Who: The A Method for Hiring

Resources for Humans managing editor Celeste Blackburn reviews Geoff Smart and Randy Street’s book Who: The A Method for Hiring.

According to a study by Recruiting Roundtable, a division of the Corporate Executive Board, employers or their new hires regret their decisions half the time. The bad hiring decisions cost the average organization millions in lower performance, less-engaged new hires, and higher turnover. The study details several contributing factors, including that 40 percent of new hires report the information they received about the job when they applied was less than accurate. Overall, organizations and new hires achieve a win-win outcome in which both agree they made the right decision only half the time.

Those findings coupled with the fact that one of the few upsides of this economic climate for employers is that there are a lot of really talented, qualified people looking for jobs right now means that hiring really is an essential function of the HR person’s job.

In their book, Who: The A Method for Hiring, Smart and Street deliver a step-by-step approach to hiring right. They should know: Smart is the chairman and CEO of ghSMart, a management assessment firm that both helps companies set up successful hiring structures and recover from bad past hiring decisions, and Street is the president of the company. From that experience, they’ve created a four-part program for hiring your own “A” team (sorry, no B.A. Barachas or flashy van included).  They are:

• create a scorecard that describes “exactly what you want a person to accomplish in a role”;

• systematically “source” so that “you have high-quality candidates waiting when you need them”;

• select “A” talent through a series of interviews (the two do a good job of walking you through this process); and

• sell your company/the position to the right candidates.

Smart and Street’s book is definitely worth a read for any HR professional tasked with or involved in making hiring decisions. And making the right hiring decisions should help you with the rest of your job as you won’t be saddled down with documenting and counseling subpar employees on poor performance issues, firing for performance issues, and finally, rehiring for the same position.