Are you guilty of hiring clone employees?

By Rob Hayter, Director at TPP Not for Profit.

Imagine if one of your key employees left.  You need to find a replacement, and in a hurry.  It can be tempting to look at your best, more productive employees and think “we need someone just like them”.  After all, they are your top employees, so more of them will be more of a good thing, right?

Well, not necessarily.  We’ve previously written about how important it is for charities to embrace diversity, and this is a classic mistake employers can make.  Recruiting a workforce made up entirely of people like you can ultimately lead to sterility and an end to progress.

Why is it a bad idea?

Having a team who all have a similar background and similar points of view can easily lead to a lack of new ideas.  A little bit of creative tension is great for inspiring people – you need people who can contribute different perspectives, can bounce ideas off of one another and disagree with each other.

Even more than in most organisations, it’s important for charities to maintain a diverse staff.  Although charities now generally have a more diverse workforce than in private sector companies, the third sector as a whole still struggles with the perception that charity employees are all white and middle class.  The sector also has a moral duty to uphold equality and diversity, and a diverse workforce is important to reflect the background of service users.

Why does it happen?

We are all genetically predisposed to like people like us, as we naturally feel that we ‘get’ them and that we can trust them.  Candidates who share interests with their interviewer can chat and make small talk more easily, which makes an interview feel much more comfortable and successful.

This is particularly true with referrals, often a key source for internal recruitment.  Employees tend to know people like them, and the added weight of recommendations means that those candidates have a greater chance of being hired.

What can you do about it?

It is important to note at this point that you don’t need to throw the baby out with the bathwater.  Avoiding hiring clones doesn’t mean you do not want to replicate previous successes within your team.  The key is separating out a candidate’s motivations and ability to handle a role from their personality, background and interests.

The best way to remain objective is to agree the criteria necessary for the role, score candidates against that and make your decision based on those scores.  Behavioural interviewing will help you to stay neutral and focussed on the candidate’s ability to do the job, rather than their personality.  Avoid relying on your gut feeling and consider using psychometric testing to remove even more bias from the interview process.

It’s always a good idea to invite a couple of wild cards to interview.  Even if they don’t work out, it can be rewarding just meeting with them and give you access to new ideas and points of view.

How TPP can help

If you’re struggling to find someone to fit a role, it’s always worth talking to a specialist recruiter like TPP.  We are experts at refining job descriptions and person specifications to make sure only key attributes are included.  We are also a professional third party, so less susceptible to the natural bias that employers feel towards the personality types of their current employees.

Should you hire an ‘overqualified’ candidate?

With unemployment still relatively high and lots of charity professionals currently searching for a job, we’ve noticed that not for profit organisations are receiving more applications from ‘overqualified’ candidates.  But employers can be reluctant to consider these candidates, even though they would certainly be able to handle the role.

In this blog post, we look at what overqualified means and the pros and cons of hiring an overqualified candidate.

What is overqualified?

Candidates are described as overqualified when they are skilled or educated beyond the requirements for the role.  For example, while a person specification for a role may require a bachelor’s degree, employers could receive applications from candidates with a master’s degree.  Or employers could request candidates with some previous experience of that role, and receive applications from jobseekers with over ten years’ experience.

However, having lots of education or experience does not necessarily make a candidate overqualified.  The key is whether that education or experience is relevant to the role.  If not, they are really starting at the same level as any other candidate.

It is also very important to steer clear of any age discrimination when determining if candidates are overqualified.  Simply having worked for a long period of time does not automatically make an applicant overqualified.

Traditional objections to overqualified candidates
If employers are looking for certain skills and experience, you might think that a candidate exceeding their expectations would be snapped up, but many organisations are reluctant to consider overqualified candidates.  One of the most common reasons cited is a fear that the candidate will expect a higher salary in exchange for their qualifications.  The other is an assumption that the candidate is only using this role as a placeholder and will leave as soon as a better opportunity presents itself – this is a particular worry in the current job market, with many candidates agreeing to take any job purely to avoid unemployment.

