Book Review - ‘Who – The A Method For Hiring’ by Geoff Smart and Randy Street
READ: 5 mins
REVIEWER: Robert Craven
It is so wretchedly difficult to hire good people. Wrong people, wrong fit, wrong culture, liars, blah blah. If people are our most important asset then there must be a way of hiring decent folk. Maybe this is it… or at least it is as good a starting point as you will find.
Loads of people have recommended and talked about ‘Who – The A Method For Hiring’ by Geoff Smart and Randy Street. It is a good read even if it states the obvious. However, it is clear and jargon-free with lots of lists and explanation of their approach and the thinking behind it. Lots of lists and checklists for different types of interviews. It is a great manual for hiring and recruiting.
I suspect that the book is worth reviewing (suck it dry over 30 minutes) and/or reading for almost any agency owner. Despite being written in 2008 it feels modern and up to date. What it lacks is how we recruit in the days where so many people are working from home and not by choice. Here are some extracts -
My highlights:
It’s about “who” not about “what”
Finding A players— an A player is “a candidate who has at least a 90 percent chance of achieving a set of outcomes that only the top 10 percent of possible candidates could achieve.”
The following excerpts are taken from “Who — The A method for hiring”:
Scorecard — This describes exactly what you want a person to accomplish in a role. It is not a job description, but rather a set of outcomes and competencies that define a job.
Source— Systematic sourcing before you have slots to fill ensures you have high-quality candidates waiting when you need them.
Select— A series of structured interviews that allow you to gather the relevant facts about a person so you can rate your scorecard and make an informed hiring decision. These structured interviews break the voodoo hiring spell.
Sell— Once you identify people you want on your team through selection, you need to persuade them to join. Selling the right way ensures you avoid the biggest pitfalls that cause the very people you want the most to take their talents elsewhere.
The three parts of the A Method scorecard
The mission— The mission is an executive summary of the job’s core purpose. It boils the job down to its essence, so everybody understands why you need to hire someone into the slot. You’ll know you have a good mission when candidates, recruiters, and even others from your team understand what you are looking for without having to ask clarifying questions. A good mission statement could for instance read: “To serve as a visionary leader who helps the bank capture market share from the competition by analysing the market and devising successful new strategies and product offerings.” Mission statements also help you avoid one of the most common hiring traps: hiring a generalist over a specialist.
Outcomes— Outcomes, the second part of a scorecard, describe what a person needs to accomplish in a role. An outcome is something which a person must get done.
Competencies— Competencies flow directly from the first two elements of the scorecard. Competencies describe how you expect a new hire to operate in the fulfilment of the job and the achievement of the outcomes.
Critical competencies for A Players
Efficiency
Honesty/integrity
Organisation and planning
Aggressiveness
Follow-through on commitments
Intelligence
Analytical skills
Attention to detail
Persistence
Proactivity
Ability to hire A Players (for managers)
Ability to develop people (for managers)
Flexibility/adaptability
Calm under pressure
Strategic thinking/visioning
Creativity innovation
Enthusiasm
Work ethic
High standards
Listening skills
Openness to criticism and ideas
Communication
Teamwork
Persuasion
Select: interview steps
Screening Interview —What are your career goals? What are you good at professionally? What are you not good at or interested in doing professionally? Who were your last five bosses, and how will they each rate your performance on a 1–10 scale when we talk to them? The whole point of the screening interview is to weed people out as quickly as possible.
Who Interview— The Who Interview is designed to give you more confidence in your selection because it uncovers the patterns of somebody’s career history, which you can match to your scorecard. The Who Interview is a chronological walkthrough of a person’s career.
Focused Interview— In the Focus Interview, you can gather additional, specific information about your candidate.
Reference Interview
Skill-Will Bull’s-Eye— When a candidate’s skill-will profile matches up perfectly with the requirements outlined on your scorecard, your candidate hits the skill-will bull’s-eye.