Who

A companion book to Topgrading by Brad Smart, this little handbook takes the Topgrading concepts to the next level by providing a guide to using Topgrading to improve hiring for your organization. In the world of Topgrading, there are three types of employees: A, B, and C. "A" employees are in the top ten percent of skill and ability for their position. "B" employees are in the next 25 percent, and C employees make up the rest. High performing organizations are filled with A and B players and do their best to help C employees improve to the A or B level or be released from the organization. Topgrading includes sample interview guides and describes hiring methods to make sure you hire A and B players from the get go. The book, Who, simplifies the Topgrading concepts by creating a system for hiring: Source, Scorecard, Select, and Sell. These four systems work together to ensure you hire the best employees possible. A further breakdown looks like this: 1) Source: Constantly reach out to A players in the market and create a list of people you would like to work for you. This way, when an opening occurs, you will have a strong Source to fill the spots. 2) Scorecard: Determine the key elements you are looking for in your position and design a scorecard for each key role you will be hiring. Use that scorecard to screen out who you will bring in for in-depth interviews. Careful screening prevents a host of problems in hiring. 3) Select: Determine who is best for the position through an in-depth Topgrade interview. The best predictor of future success is past success--don't cut corners in reference checking. 4) Sell: "A" players have options. Work hard to sell your organization to them. The screening interview process was a highlight of this book. Who is a must have resource for every HR director and leader who wants to attract and secure top talent for their organization.

I enjoyed reading this book. I like the structured approach it lays out for hiring, the commentary on common pitfalls, and specificity throughout. I hope to leverage what I’ve learned in this book at my company.

"In business, you are who you hire." "Who: The A Method for Hiring" by Geoff Smart and Randy Street (of ghSMART) is a book on recruting or hiring. During the global economic crisis, hiring is not less significant, it is more significant than ever. As the authors addressed that the who mistakes are pricey, most organisations are still implementing the voodoo hiring methods (the book says there are ten; pretty scary and they are true). The authors wrote the method, A method, that ghSMART (the authors' company) implemented with hundreds of clients and, as they claimed, the method has worked for them. Contents (The A Method) -Scorecard: A Blueprint for Success It's a bit ironic that the authors always say "Who, not what" but the first step of the A method is the what. Anyway, the scorecard needs to have clear "Mission" rather than vague job descriptions we normally see. Specific and tangible "Outcomes" are also necessary together with critical "Competencies". The scorecard will be the blueprint of the recruiting process. We need a person that can get the job done, not an all-round athlete with a perfect resume but hangs around doing nothing. - Source: Generating a Flow of A Players This chapter tells us how to have more and better candidates. The best method that the book suggests is "Referrals" from friends, partners, employess, etc. The distant second and third are from recruiters and researchers. - Select: The Four Interviews for Spotting A Players Interview processes are "almost a random predictor" of job performance. That's the case with "traditional" interviews, author stated. They wrote a series of four interviews; screening interview, Topgrading interview, focused interview, and reference interview. This is the best part of the book. - Sell: The Top Five Ways to Seal the Deal The authors elaborated The Five F's of Selling; Fit, Family, Freedom, Fortune, Fun and the Five Waves of Selling or the phase that you can convince the candidate. ... Now, I'll try to compare this book, Who, to the ideal business book or a book that is "easy to understand, distinct, practical, reliable, insightful, and provides great reading experience." Ease of Understanding: 8/10: "Who" is easy to understand. The subject is very focused, "how to get the A player?". The subject is adequately explained and the contents are in order, Scorecard, Source, Select, and Sell. Distinction: 6/10: I have to admit that I do not read much on recruitment but things like scorecard is not new and we all know that referral is among the best methods of getting great candidates. Nevertheless, the critical distinction of the book is how things are put in nice and simple order. Practicality: 9/10: Forget rocket science theories on motivation and high intellectual psychology, this book cuts the waste and put you straight into action. It tells you how to do the scorecard, how to source, how to conduct the interview, and how to convince the candidate. A point is taken because the method will probably work best with the top-ranked hires rather than new graduates. If we are going to hire for the lower-rank candidates (that's the majority of the population by the way!), we have to simplify the method by ourselves. Credibility: 7/10: The author stated that the A method works and it works with hundred of clients. From the experience and quotes by clients and success stories; the method sounds credible. However, the success, as the author claimed, of the method is very sentimental; it is measured mostly by customer satisfaction, I believe. It will be great if we have the data of the new recruits that actually outperform the scorecard, but measuring that will be tough. Insight: 5/10: Because the book is destined to be very practical and straight to the point, you will not see highly detailed information of those topics. They are mostly "what it is, why it should be done, how it must be done, and examples or quotes" and move on to the next topic. Reading Experience: 6/10: It is like reading a recruiting manual (a good one). There are stories all over the book but they are in glimpses and flashes. Having more stories of clients will be more fun and engaging but I believe that's not the point of "Who". Overall: 6.8/10: If you are going to work alone for the rest of your career, skip the book (and you won't be reading this review anyway!). If you are hiring or going to hire someone in the future, this book is a must buy. Personally, I am sure that I will come back to this book many times in the future. I agree with the author when they wrote "you are who you hire". Since I do not want to be a B or C player, I'll be looking for only A and The A Mothod sounds right to me.

Best 4 hours of my life in reading about recruitment. Hiring A players makes a great company great and this book gives clear methods and examples. Will get my whole leadership team to read it and also to implement it across my companies

Picked up the book on Saturday and devoured it by Sunday night. This is an excellent book on sourcing, recruiting and hiring "A" players into your organization. This book is really geared towards hiring the leaders and salespeople into your organization in a systematic and proven method. I took away of ton of information on not only hiring new employees for success, but also how to setup internal promotions for success. The scorecard that is outlined throughout the book is a game changer for our organization and will be implemented immediately. It ties what is virtually a job description into a scorecard for employees/leaders that rolls right into performance and incentive reviews. This book filled in several missing concepts for me and will be an effective way to assist our managers and leaders in sourcing and motivating new and existing employees. This will help us add and develop "A" players to our team and help us reach out aggressive growth goals. Great reference book for years to come.

I am reading the book and the content is good but the paperback came a little bit dirty inside, dont know why.

If you’ve been recruiting your team based on gut feelings or personal impressions, stop right now and read this book first. Who: The A Method for Hiring gives you a clear, structured, and practical system to identify, attract, and hire top talent. It takes the guesswork out of hiring and replaces it with a proven method that saves time, reduces costly mistakes, and helps you build high-performing teams. A game-changer for anyone serious about hiring the right people.

Le recrutement est l’une des premières problématiques que rencontrent tout entrepreneur. Ce livre est un excellent guide pour choisir avec précautions ses futurs collaborateurs et d’augmenter significativement ses chances de réussir. À lire et à relire.

Gives great insight and good method. Since it is applied method, I think this read is quite dense of knowledge.

Great information in this book. I like the step by step process for hiring. Recommended for HR and entrepreneurs looking to find high level executives and partners.

Se siete alla ricerca di una strategia su CHI assumere per la vostra azienda. Questo libro vi fornisce la giusta chiave per indirizzare le vostre scelte sulla figura migliore per l’azienda.