Employers may also have concerns that an overqualified candidate would not be challenged or fully engaged in the role and become unproductive and unhappy.  One disgruntled employee can then have a knock-on effect on the rest of the team.

Dispelling the myths

Overqualification does not automatically lead to lower job satisfaction or higher turnover.  In a study from the US, sales associates who were thought to be overqualified actually performed better than their peers, and the more empowered they were in their role, the more likely they were to stay put.  Indeed, nearly half of graduates are now considered overqualified for their first role.

Candidates have a huge range of motivations for taking a charity job and overqualified applicants may have a very good reason for wanting that particular role, rather than simple desperation for a job.  They could be downshifting and looking to achieve a better work/life balance, or wanting to change sectors or roles following a previous unsatisfactory career move, or they could be moving to a new location.

The interview stage is the best time to determine an overqualified candidate’s level of seriousness about the role.  Questions like “Can you describe your favourite job from the past and what you did?” or “What did you not like doing in former jobs?” can help define their motivations and determine whether they would be a good fit for your team.  Have confidence in your organisation’s culture; if you choose to work for your organisation, other people will also want to.

Some ‘hidden’ benefits

There are some less obvious benefits to hiring an overqualified candidate that some employers would not immediately consider.  For example, it can be good for morale overall, as a more experienced employee will be able to pick up the work more quickly, relieving the rest of the team from having to cover the responsibilities.  This is particularly important during this period of belt-tightening, when many employees are already having to take on extra tasks.

In addition, most teams function best with a mixture of people, not just clones of your current or previous employees.  Someone with unexpected skills and lots of life experience may bring something extra to the table that you have not previously considered.

If an overqualified candidate has a good reason for wanting to take your role, chances are that they have really considered what they want to do and may actually be a better long-term proposition than a candidate who exactly fits the person specification.  For example, a jobseeker with lots of commercial experience may move into the charity sector looking for a more meaningful role.  Getting promoted or moving on may therefore be lower on their list of priorities than a candidate moving up within the sector.

Future proof your team

When considering a candidate who is overqualified for the job, it’s always worth looking at the big picture.  When making hiring decisions, the best leaders don’t just consider current needs, but also look to the future.

Overqualified candidates often have other skills in areas that are not required for a particular role but may be useful for the organisation as a whole.  This gives them greater flexibility for the future and could allow them to accomplish things in the future that you have not considered part of that role.  Rather than just fulfilling an immediate need, they could help your organisation grow and achieve even more.

These employees can also improve the skill set of the team as a whole, as they could mentor or train up others to their level.  They can also serve as a model for your employees and help challenge them to bring productivity up.  Having extra skills in your team can also give you the flexibility to react to challenges or opportunities that may arise in the future.  Making full use of their skills will also make them a more engaged employee.

Be honest

If you are considering an overqualified candidate for a position, it’s extremely important to be up front about the role’s potential right from the start.  Being honest about salary, benefits and promotion prospects will help to weed out candidates really looking for something else and will avoid an applicant expecting too much from a role.  But if you think they may be temporarily underutilised, but there is great potential for the future, make sure you make that clear.

You could use phone screening to go through these details, check that the candidate is happy with the terms and weed out those with unrealistic expectations before interview stage.

It is also very important to confirm that their manager would be comfortable working with them and vice versa.  Sometimes it can be difficult to manage an employee who has more years of experience than you do.  Make sure you explore this thoroughly at interview – again, it is worth being completely honest and asking them straight out if they foresee any problems.

It can’t hurt…

Rather than rejecting them out of hand, it’s always worth at least considering an overqualified candidate.  After all, they would certainly be able to handle the role advertised  Often it can be difficult to fully judge a candidate’s motivations and dedication to a role without at least offering them an opportunity to meet with you face to face in an interview.

If you do interview them and you feel that the candidate would still not be a good fit for your organisation, that could help you to refine your person specification and direct your job search.

