Should You Consider Overqualified Talent?
It’s one of the paradoxes of staffing that an overqualified candidate is often considered unfit. But as most experienced hiring managers know, there’s an inherent perceived risk: accepting a lower level position may simply be a stop gap until another more suitable opportunity is presented to the candidate.. But given the shortage challenges of IT staffing these days, every candidate should be fully vetted. And there are valid reasons to consider overqualified talent. Here are a few:
Diversify Your Candidate Pool
If you immediately disqualify overqualified talent, you end up with an extremely homogeneous candidate pool. And finding someone who exceeds the desired qualification can establish a nice benchmark. Giving overqualified talent full consideration will not only expand your options, you will also have the benefit of comparing the value of candidates based on who will best meet the needs of the position for both the short and long term. and helps you work with highly motivated talent.
Overqualified talent do not always seek out a lesser position out of resignation. They may be be trying to break into a new industry, get a foot in the door with a new company, or reenter the workforce after an extended leave of absence from the category. Under those conditions, these candidates are some of the most highly motivated and eager to succeed.
Don’t Discount Future Needs
The talent gap in IT is a problem that affects employers throughout the industry. Hiring candidates with talents that are unnecessary to the position may help you fill a skill set void needed in the future. Considering the speed in which technology evolves, those irrelevant skills could prove to be invaluable to your future goals – you just don’t know it yet.
Recruit for Management
Overqualified talent might have too many skills for the current vacancy, but just the right skills for a higher level vacancy that may open up later. Bringing them into your company now provides the organization with an internal candidate funnel: simplifying the recruitment process, lowering the cost of recruitment, and possibly lowering the cost of compensation through an internal hire qualified as a manager, executive, or team leader.
Mentor Your Team
Candidates with an expansive skill set are typically proud of their accomplishments and eager to share their knowledge with others. They end up serving as workplace mentors that provide valuable insights and instruction to the people around them. Bringing that one new hire onto a team can elevate overall performance.
Spend Less Time Training and Managing
Candidates with expansive skills and experiences take less time to train and fewer resources to manage. Plus, they often start making a meaningful contribution with a significantly reduced ramp-up time.. Overqualified talent could be the solution you need to make an impactful hire fast.
Overqualified talent, like all talent, need to be carefully vetted, and all hiring decisions need to be considered strategically. Get the help you need to make the right IT hiring choice by partnering with CultureFit.
