Who: The A Method for Hiring [Hardcover]

Geoff Smart (Author), Randy Street (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 30, 2008

In this instant New York Times Bestseller, Geoff Smart and Randy Street provide a simple, practical, and effective solution to what The Economist calls “the single biggest problem in business today”: unsuccessful hiring. The average hiring mistake costs a company $1.5 million or more a year and countless wasted hours. This statistic becomes even more startling when you consider that the typical hiring success rate of managers is only 50 percent.

The silver lining is that “who” problems are easily preventable. Based on more than 1,300 hours of interviews with more than 20 billionaires and 300 CEOs, Who presents Smart and Street’s A Method for Hiring. Refined through the largest research study of its kind ever undertaken, the A Method stresses fundamental elements that anyone can implement–and it has a 90 percent success rate.

Whether you’re a member of a board of directors looking for a new CEO, the owner of a small business searching for the right people to make your company grow, or a parent in need of a new babysitter, it’s all about Who. Inside you’ll learn how to

• avoid common “voodoo hiring” methods
• define the outcomes you seek
• generate a flow of A Players to your team–by implementing the #1 tactic used by successful businesspeople
• ask the right interview questions to dramatically improve your ability to quickly distinguish an A Player from a B or C candidate
• attract the person you want to hire, by emphasizing the points the candidate cares about most

In business, you are who you hire. In Who, Geoff Smart and Randy Street offer simple, easy-to-follow steps that will put the right people in place for optimal success.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Think of Who as the literal and figurative son of TopGrading (2005), by Brad Smart. Coaches and consultants Smart and Street have broadened the how-to-hire process from interviews to a 360-degree perspective on recruiting A players. It’s a compelling read for many reasons: the research is solid and expansive, based on actual work, CEO/top-management interviews, and statistics analyses from a top graduate business school. It’s simple: instead of 6 reasons here and 10 steps there, the authors boil down their recommendations into a 4-step process, from scorecard and source to select and sell. Who wouldn’t like to read stories from well-known CEOs like George Buckley of 3M, opening up the mysterious method of executive hiring? And finally, it’s a book laced with humor; anecdotes about interviewees who’ve told their stories all too well are not only laughable but memorable, too—for all the right reasons. Like the candidate who bugged his boss’ office because he never received any performance appraisals. Intended for executive readers—and human resources’ follow-through. --Barbara Jacobs

Review

Advance praise for Who

“Seventy percent of the game is finding the right people, putting them in the right position, listening to them, and alleviating what gets in their way. Who is a practical guide to making sure you get the right people to start with! Excellent advice and guide.”
–Robert Gillette, president and CEO, Honeywell Aerospace

“Geoff Smart and Randy Street have done an amazing job distilling the best advice from some of the world’s most successful business leaders.”
–Wayne Huizenga, founder, Blockbuster Video

“A great read–it really is all about finding, keeping, and motivating the team.” –John Malone, chairman, Liberty Media Corporation

“The key point in this book is that those of us who run companies should include who decisions near the top of the list of strategic priorities.”
–John Varley, group chief executive, Barclays

“Who is the only book you need to read if you are serious about making smart hiring and promotion decisions. It is the most actionable book on middle- and upper-management hiring that I’ve read after twenty years in HR.”
–Ed Evans, executive vice president and chief personnel officer, Allied Waste Industries

“I wish I had this book thirty years ago, at the beginning of my career!”
–Jay Jordan, chairman and CEO, the Jordan Company

“This book will save you and your company time and money. In business, what else is there?”
–Roger Marino, co-founder, EMC Corporation

“You’ll find yourself nodding yes, saying ‘That’s right,’ and thinking, Oh, I’ve been there, all the way through this grand slam of a book. Whether you’re starting a company or running a part of a big one, the level of success you achieve is almost always a result of choosing the right people for the right jobs at the right time. It’s all about the who!”
–Aaron Kennedy, founder and chairman, Noodles & Company

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 208 pages
• Publisher: Ballantine Books; 1 edition (September 30, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0345504194
• ISBN-13: 978-0345504197
• Product Dimensions: 6.3 x 0.9 x 9.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (40 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #8,238 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #38 in Books > Business & Investing > Industries & Professions > Human Resources & Personnel Management

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

33 of 41 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Save your money - get "Hire With Your Head" instead., November 20, 2008

By 

Eric William (Michigan) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Who: The A Method for Hiring (Hardcover)

Within the hiring world, there is a split:
* Interviews can predict great hires,
* Assessments (like IQ tests) can predict great hires.

This book is all about longer and more complex interviewing.

The book focuses on hiring CEOs and top management, so remember that when looking at this book.

This book is useless for hiring college grads, IT professionals (Software Developers, Project Managers or Business Analysts). In fact, as I specialize in hiring tech people, I find this system goes against best practices for hiring technical people in any field as the book focuses on interviewing direct reports (people the candidate manages).

The main problem that I had was the that the book (nor the website) provided their research for review. Interviewing as the main stay of hiring has been PROVEN to be the WORST predictor of hiring success. However, this book suggest the main solution is to do more stringent interviewing.

The book supports three questionable interviewing techniques. The first is to THREATEN the candidate. The books suggest that the interviewer use phrases like, "WHEN I speak with your last boss, what will they tell me your strengths are." The author suggest that the use of "WHEN" lets the candidate know you will be speaking with their past manager. This, and other suggestions, seems a little heavy handed.