Hiring an overqualified candidate can be a risk, but sometimes you have to take risks to realise your organisation’s full potential.  When weighing up the pros and cons, there are often more benefits to hiring an overqualified employee than downsides.  And even if they do turn out to be only there short-term, they could still make a positive long-term impact on your organisation.

There are also ways to mitigate some of the risk of hiring an overqualified employee.  You could offer them the role on a temporary or contract basis, to see how they will actually turn out on the job and to get the role filled.

There is a definite move in the commercial world to take advantage of the current candidate-heavy job market and actively seek out overqualified employees to get extra value for money.  Perhaps the charity sector should also be more open to capitalising on this talent glut.  After all, sometimes more is simply more.

How to recruit staff outside of London

London has the highest density of charities in the UK and other not for profit organisations, and the headquarters for most national and international organisations are based there.  However, according to the UK Voluntary Sector Workforce Almanac, 81% of third sector employees live outside of the capital, with the highest rates of growth in employment in the North East, South West and Yorkshire & Humberside.

In recent years there has been a growing trend within the third sector towards the decentralisation of charity operations.  It makes sense to situate fundraising, communications and administration in the same location as service delivery, encouraging local people to support their own communities.

This has created a huge demand for skilled charity staff outside of London, which has prompted TPP to open a second office in the North of England. If you’re a charity based outside of the capital, or one with regional branches, how can you find local staff of the calibre you need?

The benefits of recruiting locally

Probably the main reason charities choose to recruit locally is to ensure that their employees come from the same background as their beneficiaries and can relate to them and the challenges they face.  Providing employment in the local area is also very important to regionally-based not for profits, and often helps support their charitable objectives.

Additional benefits include possible savings in travel or relocation expenses, overheads and even wages.  Plus, employees who live where they work can be more loyal, reducing your turnover and boosting productivity.

And the downside…

Obviously, the main downside to recruiting locally is that there is usually a much smaller pool of qualified candidates to choose from, making it a struggle not to settle for a less than ideal employee.  Some candidates may also actually prefer to work in London, and will treat your role as a stopgap until they can make the move.

Recruiting regionally, especially if you need to recruit for multiple locations, is also much more time consuming that recruiting in London, as the smaller pool of candidates mean you need to devote more resources towards finding them.  It can also work out more expensive, as you may need to advertise on both local job boards, as well as specialist sector boards.

So what methods can you use to find the candidates you need, while avoiding those who are not really committed to working locally?

Use local job boards / papers

Although it might be considered passé by some, local media is still the first point of call for the majority of the UK population when job hunting; according to the Newspaper Society, 72% of people would search using their local newspaper or website.  With over 1,100 local newspapers in the UK, this can be a great way to target jobseekers specifically looking for local jobs, and cut down on irrelevant applications.  Most print ads will also be run on the local newspaper’s website, so you won’t miss out on online jobseekers.

However, before you start running a classified ad campaign, make sure you check out the readership figures and application ratios for your local publications, as some publications are much more popular than others and represent better value for money.  If you are searching for candidates with a very specific skill set, local media may not be the right solution and a sector-specific national job board may work better.

Find local communities

Charity staff in regional areas often form groups to share ideas and information and to network with peers based in the same location.  Tapping into these networks can give you opportunities to advertise jobs and hunt for potential candidates.

Many third sector associations have special interest groups for regional charity staff, such as the Institute of Fundraising, Small Charities Coalition and CharityComms.  There are also membership groups specifically for charities based in a certain region, like Involve Yorkshire & Humber or the South East Charity Forum.

You can also search for regional groups of charity specialists on LinkedIn – these usually allow job advertising – or for online forums, such as those at Fundraising.co.uk.  Spend some time using a search engine to find organisations and forums in your target area.

Ask for referrals

When asked how they had found their current job by the Newspaper Society, the most common method was word of mouth.  Referrals have definite advantages as a method of recruitment, as existing employees are likely to know people in similar roles and locations to them and jobseekers are likely to place more value on a role recommended to them personally.

The easiest way of generating referrals is simply to keep your staff informed of any upcoming job vacancies, and ask them to distribute via word of mouth, email and social networks.  Offering a referral fee will help incentivise your employees.

