Topgrading

A recent study done by the Human Capital Institute et. al. validated several points that we have been talking (or preaching) about for years with mainly anecdotal data as backup.

Here are the highlights: Read more »

Topgrading “sounds good” to every manager, but we frequently hear from Topgraders , “There are doubters who say that doubling and tripling hiring success sounds too good to be true, so what can I tell them?”

You can drop names of well known companies that Topgraded, expecting to impress the doubter.  And you can say,  “Read Chapter 5 of Topgrading – it’s loaded with case studies of leading companies whose CEOs swear to the truth in the stats, typically 25% - 90% A players hired.”  People rationally believe this but people want to feel the results … somehow … to be really convinced Topgrading saves a lot of money.

This Topgrading Tips article walks you through two short exercises to give any doubters that “feel.”  We’ve used these exercises in workshops for years – exercises in which doubters  “run the numbers” with their own conservative assumptions.

To get to a bottom line, in workshops the average attendee concludes, “Wow, every time I hire someone, including bad hires and good hires, using Topgrading methods I’ll probably put an average of $250,000 on the bottom line and I’ll perform better and get faster promotions.”

Exercise #1:  Estimate the percent high performers you’ve hired in recent years.

This exercise takes less than a minute.  Just think – what percent of the people I’ve hired turned out to be high performers, A players, starts, what I expected … with the only other category MIS-hire.

Our research over the years shows the average rate of good hires to be 25%.  Of course, if you include disappointing but adequate performers, your hiring “success” is probably closer to 80%.  But Topgraders set the bar high, and if you are disappointed or worse with 75% of your hires, you’re typical … and you have a 25% success rate.

Now show the doubter Chapter 5 of Topgrading, and they will be impressed that leading companies took their success rate from 25% to 90%.

Exercise #2: Estimate the costs of a typical mis-hire.  Use this form:

This is the most widely referenced cost of mis-hire form, and in only 15 or 20 minutes your doubter will be amazed at how COSTLY a typical mis-hire is.  In our Topgrading books we show the costs to range, for various jobs, from 5 to 27 times base salary.  And your doubter will be amazed at how time consuming it is to sweep up after a typical mis-hire (200 hours, typically).

The combination of doing those two short exercises, followed by reading Chapter 5 in Topgrading, will go along way toward convincing your doubter that Topgrading hiring indeed can pack their team with high performers.

RECOMMENDED RESOURCE: Consider attending our June 23 - 24 Topgrading Workshop to learn the 12 Topgrading Steps and get personalized coaching from Brad Smart and other Topgrading professionals.  Click here for information.

This question, or some variation of it, is one of the most frequent questions Topgrading Professionals get asked. People tend to understand the benefits of a thorough selection process for managers and executives, but often balk at driving Topgrading processes down through the organization. The answer is YES, OF COURSE!

Our clients have opened our eyes on this. For about 25 years Brad assessed candidates for top executive positions and when companies wanted training, the focus was on what Brad knew best - upper level managers. But clients took Topgrading lower, lower, and now to entry level jobs, telling us that Topgrading methods, simplified, are BY FAR the best hiring methods for 100% of employees. Read more »

 

ERE.net is a popular networking and learning site for recruiters.  The site publishes Excellence Awards annually; there were seven award winners and seven runners up for 2010.  A description of the awards, winners, and what they did in 2009 is in a four-part article on their site.  Links to the article: Part 1   Part 2   Part 3   Part 4.

 

Winners were divided into seven categories - Employee Referral Programs, Employer Branding, Corporate Careers Website, College Recruiting, Excellence in Retention, Strategic Use of Technology, and Overall Award Winner

The list of winners and the best practices they have implemented are great resources for those of you in Human Resources and business leaders who have HR people reporting to them.  It is  a nearly comprehensive list of the things a great HR Department could and should be doing…but one metric is conspicuously missing from the criteria upon which companies were judged.  The missing metric is Quality of Hire.  In other words, when someone was hired, did that person turn out to be an A player or not? Read more »

(Note:  In this article is a chart with 50 competencies color coded by Easy to Change, Hard to Change, and In-Between.)

Managers have told us that one of their most recurring frustrations, a daily challenge, is trying to figure out if an employee can improve in one or more competencies – if training or coaching will actually make a difference.  Or, if the person is “hard-wired” and simply not capable of changing, even if they are a super coach.

Ditto for hiring.  After conducting tandem Topgrading interviews, there is almost always a conversation that goes something like this:  “We agree, candidate X has a lot of strengths, but like all candidates, she has some weaker points.  She is no better than average in several competencies, such as political savvy, personal organization, and public speaking.  Do you suppose that training events and coaching can significantly improve her in these three competencies?”

We Topgraders have what should be a very clean, definitive answer.  I’ve interviewed over 6,000 executives, each with an average of 10 jobs, and I heard for each and every job their description of successes, failures, boss appraisals of their competencies and whether those competencies were strengths or weaker points.  That’s over 60,000 “case studies” that shed light on whether or not competencies can be improved upon.  Multiply that times 40 Topgrading professionals, and we really should know if competencies can be changed and if so, how managers can coach people to change.  (The “how” is a future Topgrading Tips.)

For now, let’s make some generalizations.  As Topgrading professionals, we’ll share our experience with you, categorizing 50 competencies according to whether those competencies are Easy to Change, Hard to Change, or In-Between.

Are there exceptions?  Of course.  Integrity, intelligence, and passion are hard-wired, but occasionally someone does “re-wire” their brain.  For example I worked with a man who truly authored his own “integrity transplant.”  He was fired from a brokerage firm for dishonesty, and prohibited from selling stocks and bonds, ever!  He characterized himself as a “slimeball,” and a few years later compared himself, or rather his FORMER self to the wheeler-dealer in the movie Wall Street (‘greed is good’).  He was so shattered at how he had disappointed his parents, wife, kids, and friends, that he did in fact transform himself.  Ten years later I interviewed him and he insisted that my client call all bosses he’d had since the debacle, for he said, “They will rate me a 10 on a 10-point scale of honesty, and describe my ethics as rock solid.”

Indeed the references were that positive.  Flash forward 20 years and the man retired as CEO of a famous company, and his reputation was (and is) stellar.

Another example:  I’ve seen many “obviously” C player managers, lacking in resourcefulness, drive, energy, passion, and initiative, “come alive” and perform at the A player level when something crucial happened:  the company Topgraded, fired C player bosses and replaced them with A players.  In most of those cases the Topgrading Interview showed that the “C players” had been As in the past, and when they again reported to A players who encouraged their ideas and inspired them, they returned to A player status.

But generally don’t expect dramatic improvements in people who are intellectually limited, lazy, dishonest, or uninspiring.  Or, to say it more accurately, only bet on people improving competencies when they have a history of improving competencies.

People who, in job after job, overcome weaker points are usually high potential people with accurate self-awareness, self-objectivity, and a high level of ambition and energy.  They show a pattern of soliciting feedback, welcoming coaching, and actually turning weaker points into strong points.  Aah – these are the A players you want, the high performers who will welcome your coaching and actually improve!

RECOMMENDED RESOURCE: The new Topgrading Workbook, the one used in all our workshops, is organized around the Topgrading Vision.  Each of the 12 steps is explained, the problem it solves is clarified, and then fun exercises teach the Topgrading skill.  You have to actually use it to get the favorable results!  For more information and to invest in the Topgrading Workbook, click here.