Topgrading

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.