American people have been prone to overrate different things over time. In the last years they got crazy about Internet companies and next over real state, valuing them way above what they were really worth. And now I see a small bubble forming up.

Just like real state and the early Internet start-ups, "Who" is both quite useful and has quite potential benefits. Now, keep on mind the diversity of "corporate cultures" (funny name when companies are nothing but wild jungles) or values. Geoff and Randy (G & R) emphasized that a great candidate should always have his references quite excited when recommending him, but values are quite different in different companies, sometimes within themselves. There are places where "working too hard" is indeed a true defect.

What I've been seeing where I live -in the Mid-west- is a pressure from companies to drop the salaries to 3rd world levels, while trying to offer other things to make up, particularly "making you happy". One staffing agency, Stat-Tek, even shows a guy dressing Hawaii clothing, with a slogan "another day at the office!"; below that, a funny paragraph describes the "associates" (employees) having fun with activities such as shaving the boss' head.

A contract company I worked for (EPL-BAS) would overstaff and then have the employees wasting hours and hours playing cards and telling jokes, no exaggeration at all. It was actually a priority socializing a lot there. This company gets some government benefits when hiring more and more people, which makes it overstaffed. At the same time, it wants costs at almost zero, which makes their staff very very badly paid. Their solution is hiring unqualified staff and focusing in creating a "happy" atmosphere. It should boost morale to motivate the employees to work well while keep salaries way down. That's why their key value was being quite social.

Companies can be outrageously different.

G & R have shown us how to get some clues on how to discover false good recommendation. Yet, they forgot to take into account that different values in companies also lead to wrongful good recommendations...and equally important, these different values lead to wrongfully bad recommendations too. Thus, think twice when bosses complain about former employees, they virtually do it always. And think twice when they are thrilled at someone, he may just have being politics master.

As G & R say, get curious but they don't tell you how for these cases. Well, focus on the skills and attitudes your job needs and enquire about them as much as possible. Remember that on these referral interviews you are on the other side of the equation, and the jerkness you can afford with job seeker no longer exits. You are now on a similar seat. You cannot cut the talk within 15 minutes if you don't like the interview or keep pushing "tell me more".

The companies' web sites may well be deceiving on what their true values are. Referral interviews are still a bit of dark magic. For me, my question is why so many consultants say that some referrals may keep silent for fear of being sued. Who's going to know normally?

As for the candidate interviews, you should also skip the third one, the focused one, which is about how the candidate matches your scorecard. The previous one -the topgrading- should provide that info. More important, G & R recommend bring more people in, and well remind you that you have to prepare them with a scrip and previous info, otherwise they'll bring their voodoo methods to the table and screw the whole time-consuming process. Actually, you have to teach this method to any person you invite to join the interviews. Otherwise, they will insist on their voodoo sorcery.

In general, G & R don't prepare well enough their readers to deal with the defects of candidates. They say candidates should admit at least 5 flaws. Those are many and still normal, people are quite flawed. Will your objectivity be enough to neglect -or put up with- those many flaws that are not key to their performance?

Whenever you ask former employers about their flaws, they will surely tell you much more than the candidates, sometimes they will exaggerate. How to tell exaggerations from realities? Maybe the slogan that G & R mention, "if you look for...., then X is the right one" is helpful.

And by the same token (everybody is quite flawed), candidates must also be allowed to criticize their former employers at some point. If only former employers can criticize, how can an objective judgment will be done? In fact, letting the candidates criticize their employer will let you see more of their personalities and performance. A guy who just criticizes is surely a bad candidate, but what about one who keeps her tone? And finally, keeping bad comments on former bosses is widely advised all over the internet and books. I can't imagine a job seeker criticizing his boss on a job interview.

And what about those great candidates who happened not to make eye-catching resumes and letters? G & R don't cover the fact that it's not the best candidates but the best self-marketers who get interviews. These problems even happen to candidates in engineering and sciences

When you hire a CEO, you can get a lot of reliable information, but most hires are not for CEOs.