Then their is a lack of transparency in this hiring process. This system is quite manipulative and an experienced candidate could be turned off. One technique is to get the candidate to agree to the compensation early in the process. Any shewed candidate that wants to hold off salary negotiations until they know enough about the position, is toss out. In fact, the book authors brag about only hiring one person in 500 (at their web site) This is NOT a useful metric.

More bothersome is the suggestion that the interviewer find out about the candidate's spouse. This can be all sorts of illegal as martial status can be grounds for discrimination law suits. The book suggest that the candidate's spouse, and family, must be sold the job as well. While I agree that a candidate may decline an offer if their spouse objects to moving, a company needs to be VERY careful how they ask this question. "Would you and your family be comfortable with moving?" would be a much better way to ask this question. If the book's advice is followed, an inexperienced HR manager may ask, "would your SPOUSE be comfortable with relocation?" This is all kinds of bad.

The author's website says they have only a 97% client satisfaction rate. That is not all that good given the author's suggestion of the success of their technique.

To end on a positive note, ...
There is research that suggests that interviewing is only 50% predictive in hiring. That is, you could flip a coin and do as well as if you interviewed a candidate and chose. I am of this camp, I am a believer in cognitive assessments. But, if you are going to use interviews as your main screening method, I suggest "Hire With Your Head". A much better system.

15 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic Book on Hiring, September 30, 2008

By 

Clint Greenleaf (Austin, TX) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Who: The A Method for Hiring (Hardcover)

I just finished reading a pre-release copy of the book Who by Geoff Smart and Randy Street. Wow, it's good. Really good.
Geoff and his father Brad Smart are well known as the team that popularized Topgrading, a thorough interview process that takes the success rate for new hires from the average of about 50% to just over 90%. I don't know of a business owner alive who wouldn't love to increase the effectiveness of the interview and hire more effectively.
Smart and Street are experts in their field - they are paid huge sums of money to do this for some of the biggest and best companies in the world. Their research estimates that the average hiring mistake costs employers 15 times the salary of the incorrect hire. The number sounds absurdly high, but when you include salary, lost productivity and opportunity costs, it's plausible. Frightening.
Who is a fast and simple read, but is heavy on content. It begins with a discussion of what they call voodoo hiring, or the process most business owners use during the interview process, and it was painful for me. I'm guilty of voodoo hiring and I'm guessing most of you are, too. Much of my process is guessing and gut feel, and is done over too short of a period of time. It's not hard to see the need for a change.
Next comes a simple explanation of why hiring "A" players is so important. They define an "A" player as the right superstar for the job, a talented person who fits in well with your company culture. B and C hires cost you money; A's make you rich.
The meat of the book is about the four keys to what they call the A Method : Scorecard, Source, Select and Sell. I can't do justice to the brilliance of the system in this short review, but here are the basics. The scorecard is your blueprint for the job - not a description, but the criteria you will be using to judge the person who is ultimately hired. Source is how you find your candidates, primarily referrals and recruiting. Select goes over the four interviews that need to be conducted - screening, Topgrading, focused and reference. Sell is important and often overlooked, selling your top candidate on taking the job. With great people in demand, you need to fight for your best people.
Many of us have read Topgrading - it's a long read but describes the theory well. Even so, countless managers still have trouble implementing the system. Who bridges that gap and helps us see the whole process - then implement it well. This book just became required reading at Greenleaf Book Group, and the process is our new hiring process. I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to improve hiring practices and remove a huge piece of the risk.

Clint Greenleaf
CEO, Greenleaf Book Group

22 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A Good but Not Great Book, October 21, 2008

By 

Michael Gooch "Management Consultant-HR" (Washington, Indiana) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Who: The A Method for Hiring (Hardcover)

As a corporate director of human resources and business book author, I am always interested in new books that deal with the age-old problem of hiring the right person. I received my preview copy from Churn-baby-churn last week (great service!). It is very well written and flows smoothly from topic to topic. I must say that I was pleased with the overall content of the book but a little disappointed due to the reviews and pre-publication buzz not matching my expectations.

To begin, the subject matter is crucial to an organization's success. Some simply luck into hiring A players (even a blind hog will occasionally find an acorn) but so many do not put in the effort. This book makes a strong point that it is often a lack of effort on the part of management that prevents excellent hiring. I totally agree. I also agree with the "voodoo hiring methods" as I have seen these processes implemented through the years with astounding failure. I have been guilty of "voodoo hiring" myself.

I find difference with two aspects of the book. One is the process of using the Scorecard, Source, Select, Sell approach to hiring. Individually, they all have merit in parts or whole. However, as a system, I believe it would be somewhat cumbersome and eventually fail as a process. It also has the appearance of being a "fad" of which I strive to avoid. With that said, according to an organization's culture, select parts of this process could be adapted and implemented I believe with great success.

The other difference is the author's clear embrace of a total scientific methodology in making selections. In fact, the book states that the `gut instinct" is unreliable and should never be utilized in an interview. For the young and uninitiated manager, I agree. For the mature manager, I would diverge from the book and highly recommend you listen to your "gut". As pointed out in the great book, Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking by Malcolm Gladwell, this instinct is seldom wrong. You can also read more about using your instinct compass in the excellent Up the Organization: How to Stop the Corporation from Stifling People and Strangling Profits (J-B Warren Bennis Series)by Robert Townsend.

Overall, it is a good book, well researched and will stimulate thought as you restructure your hiring process.

I hope you found this review helpful. Michael L. Gooch, SPHR, Author of Wingtips with Spurs: Cowboy Wisdom for Today's Business Leaders.