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Managing Overqualified Employees

by Will Kilburn
Part 2 of a 2-Part Q&A with Joanne Murray

In Part 1 of this series, Monster Management Advisor Joanne Murray spoke about ways to pick the right candidate from fields that increasingly contain a number of overqualified people. This time around, Murray talked to Monster about how best to integrate an overqualified person into the workplace.

Monster: Some people aren't going to be too keen on supervising or working with someone who is more qualified than they are. Let's start with the supervisory side first: What are the potential trouble spots, and how do you resolve them?

Joanne Murray: It's important in that first meeting, on that first day, to set the broader context, so that you lay out what your position is, the full range of responsibilities, and you place that person's responsibilities within that broader context. You may say, "In our department, which manages A through H, you do D. And D needs to relate to C and B really well, and I need to make sure all of you are running your own areas really well, and you're having these collaborations that go well."

Regarding coworkers, I've seen it be a really great shot in the arm for people who have gotten a little lax, and then this really top-notch, really qualified person comes in, and they've said, "Wait a minute, I want my program to be up and running this well."

You mentioned in our previous discussion that another myth about overqualified workers -- that they leave the first chance they get -- no longer applies.

I think in the past, maybe that was the case, but now, there isn't opportunity out there. And people who've been laid off are just wiser: They're looking for a good company more than they're looking for a good position; they're looking for stability and an opportunity to have a good, long ride, because they've had all of that threatened. And it's almost impossible to go through a layoff without having a great deal of insight about yourself and what you want and what you need to have the next time, because those folks have been burned, and they usually go in much wiser and more insightful about it.

What if the work really is just too easy for them?

I think you look for other opportunities that you can add on, pet projects, special task forces. A good manager's always checking in and saying, "Do you have any ideas about how we could do this differently?" So you make room for innovation, you let that person have a voice at the table, and usually that person will take the initiative to come up with a new way of doing something if you bring him into the decision making a bit more.

What about promotion? How do you avoid backlash if someone with longer standing in the company is passed over in favor of a newer employee?

I think how you avoid a backlash is that you try your best to communicate what the priorities were for the position as it was re-envisioned when it became vacant, and why it is that that particular position is a better fit for this newly re-envisioned position. Part of that is because senior-level people aren't going to make others privy to what their real priorities necessarily are, and part of it is it's such an emotionally laden process for people who want to be candidates for that job that they have trouble seeing how they are a fit or not a fit.

Any other concerns?

Just realize that these individuals have a lot to offer your organization, so rather than looking at the worries in hiring someone who's overqualified, focus on what you're getting, which is more than what you necessarily wanted. You may have opportunities in hiring an overqualified person that you hadn't even realized you had.

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