diff --git a/pom.xml b/pom.xml
index 0a9e804..6f3abf7 100644
--- a/pom.xml
+++ b/pom.xml
@@ -22,6 +22,17 @@
                     </execution>
                 </executions>
             </plugin>
+
+            <!-- to handle any Java version mismatch, add the following configuration for maven-compiler-plugin -->
+            <plugin>
+                <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
+                <artifactId>maven-compiler-plugin</artifactId>
+                <version>3.6.0</version>
+                <configuration>
+                    <source>1.8</source>
+                    <target>1.8</target>
+                </configuration>
+            </plugin>
         </plugins>
     </build>