Sell the benefits

When advertising a role in a regional area, make sure you emphasise the benefits of working in that particular location, especially if you are likely to be competing with jobs based in London.

One of the aspects of working that people in the UK dislike most is commuting, and just over a quarter (26%) would most like to work somewhere closer to where they live.  Capitalise on this by stressing the benefits of a significantly shorter (and cheaper) commute in your job description.  Working in regional areas can also give employees a more pleasant working environment and the benefits of living in a less urban environment.  Offering the possibility of a better work-life balance can be an extremely attractive draw, particularly for candidates with families.

Jobseekers often worry that taking a job outside of London will give them fewer opportunities for career progression, but this is a concern that can often be tackled in the job description.  Working in a smaller office can give them opportunities to take on more responsibility at an earlier stage, and having fewer processes and stakeholders involved in decisions means they can make an impact more quickly.  A smaller structure means that employees usually work more closely with senior management, and this can give them a better insight into the organisation’s processes which can stand them in good stead later on in their career.

Finally, if you are still having difficulties finding the perfect candidate, offering flexible working opportunities can make your role more competitive with those based in the capital.  The results of TPP’s Flexible Working Survey shows that flexible working options are highly valued by employees, but there is a real gap in what they want and what most third sector employers offer.  Capitalise on this by offering part time work, home working or flexible hours and your vacancy will be much more attractive.

Screen candidates thoroughly

Once your job advertisement has generated a suitable pool of applicants, you’ll need to screen them carefully, to make sure they are going to be committed employees.  The scarcity of job opportunities in the current economic climate means that some jobseekers will apply for regionally-based roles, even if they really want to work in London.  These employees are likely to be less loyal and leave as soon as a vacancy comes up in their preferred location.

Obviously, check where your potential employee currently lives and what their commute will be like.  Discuss any concerns with them at the first interview stage, to make sure they have a realistic idea of how long their journey will take.  As in any job interview, check that the candidate has good reasons for wanting to work in your organisation, and find out their plans for their future career.  Probe their reasons for leaving their previous employers, particularly if they show evidence of ‘job-hopping’.  Evidence of volunteering in the local community could be a good indication that the candidate is rooted in that region and likely to be committed to helping the local population.

If you find a particular candidate who seems ideal for the role, but you are in doubt about their commitment, consider offering the role to them on a temporary or contract basis.  This will give both of you time to assess how things work out.

Use a specialist

However many of these suggestions you follow, recruiting is always going to be harder outside the capital, and if your organisation has multiple locations with a regular turnover of staff it can be extremely difficult to build a pipeline of potential candidates for all of these areas.

Using a specialist recruiter can save you a great deal of time and hassle, and can ultimately save you money as advertising costs are included in the fee, which is only payable when a candidate is successfully placed.  TPP use a variety of methods to advertise our roles, including our own website and social media, specialist and national job boards, plus local advertising when required.  We also interview candidates prior to shortlisting, so you’ll only see CVs for people who can do the role.  All this is included in our fee.

Established in 1996, TPP Not for Profit has a wealth of experience in recruiting specialist charity employees.  Our second office has now made it easier for us to meet and interview both clients (to establish their requirements and assess their organisation’s culture and work environment) and candidates (all TPP candidates are interviewed in depth by us prior to shortlisting).  We already have a network of candidates actively looking for locally-based jobs, and can make the recruitment process much faster and smoother for you.

We cover all types of charity jobs, from fundraisers, social workers, healthcare professionals to communications and admin staff, in all locations across the UK.  We recruit on a permanent, contract or temporary basis for roles at all levels from Assistant to Director.

You can find out more about our regional recruitment services or our office locations on our website.  If you have a regional role coming up, please contact Ellen Drummond, our Regional Recruitment Manager on 0191 406 7121 or ellen.drummond@tpp.co.uk.