All in all, it's still a good book to get, but trimming the fat and keeping simpler to the first two candidate interviews and probably the referral one.

American people have been prone to overrate different things over time. In the last years they got crazy about Internet companies and next over real state, valuing them way above what they were really worth. And now I see a small bubble forming up.

Just like real state and the early Internet start-ups, "Who" is both quite useful and has quite potential benefits. Now, keep on mind that weird things "corporate culture" (funny name when companies are nothing but wild jungles) or values. Geoff and Randy (G & R) emphasized that a great candidate should always have his references quite excited when recommending him, but values are quite different in different companies, sometimes within themselves. There are places where "working too hard" is indeed a true defect.

What I've been seeing where I live -in the Mid-west- is a pressure from companies to drop the salaries to 3rd world levels, while trying to offer other things to make up, particularly "making you happy". One staffing agency, Stat-Tek, even shows a guy dressing Hawaii clothing with a slogan "another day at the office!"; below that, a funny paragraph describes the "associates" (employees) having fun with activities such as shaving the boss' head.

A contract company I worked for (EPL-BAS) would overstaff and then have the employees wasting hours and hours playing cards and telling jokes, no exaggeration at all. It was actually a priority socializing a lot. This company gets some government benefits when hiring more and more people, which makes them overstaffed. At the same time, it wants costs at almost zero, which makes their staff very very badly paid. Their solution is hiring unqualified staff and focusing in creating a "happy" atmosphere. That's why their key value was being quite social.

Thus, there are companies for whom, being social and always up-beat are key qualities way above any other and quite reject to hold people accountable. In some others, the single key is pleasing the boss. They normally stay small as G & R showed on his ideal CEO profile, a real dynamic one, not a Oprah Winfrey-show-off.

G & R have shown us how to get some clues on how to discover false good recommendation. Yet, somehow they forgot to take into account that different values in companies also lead to wrongful good recommendations...and equally important! These different values lead to wrongfully bad recommendations too. Thus, think twice when bosses complain about former employees, they virtually do it always. And think twice when they are thrilled at someone, he may just have being politics master, unless of course the guy did achieve goals. As G & R say, get curious but they don't tell you how for these cases.

The companies' web sites may well be deceiving on what their true values are. EPL -for example- claims to be a fast-peace place. Referral interviews are still kind of dark magic. For me, my question is why so many consultants say that some referrals may keep silent for fear of being sued. Who's going to know normally?

As for the candidate interviews, you should also skip the third one, the focused one, which is about how the candidate matches your scorecard. The previous one -the topgrading- should provide that info. More important, G & R recommend bring more people in, and well remind you that you have to prepare them with a scrip and previous info, otherwise they'll bring their voodoo methods to the table and screw the whole time-consuming process. Actually, you have to teach this method to any person you invite to join the interviews. Otherwise, the sorcery will beat science.

In general, G & R don't prepare well enough their readers to deal with the defects of candidates, even they say candidates should admit at least 5 flaws. Those are many and also real. People are quite flawed. Will your objectivity be enough to neglect those many flaws that are not key to their performance?

And what about those great candidates who happened not to make eye-catching resumes and letters? G & R don't cover the fact that it's not the best candidates but the best self-marketers who get interviews. These problems even happen to candidates in engineering and sciences

When you hire a CEO, you can get a lot of reliable information, but most hires are not for CEOs.

All in all, it's still a good book to get, but trimming the fat and keeping more simple to the first three candidate interviews.

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.

Great book on hiring the right people - If you hire right, 85% of your manager's job is complete!

Finally, a business book that is clear, concise and actionable. This book very clearly lays out the authors' methodology for hiring great people. This methodology is complete, easy to understand and is presented in a way you can truly incorporate into you business. We started using this methodology with our most recent open position and although we have not successfully hired anyone, we have screened out two candidates who looked really good on paper but ultimately would not have been a fit. NOT hiring the wrong candidate is as valuable as finding the right one.

