for opting for such a position, Nyberg says.

Peter Studner, founder and senior consultant at Peter K. Studner Associates Inc. in West Los Angeles, Calif., says he teaches overqualified people to turn the tables on hiring managers and take the opportunity to market how their skills would benefit a prospective employer.

"If packaged thoughtfully, their skills become evident, so employers can then bypass the whole issue of being overqualified," Studner says. "We train people to say in interviews, 'By being overqualified, do you mean I can be up and running immediately? That I could train other people? That I would be able to solve your problems that may be beyond this particular job? Then I think being overqualified is really a benefit to you.' "

Margaret-Ann Cole, vice president and talent development practice leader for DBM North America in New York, says it's good for hiring managers to determine how "self-aware" a seemingly overqualified job candidate may be, for that person could be consciously acting on what is most important to them.

"Maybe they are taking this role because they are really interested in the company's mission," Cole says. "Maybe it's important to them to balance their work and lifestyle; maybe it's a generational thing and they are ready to take advantage of vacation time, whereas before they devoted 150 percent of their energy and worked 24/7 all the time in a more challenging job."

Hiring managers should ask open-ended questions about what motivates the candidate both at and outside of work, to determine whether or not they are self-aware, or else they may hire someone who doesn't yet realize the job doesn't truly match their overall objectives, she says.

"It's important for a hiring manager not to just look at somebody's skills on paper, but the manager should also be asking how they could add value to the organization," Cole says.

Still, at a time when the U.S. unemployment rate is 9.8 percent, employers may want to choose a candidate whose skill level best matches the job description, says Dick Kaumeyer, president of Kaumeyer Consulting Group Inc. in West Hills, Calif.

"For every job open right now, there are at least five to six people who exactly fit all of the specifications, and that is what is driving today's market," Kaumeyer says.

Once the economy improves and there are fewer people competing for jobs, employers might be more apt to take a chance on overqualified people, he says.