Topgrading

Interest in Topgrading often comes from companies’ Human Resources Departments, and a question we often hear is, “How can we lead Topgrading throughout the organization if we do not have 100% support from upper management?”  The short answer is to do it quietly, and to become really good at the Topgrading steps that you have the most control over, to achieve some Topgrading success, and then “go public.”

 

Consider this.  Most external candidates’ first contact with any organization is with the Human Resources Department.  HR is usually responsible for creating a job description before posting a position.  HR then runs a job advertisement, uses in-house or external recruiters, or works A-player networks to collect resumes of potential candidates.  Someone in HR then screens the resumes and often conducts the initial telephone interview with candidates whose resumes look good.  All of that usually happens without a lot of involvement from the hiring manager.  HR really has a lot of power and influence when it comes to putting candidates into the selection pipeline, and there if you are responsible for your company’s human capital, there is a lot you can do to improve the quality of candidates who make it into the pipeline.

 

First, you can work with hiring managers to convert a typically vague job description into a Job Scorecard that describes exactly what an A player for a given position “looks like.”  The key: add measurable accountabilities.  Then, Topgrading Career History Forms can be sent to candidates. 

 

Use resumes and the Topgrading Career History Forms to determine who you would like to talk to on the phone, and use the Topgrading Career History Form to prepare for that initial screening interview.  The TGCHF requests crucial information such as salary history, performance ratings, and real reasons for leaving a job, and it has a “truth serum” that works.  The benefit: HR spends only half the time screening candidates and gets much better candidates to come in for face-to-face interviews. 

 

The most effective telephone screening interviews are like mini Topgrading Interviews, covering education, the most recent two jobs, a self-appraisal, and the candidate’s plans and goals for the future.  Those three steps, creating the Job Scorecard, screening candidates with the Topgrading Career History Form, and conducting a mini Topgrading Interview to further weed out candidates, will result in HR delivering high-quality candidates to the organization. 

 

Make Topgrading tools such as the Career History Form and Topgrading Interview Guide available to those responsible for sourcing and screening candidates and get those people trained to use them efficiently and effectively.  By creating a core group of “Topgrading Experts” in the Human Resources Department, you can dramatically effect the caliber of talent that hiring managers have to choose from and ultimately add significant value to your organization’s bottom line.

 

Pick a couple of talent-oriented A players and quietly help them Topgrade their teams.  Give them the free eBook, Avoid Costly Mis-Hires (available on our home page) and have them review any other materials you have found helpful.  Measure their hiring success before Topgrading.  After Topgrading for a year, measure it again.  The improvement will be dramatic.

 

With one or two successful case studies and A players praising you for helping them Topgrade, the senior team is bound to pay attention.

 

The final benefit: The most valued of the 1,000 HR Executives we’ve worked with do one thing above all others: they deliver significantly improved talent.