Topgrading, 3rd Edition

Most organizations succeed or fail on the strength of their people, yet hiring remains a gamble. Research cited in this book suggests only about a quarter of new hires turn out to be high performers. Bradford Smart, an industrial psychologist who has spent decades advising employers on hiring, argues that the odds can be changed with a disciplined method in place of gut feeling.

He pins the usual failures on three problems: candidates who present deceptive résumés, interviews too shallow to reveal much, and references that are biased and hard to verify. The Topgrading system is built to address each one. It replaces first impressions with a structured process that draws out candid, complete information about a person's career history, so that a hiring decision rests on evidence. Companies that adopted it report hiring success rates climbing dramatically, in some cases as high as 90%.

Smart's clients have included General Electric, Honeywell, midsize and small firms in many industries, and not-for-profits such as the American Heart Association. This third edition is the first full revision in seven years. It adds a simplified approach for entry-level roles, the Topgrading Snapshot for screening out weak candidates in about 15 seconds, an updated interview script, and case studies from 35 companies new to this edition, along with innovations contributed by practitioners.

The book goes beyond recruiting. It also covers promoting and developing people: rewarding top performers, coaching solid B players toward the A level, and moving out those C players who are unlikely to improve. It is written for managers and executives at any level who want a practical, repeatable way to build stronger teams.