Managing Overqualified staff in the workplace

What do we mean by overqualification?

Overqualification (or underemployment) is the situation where individuals have surplus qualifications such as education, skills, knowledge, abilities and experience that exceed job requirements.

The term can be expressed in terms of:

• Objective Overqualification: Focused on education from the perspective of potential employers. 
• Subjective Overqualification: Focused on individual perception, a predictor of attitudes and behaviours. 

It has been said that overqualification leads to a number of adverse consequences such as disengagement with work, low job satisfaction, and turnover. However, is it all that bad?

Perceived Benefits of Over Qualification

In cases where employees have chosen jobs for which they are overqualified so that they can handle their non-work responsibilities and interests, overqualified employees may experience lower levels of work–family conflict. A high-level employee may want to leave behind a high-paying corporate job demanding 60- hour work weeks in favour of spending more time with family and friends and devoting more time to hobbies, which would result in lower levels of work–life conflict and higher satisfaction with life.

·                Moreover, individuals may take a job for which they are overqualified but still get a deep sense of satisfaction from it if the job fits with their values and interests. For example, individuals may be attracted to occupations such as teaching, selling medical equipment even when they are overqualified because working in these jobs would give individuals a sense of helping others, doing meaningful work, and performing a job that satisfies their sense of belonging. 

-      Thus a consideration of over qualification within the broader meaning of work for the individual— such as the values fit of the job and the organization, or whether the job is instrumental for achieving some non-work goals—may provide a better picture of whether over qualification will hamper or enhance productivity and morale and provide the individual with a sense of enjoyment.- In fact, García-Montalvo and Peir ´o (2008) pointed out that choosing a job for which one is overqualified is more frequent among Spanish young adults when they give a strong priority to a job with a permanent contract and a regular work schedule or when they have no geographic mobility.
        
        Being overqualified may have positive consequences when there are other, compensating factors that add to the desirability of the position and when the person makes a positive choice to take the position rather than doing so solely for reasons of extreme need or economic desperation.

What About Organizational Practices?

Although a number of questions remain about the positive and negative effects of over qualification, we provide some suggestions for organizational HR practices.

Recruitment and Selection

-Workers who bring additional skills to the job can provide increased opportunities for organizations, perhaps even a competitive advantage.-What may be most important is that both employees and employers go into this situation ‘‘with their eyes open’’ so it is clear what the employment conditions will be and what each party would gain from the employment situation. This avoids feelings of psychological contract violations and feelings of inequity on the part of workers, and helps employers recognize whether the additional qualifications and skills provided by an individual worker are actually relevant and beneficial to the organization. Furthermore, what the employer can and cannot provide to the overqualified individual as part of the employment relationship should be made clear up front.-In short, the more apparent the conditions of the over qualification relationship are at the time of hire, the better. Finally, although by necessity organizational decision makers rely more on objective measures of over qualification

-During the selection process, they should remember that such objective measures are different from subjective over qualification as perceived by the employee and that the latter may be most relevant to attitudes and behaviour.

Performance Management & Reward systems

-When taking on overqualified employees, organizations should be prepared to provide the additional opportunities and rewards for these workers to gain the greatest advantage from them. -Furthermore, because there are many factors that may mitigate the negative consequences of overqualification in the minds of workers (e.g., fulfilling work, facilitating family responsibilities), organizations should be aware of what overqualified individuals may gain from the employment relationship and support these to the extent possible. 

-Most important, organizations should follow through on any agreements made with overqualified individuals at the time of hiring.

Training and Development

-Keep them challenged and stimulated. One way to do this, which should also lead to a better utilization of the skills of overqualified workers, is to train them in areas that will help them to progress. For example, an overqualified job applicant may be hired for a low-level position with the purpose of grooming them for advanced management positions, but this benefit will only be realized if the organization can provide them with the necessary management training. In other words, an overqualified individual may still need training in other areas to be effective. 

-In addition, organizations may need to train managers and supervisors on how to recognize the potential value of overqualified job applicants and how to best use the skills of these over qualified individuals.

To Conclude..

-Over qualification is an issue that is salient to both employers and to employees, and through the years it has been assumed to negatively affect attitudes, performance, and turnover.However the empirical research on over qualification is not conclusive in this regard.

-In fact, although over qualification can clearly have serious, negative outcomes, we believe that there are times and circumstances when overqualified employees may provide a valuable resource to organizations, and certain over qualification situations may actually benefit workers.

-What we need at this point is a better understanding of what over qualification is, how to measure it, how it is perceived by different actors in the organizations, how it is experienced by different employees, and when it might actually be beneficial… In other words, how can individuals and organizations make the best out of a potentially bad situation?