I rate WHO 5 stars for 3 primary reasons:

Easy-to-Read - If a resource is to be useful, it must be accessible. The book was so easy to read, that when I gave a copy to a fellow executive of my company (an operator who has hired 100s of people over his nearly 30-year career), he read it over the weekend and has found it very valuable. Candidly, I was surprised that he had completed it when we talked the following Monday. We have since talked about how to effect some recommended changes at our company. I started reading the much more dense Topgrading, but I stopped halfway thru. I doubt I would ever have been able to get my colleague to read Topgrading. Topgrading is more academic, which suits me fine on occasion, but I needed a quicker read here.

A True Mirror - WHO is honest & relevant, as it exposed several key areas of improvement. In several instances, we saw ourselves in the examples of poor hiring methods...perhaps a little "painful & embarrassing" to see, but it's necessary to know your shortcomings to improve them.

Actionable - Finally, WHO provides actionable recommendations for the key hiring phases, a critical barometer for determining the value of such a book. We have been able to quickly begin to employ some of the techniques discussed in the book at my company.

FYI, I bought 10 copies of the book to give to colleagues & friends.

This book has a lot going for it. In short, I really enjoyed reading it and found the authors' insights very practical. A few highlights:

- The authors give a very simple framework to use for a critical task (i.e., hiring the right people) where most people aren't very proficient.
- The authors have an engaging and easy to read writing style.
- The book is full of real world examples.
- The authors' firm works with blue chip clients employing this framework. Therefore, what is presented in the book isn't a framework based on theory or hypotheses, but rather a substantial amount of actual application.

Well worth the time to read!

"Who" is an incredibly valuable book. It also is as much of a page-turner as any business book I've ever read.

The authors take on perhaps the #1 challenge facing anyone in a leadership position: how do you find good people to successfully enact your institutional mission and vision? Based on their own consulting experience and exhaustive research among a virtual "who's who" of CEOs and managers, Mr. Smart and Mr. Street take the reader step-by-step through the how-to's and, perhaps even more importantly, the how-not-to's of effective recruiting and hiring.

This book is engaging, compelling, and even entertaining. From their critique of what they call "voodoo hiring methods," to their very clear and actionable four-step process for recruiting (scorecard, source, select, and sell), anyone who employs people will find tremendous value.

In reading "Who," I was reminded of a t.v. show in which a masked magician shares the secrets behind seemingly impossible tricks. The mask is necessary because of the presumed hostility that other magicians will feel towards someone breaching their code of silence. I hope that Mr. Smart and Mr. Street don't need to resort to wearing masks to protect themselves from aggrieved H.R. consultants, but their willingness to reveal the secrets behind their clearly successful methods will be much appreciated by anyone who makes the very wise investment in buying and reading this book.

A company is only as strong as the human capital that keeps it humming. Unemployment is on its way up, leading to greater scrutiny and a greater number of applicants to screen for every open position. The authors of Who present the challenge of hiring right as an obstacle that can be overcome. They conducted a thousand plus hours of interviews with three hundred CEOs and 20 billionaires to determine some best strategies for getting the right people on the bus.

The book's style is applicable if you're working in a non-profit, traditional US corporation or even a small business. Specifically the authors aim to help you:

* give up the traditional interview
* set clear objectives for your hiring process
* keep a positive flow of quality talent
* develop good interview questions
* position your company as a place good people want to work.

I work in human resources and find Who to be a helpful resource for educating managers on how to hire effectively.

Another book I recommend strongly for engaging your workforce and helping them to make the most of what they have is The Emotional Intelligence Quick Book it's an outstanding book and a perfect follow-on to Who for those you choose to hire.

This sophisticated and simple book reminds us that subjective hiring is risky and can cost you your business. Who lays out a strategic approach to hiring that, if followed, can set you, your hiring team and your chosen employees up for immediate success.

