Why you should hire overqualified employees
Overqualified employees are widely seen as harmful to organizations and are often turned down. But a new research shows that hiring more overqualified employees can be good for companies.
Resarchers spent six months conducting interviews and studies of 11 information technology companies in China. They discovered that “when individual employees feel that they are not the only ‘big fish in the pond,’ and when overqualification becomes a norm rather than exception within the group, they tend to have more favorable reactions toward their own overqualification status and perform better.”
Jasmine Hu and Kaifeng Jiang, assistant professors of management at the University of Notre Dame’s Mendoza College of Business, and their colleagues, Berrin Erdogan and Talya N. Bauer of Portland State University, published their findings in an article “There are Lots of Big Fish in this Pond: The Role of Peer Overqualification on Task Significance, Perceived Fit, and Performance for Overqualified Employees,” in the Journal of Applied Psychology.
Hu believes that employers and managers should take these findings into account. “We believe that our research offers valuable implications for practice,” she said. “Managers may benefit from understanding that as overqualification becomes normalized in the workplace, it exerts a more positive influence over such behaviors as job performance and citizenship.”
“Furthermore, organizations should celebrate employees’ qualifications when they are first brought on board and point out how these overqualified employees are in good company by highlighting that they will be working with a highly qualified group. Managers could also encourage more interactions among members to build team spirit, emphasizing the importance of benefiting others through one’s work, and highlight the interpersonal compatibility within a group to promote the positive influence of overqualification on employee attitudes and behaviors.” said Hu.
