Hiring the Overqualified

When a job opens up in today’s economy, it receives a lot of attention. And no wonder: More than 15 million Americans need work. And if you’re a hiring manager, you may have found that the best way to shrink that pile of résumés on your desk is to weed out the seemingly “overqualified” workers first. After all, you reason, those candidates will want too much money and will jump ship the minute they find a better offer. Right?

Not necessarily, says Maribeth Kuzmeski, founder of Red Zone Marketing, LLC, and author of “The Connectors: How the World’s Most Successful Businesspeople Build Relationships and Win Clients for Life” (Wiley, www.TheConnectorsBoo...). In fact, she says, when you ignore these candidates you’re missing out on the opportunity to add highly qualified talent to your organization.

Kuzmeski offers advice on how best to approach the highly qualified hire:

• Be open and honest about your concerns. Ask the candidate how he plans to use the skills that led him to his past achievements in the position you’re offering, but don’t focus too much on the past. Instead, find out about his current motivations and the goals he has for the position.
• Connect with the candidate’s “why.” Maybe a candidate wants to jump-start a new career or get back to something she enjoyed doing earlier in her career.
• Recognize that highly qualified people often require significantly less training.
• Hire based on attitude. If the person has a great attitude and is highly motivated, then you might want to give her a chance, especially if the other candidates are less qualified and don’t seem like they will fit in with the company culture.
• Once you have them, empower them. A study from Portland State University found that overqualified employees who are given decision-making power tend to be more satisfied with their jobs.