Kristine Steinberg, President of Kismet Consulting, LLC
[...]

One-third of this book is an advertisement for itself: how great it is, how the methods are truly awesome, tested, etc. If you do read this, skip to the meat. Not that there's much of that either.

It's not mentioned in the blurbs, but his book centers around hiring CEOs and financial industry managers, which is a pretty small niche. If you needed to hire someone to program for you, this book might not apply.

I'd recommend getting this from the library and skimming the sections that deal directly with interview questions, as they offer the only fresh information.

The advice can be boiled down to a few principles:

1. Prescreen the heck out of your applicants so you only use your valuable time interviewing only those who will fit the position.

2. Ask a lot of questions that get the applicant off of their scripts in order to identify both problem areas in the past and areas where the applicant fits the position. When you're offered a cliché, such as the response "I tend to work too hard" to the "what are your perceived weaknesses?" question, probe until you get real answers that contain real examples.

3. Make sure that you glean information about underlings who've dealt with the applicant as well as their supervisors. Many applicants appear to be a good fit until you talk to those who've worked FOR them.

4. Have the position and the expected outcomes of whomever would fill it defined as precisely as possible, with real-world measurables.

5. Fire them hard and fast if they do not meet the defined expectations.

There's also a lot of piffle about "A" employees (as opposed to the less desirable "B" and "C" employees). Even the book eventually concedes that someone's grade as an employee is based as much on their fit to the position as their overall potential. Short version: It's all about context. Some people are great managers, while others are great line producers, etc.

As a small, but growing employer, talent decisions are make or break for us. Street and Smart systemically lay out a plan to proactively designate our specific needs, identify the targeted A players from the "all-arounders" and successfully bring them on board. Great read and very implementable program!

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.

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 quilty 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 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.

Who: The A Method for Hiring is an amazing book that every business owner, manager, and aspiring leader needs to have on their bookshelf.

I am very familiar with Geoff's methods and the TopGrading process in general - the program is use to use, easy to adopt, and produces great results for your organization.

At my company, we use the program in conjunction with our hiring technology. By following Who's program, we have made some of the best decisions (both hire and no-hire) we have made since our launch. We have saved a lot of money and made even more.

Buy the book.

Mark Newman
CEO, HireVue

I like this book because it sets out a clear point of view--that most of us have been neglecting a key component to business success: hiring in a rigorous manner. It then proceeds to offer a method for correcting this problem. I haven't yet tried the method itself, but I intend to. My preliminary reaction is that it makes intuitive sense, but that it's going to take a fair amount of time to implement successfully. The authors anticipate this response and argue that more time now saves an inordinate amount of time later. I'll add more once I've tried the method, but first response is positive.

If you run a business in which there are employees other than yourself, then chances are that you've hired the wrong person a time or two. It can be a huge disappointment when that happens- a time consuming and costly one, and one that takes its toll on the employee as well as on the company. The authors reveals how to avoid the time and the upset by hiring the right person on the first go-round. Although this book focuses on the hiring of middle and upper management individuals, their advice translates for hiring down through the ranks as well.

You will learn how to define your outcome for each hiring campaign, how to interview more effectively, and how to motivate the ideal candidate to join your company. There are other books on Amazon with similar subject matter, but none with the extensive research that supports the findings presented by the authors here.

Like other reviewers, I wish I'd had this book about 8 years ago. If this book only helps you to make one great hire, it will have paid for itself 1000's of times over.

Intriguingly insightful, deceptively simple, intuitively appealing. The authors use research with CEOs to support a strong, tight model that works. Definitely the smart way to select for talent.
Richard M. Vosburgh, Ph.D.
President, RMV Solutions

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

Excellent treatment of a critical craft for any enterprise ...Eminent, yet readable and immediately usable...If you are cognizant of the power of human capital, and either employ or influence those who hire...
R E A D T H I S B O O K.

Larry Cozzillio
President,The Andre Group