Customer Reviews

Hire With Your Head: Using Performance-Based Hiring to Build Great Teams

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Lou Adler distinguishes himself by being a feet-on-the-ground style of HR writer - acknowledging that the business of hiring the right people, and helping them grow successfully into their new role is far from perfect. He's critical of people who make hiring decisions based on gut decisions - the sense of a right fit - and, rather, focuses on a much more (dare I say) scientific approach to the process.

But "Hire With Your Head" isn't lofty theory - this is a pragmatic, systematic focus on the things that matter when making a hire. It develops the commonsense that he set out five years ago in the previous edition of this work. (Hire With Your Head: Using POWER Hiring to Build Great Teams, 2nd Edition.)

What Adler does is suffuse his writing with an added of measure of realism that I seldom see in employment books (other than the still excellent What Color Is Your Parachute? 2007: A Practical Manual for Job-Hunters and Career-Changers (What Color Is Your Parachute).) Indeed what Bolles did when he first wrote Parachute was get inside the head of the employer and show job-hunters that they simply need to market themselves. Adler takes the same view, fundamentally, and by getting inside the mind both of the hirer and prospect he shows how the dialogue can be much less hit or miss than it often proves.

I'd strongly recommend this for anyone making hiring decisions. It will give you focus and a greater consciousness of what the process is really about. Not many people love either hunting for a job, or interviewing and screening prospects. This book breaks through all that and turns the process (and the critical post-appointment process) into a really constructive and positive journey.

One of the hottest topics in human resource (HR) management right now is the latest HR Competency Study calling for HR professionals to become "credible activists" and to practice the craft "with an attitude."

Lou Adler and the 3rd edition of his "Hire with Your Head" again proves that he epitomizes both these traits - as he has done for recruiting and selection consistently since the publication of the first edition in 1998.

Reviewing the new edition thoroughly would require noting and commenting on each step of the system. For the sake of brevity - and because it is stated so clearly by Lou Adler himself, "If you want to hire superior people, use a system designed to hire superior people." "Hire with Your Head" lays out the clearly best practices for attracting, selecting, closing, and taking the necessary first steps to retain top performers. In this newest edition, he also outlines both the advantages and disadvantages of the latest technologies in hiring - in a new environment where he correctly advises that the hiring process has significantly changed to most of the power being possessed by outstanding candidates.

The system is fantastic and it works - as Lou Adler demonstrates through dozens of new case studies - and I have had first hand knowledge of the system working with several outstanding organizations - which basically "get it."

And perhaps, this is the greatest strength of the new book. Lou Adler does not hesitate one bit in pointing out that a) the best candidates are different from the rest, b) the hiring systems of most organizations are fundamentally flawed, and c) there are easily almost a dozen correctable problems that prevent organizations from hiring top talent. He's blunt - and accurate - when he points out that "Most hiring managers ...aren't very good at interviewing, yet they all think they are." And for every one of these problems, Adler's "Performance-Based Hiring" system provides actionable solutions.

I cannot state it better than author Bruce Tulgan states in the Preface: "Buy a copy of Lou Adler's "Hire with Your Head" for yourself, read it, and then buy copies for every hiring manager, every recruiter, and every human resource professional in your organization." That's being a "credible activist - with an attitude."

Alder's process and advice are a sensible and a relatively easy fix that will help hiring managers find the right people for their open positions. A bonus is that people hired using this process are more likely to stay for a longer time because they will,on average,be more engaged in the company and its work.
I recommend it to all my clients in my workforce development practice. By using Adler's approach a company will find top canidates for positions that many people think will be impossible to fill. In other words, using the Adler process will uncover more and better candidates to choose from. At the same time the process will make the postition more appealing to the candidates. Gary Lemon, President, Great Lakes Business Consulting, Inc. 866-801-4522.

Lou is a thought leader and provides actionable processes that will illuminate the hiring process. I am thankful he is willing to share his knowledge with the world.

Lou Adler continues to give some great advice in his newest Hire With Your Head: Using Performance-Based Hiring to Build Great Teams. Considering the actual costs of one unfortunate hire, businesses need to know all they can on how to do it better. Way to go, Lou!

Having worked professional headhunting in Scandinavia for more than 12 years I find Lou Adler's version # 3 of Hire With Your Head utmost valuable.
We're currently in a market where demand exceed supplies for top talents, and most companies fight for the same heads. Those wo win will be those companies understanding how top performers think and act. Lou Adler adds the recipe.
Hire with you Head is valuable for both recruiters and clients/decision makers (CEO's, Line Managers and HR people). It adds a structured way of interviewing as well as seling opportunities to the top performers.
I bought 4 books and will most probably buy more - as a gift to my own headhunters as well as clients.
- Trond Larsen, CEO MRI Network, Scandinavian Search Group AS, Norway

Lou Adler's Hire with Your Head is the best book on recruiting that I have come across. Lou sets out making recruiting and hiring a repeatable process, and then goes through each step of that process in detail, explaining what works and what doesn't work. This book will help any corporate or third-party recruiter to find, recruit, and hire/place better candidates. One caveat - this book does not talk about client development (finding clients, getting searches), so if you're looking for that information, you'll need to look elsewhere. But this is the one book that I would give to anyone who is involved in hiring, whether a recruiter, hiring manager, or HR professional. I can't recommend it highly enough.

Thank you Lou Adler. Hire with your Head is a great resource for recruiting. This book not only explains why you need to use performance-based hiring but it tells you HOW to follow through with implementing the process. This book is going to be an excellent tool for me to utilize in coaching my hiring managers to help me create accurate job requirements based on Performance Profiles. Hire with your Head is a great resource for any person involved in the hiring and screening of potential employees. I just wish someone gave me the book earlier in my career!

Hire With Your Head: Using Performance-Based Hiring to Build Great Teams
Fairly new to recruiting, this book is a must have for all hiring managers. It is an invaluable tool for any individual given the great responsibility of hiring for any organization.

I'll admit I jumped right to chapter 2 and then went back to read the rest. This is one of the first books I've found that is beneficial to 3rd party recruiters and corporate recruiters alike. I just a few short weeks I've noticed an increase in my call backs & referrals just by changing altering the proposition. Now if I could only get my hiring managers to read it.