Achieving diversity from the bottom up

Almost all not for profit organisations now recognise the value of having a diverse workforce and that achieving this is something they need to work towards. Organisations often begin by seeking to increase diversity among their senior, high visibility staff. But it is equally important to make sure that you have a diversity strategy in place for entry and lower level staff, ensuring that you are creating a pool of employees to become future leaders.

Why embrace diversity?

Employing people from a wide range of ages, backgrounds and lifestyles can add a great deal of value to organisations. Diverse workforces have a broader mix of skills, knowledge and experience, giving an organisation more creativity and flexibility to overcome challenges.  It has also been proven that increasing diversity leads to better staff retention.

For not for profit organisations, it is particularly important that their staff empathises with the beneficiaries of their services, and a diverse workforce can help to achieve this. Charities also have a public duty to promote equality, as per the Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000, Disability Discrimination Act 1995 and the Employment Equality (Sexual Orientation) Regulations 2003.

Top down or bottom up?

Bringing in top level staff from a non-typical background is a great way for not for profit organisations to publicly demonstrate their commitment to diversity. However, it is also important to diversify the composition of staff at lower levels, to ensure there is a ‘talent pipeline’ that will supply the next generation of management.

Improving diversity at all levels of the company is also important in encouraging staff to believe in and support equal opportunities policies and mission statements.

So where do you start?

Obviously, to ensure you have a diverse workforce, you have to be able to measure both your existing workforce and progress against targets. When setting these targets, you need to consider the populations you want to reflect – the public in general, your specific service users and your volunteers and donors.

Following are some specific ways in which you can introduce equal opportunities at the lower levels of your organisation.

Explore different advertising options

To improve diversity in your workforce, it is important not to rely on word of mouth, referrals and traditional routes to market to advertise your roles. These generally only bring in candidates who are similar to your existing employees.

Instead, explore different networking channels such as special interest groups or training organisations. Make sure your vacancies are advertised among your organisation’s beneficiaries, by putting them on your website and in any newsletters, magazines or other publications you produce.

Start at the interview stage

If you are serious about improving equal opportunities, you need to make sure your interviews take place in accessible locations and at flexible times.

Assess each person you consider against a predetermined person specification, and not against the other candidates. Take care when writing this specification to avoid your own beliefs and attitudes don’t skew the selection criteria, and be sure that the qualifications specified are really needed to do the job and not ones based on assumptions.

Consider positive action

Reverse or positive discrimination is illegal in the UK.  However, there are measures you can take to target particular groups that are under-represented in your company.

For example, including statements such as “we welcome applications from disabled people” in your job advertising or offering guaranteed interviews to disabled candidates can encourage more of these people to apply for your roles.  You could also consider allowing certain groups more time to submit their applications.

Other positive action steps that you can consider include offering on the job training or flexible working options targeted to attract a specific group.

Recycle unsuccessful candidates

If you’ve seen a candidate who you feel would work well within your organisation, but might not be suitable for that particular role, don’t automatically dismiss them but take a while to consider how they could fit into the organisation in other ways.

Are there other vacancies coming up which they could apply for? Or is it possible to place them in a role in which they could be trained up to do the job they originally applied for?

Mentoring and work placements
A great way to bring candidates from different backgrounds into your organisation is to offer mentoring or work experience schemes. This way, you can give disadvantaged candidates some valuable work experience and career training and advice. If you come across any who might fit particularly well within your organisation, you can then choose to move them to temporary or permanent paid employment.

See the DTI Work Experience Guidelines via the Skillset website for practical advice on offering work experience.

How can TPP help?

Many employers, particularly small organisations, simply may not have the resources available to devote to diversifying their workforces. This is where a recruitment consultancy like TPP Not for Profit can offer real value.

We have arrangements with a wide variety of associations, networks and job boards, meaning that your vacancy can either receive as wide a coverage as possible or be targeted at a particular population group, depending on your requirements.

Useful Resources

The Equalities and Human Rights Commission
Diversity works for London
Chartered Institute of Professional Development
REC factsheet on the access to work scheme (provides funding to employers to improve access for those with disabilities)
REC factsheet on the recruitment of ex-offenders