Hiring Rock Star Talent is Not Always Best Practice - Spark Hire

Hiring Rock Star Talent is Not Always Best Practice - Spark HireAs a former recruiter, Ive conducted hundreds of interviews and filled dozens of open positions for large cap companies. My experience in the space has taught me many things about identifying the right talent, but there are three that matter mostThe most expensive applicant is not always the most qualified one for the job.Being overqualified for a job on paper doesnt mean a candidate will actually be able to do the work once he or she is in the role youve posted for (there are many different reasons for this that Id like to get into another time).Hiring the Rock Star applicant (i.e. the ultra-experienced, high potential candidate with all the right skills who also just-so-happens to be a cultural fit) is not always the best geschftlicher umgang decision.The last point is the one I want to talk about today.We have a tendency as talent professionals to want to hire Rock Stars. We do this because of a strong desire to provi de our businesses with the best talent, and its natural to assume best talent is strongly correlated with best experience/skills/potential for development/cultural fit/etc. Hiring great people also reflects well on us as recruiters, and when the people we source perform well in their jobs this (by extension) pays dividends for us over the course of our careers.In practice, however, always hiring great talent when only adequate is needed can lead to turnover issues. This is because there are only so many promotions available and so much room in the budget for merit payouts. Put another way If a company has more talent than it can reward for high performance (via either monetary incentives or promotions) then it wont be able to retain all of that talent for very long. Intrinsic rewards are a valuable tool to engage employees, but particularly when dealing with high performers they only go so far.This is why its important that hiring managers partner closely with HR to monitor bench strength and develop succession plans for key roles. The cost of replacing a departing employee can be extremely high, and the higher up in the organization one moves the more expensive it gets.This is why Continuity Players employees that are happy in their current role and not looking for additional progression are critical linchpins in any organization. Its important not to undervalue employees that are good at their jobs and content with where they are. Further, to this point its important to remember that not everyone can be a superstar (so hire accordingly).Rock Stars need a place to shine if your company doesnt have one for them then it may be better to pass and hire someone else.Please share your thoughts below.IMAGE Courtesy of Flickr byJsome1About the Author Rory Trotter is an HR leader with Fortune 500 experience in compensation, talent management and labor relations. He is passionate about HR because he believes the best organizations are those that consistently find ways to attract top talent, nurture said talents strengths, and ensure sustained productivity and innovation via the use of initiatives that both recognize and reward high performance. You can connect with him via Twitter RoryCTrotterJr and read more of his thoughts on human resources at rorytrotter.com.