This document discusses performance-based hiring and topgrading. It recommends focusing on candidates' accomplishments and potential to achieve key objectives, rather than generic behavioral interviews. Sample interview questions are provided to evaluate how candidates would accomplish important deliverables and assess similar past achievements. Reference checks and rating candidates on competencies are also recommended as part of building the best team.

1. PERFORMANCE-GRADING
HIRING THE BEST
• Performance-based
• Results-focused
by
Glenn Powell

2. Director, Faculty and Staff Human Resources
• Minimum of a Bachelor’s Degree in Business or Public
Administration, Human Resources Management, or related
field. Masters’ Degree highly desirable.
• At least seven years of HR experience, with at least five years
of experience in a supervisory capacity.
• Experience in higher education is required.
• Demonstrated experience administering disciplinary
programs, and in handling and responding to complaints.
• Proven leadership and the ability to manage, inspire and lead
a team of dedicated professionals in a customer service
oriented HR environment.

3. APPLICANT SHORT LIST
• Michele Blair
• George Stone
• Connor Stein

4. Who’s Your Super-Star Now!

5. Department of Labor Survey
• 85% -- Of Applicants Are Unfit For The Job
• 55% -- Of Employees Are Dissatisfied With Their
Job
• 46% -- Of New Hires Leave W/N 18 Months
• 30% -- Of Business Failures Are Due To Poor Hiring
Decisions

6. Most Effective Screening Criteria??
1. Highest level degree and greatest years of
experience?
2. Experience that best matches the “Perfect
Candidate Profile”?
3. Documented accomplishments in meeting
/exceeding the key deliverables of the position?

7. Carnac the Magnificent

8. Sometimes They Just Don’t Get It!

9. Variables Which Determine
Hiring Success
1. Availability
2. Selection

10. PerFormance - Grading
Best of the Best
• Performance-Based Profiles – Lou Adler
• Top-Grading - Bradford Smart

11. TALENT-CENTRIC
“The single most important driver of
organizational performance and individual
managerial success is talent. The ability
to…hire the best…is what distinguishes
premier companies from mediocre firms.”
Bradford Smart, Ph.D. author of
“TOPGRADING, HOW LEADING COMPANIES WIN BY
HIRING, COACHING AND KEEP THE BEST PEOPLE”

12. Creating your own ‘A Team’”
• TopGrading -- “To fill every position in the
organization with an A player”
• A Player – “One who qualifies among the top
10% of those available for the job.”
– Best “Bang for Buck”
– Exists at all salary levels

13. Importance of Top-Grading
– Contribute more – Implement change more
effectively
– Innovate more – Develop higher quality
work
– Develop better
business strategies – Demonstrate better team
work
– Take more initiative – Identify more innovative
work processes

14. What Attracts “A” Players
1. Challenging work*
2. Personal development / Mentors*
3. Advancement*
4. Working with other stars*
5. Organization support and resources*
6. Compensation
*Does the traditional job description posting mention any of these items that will
draw the best passive candidates to your job listing?

15. RECRUITMENT
Identifying the Actual Position
Requirements
Position Success Profile

16. BLOW UP THE JOB DESCRIPTION !

17. Job Analysis –
Essential Questions
EXAMPLES:
1. What has kept incumbents from being successful in the past.?
2. What do the best people in this job do differently than the average or
below-average person?
3. What's the biggest problem the person will need to solve, or change
initiative that will need to be implemented.?

18. Success Profile
EXAMPLES:
• Vice-President of Research -- Create, implement, and monitor an approved
strategic plan by the end of FY 2013, that would position the division as a
leader in its field.
• Chair of a Medical Lab and Radiology -- Implement programs that grow the
research center and increase external funding by 40%.
• Sr. Accountant – Close/reconcile the year-end ledger w/n 30 days.
• Sales consultant -- Contact 30 new customers per quarter and initiate 10 new
contracts.
• Web Master -- Complete the website design analysis in 50% of the normal
time.
• Executive director -- Turn-around a division in 18 months that has been
losing market share for the past five years.

19. Success Profile –
Recruiting Manager
Major objective: During the first year, convert the LSCS talent acquisition department
into a flexible team that can meet all of the hiring needs of the institution with top
quality people within three to four weeks of any opening.
1. Evaluate and rebuild the team. Develop and implement an action plan to
strengthen the department to meet the institution’s aggressive hiring needs.
2. Identify the real hiring problems. Quickly understand the hiring challenges the
organization is facing, determine budget needs to marshal resources, and obtain
executive buy-in and approval.
3. Prepare a process flow chart of the hiring process. Working with the team and
IT, process-map the institution’s hiring process. Identify the key bottlenecks and
implement short-term fixes.

20. Success Profile –
Recruiting Manager (Cont.)
4. Establish a workforce-planning process. Within 120 days, align workforce plan
with the marketing forecast and business plan. Identify key hiring needs by job
type for the next four quarters. Revise recruiting plans accordingly.
5. Upgrade technology. Lead the effort to evaluate existing talent acquisition
technology. Create and implement a plan to refit the technology platform to
improve both quality of hire by at least 50 percent.
6. Convert the talent acquisition department into a line function using
performance-based metrics. Within 12 months, develop metrics to track real-
time performance of critical hiring components. Work with IT to develop a
web-based dashboard that all managers and recruiters can use to track the
status of each search.

21. GREAT ADVERTISING ??

22. JOB SEEKING ACTIVITY OF
Fully Employed
VERY ACTIVE
SEMI - ACTIVE
SUPER PASSIVE
8%
TIP - TOER
22% 10%
16%
Very Active
Semi-Active
44% Tip-Toer
EXPLORER
Explorer
Super Passive

23. PASSIVE VS.
ACTIVE CANDIDATES
82% vs. 8% vs. 10%
Very
Active
82% vs.
8% Semi-
Active
8% & 10%
10%
Passive Very Active
Semi-Active
Passive Seeker
(Includes: Tip-
Toer, Explorer
, & Super
Passive)

24. Sourcing Philosophy
• Picture your perfect job applicants. They visit your employment
website almost every day. They surf the web endlessly, going from
major job boards to niche job sites, sifting through countless job
descriptions until they find your postings. When they decide to
“google” for job vacancies, they are willing to sort through 25 pages
of similar vacancies until they locate your job description and apply
for it.
• If your recruiting strategy consists primarily of posting generic job
descriptions on your employer career site or on major job boards, you
are probably reaching 18% of the qualified candidates at best. At the
worse, you are vying with your competitors for the same persistent
applicants, many of whom are not the best available candidates.

25. EMPLOYEE VALUE PROPOSITION
– Why do people come to work at your institution?
– What do you offer that is unique?
– What would make a passive candidate want to leave
his/her current employer to work for you?
– How can the candidate make an impact and add value
to the organization?

26. Pro-Active Recruiting
Target the Early Birds, not the Leftovers
Understand that the best people, fully-employed, but still interested in
their future growth, tend to look for new careers differently:
1. First networking with close associates or calling a respected recruiter.
2. If nothing happens, they’ll expand their networking efforts, start Googling
for jobs, do some company and industry research, and maybe start
looking at some niche sites.
3. One of the last things they’ll do is look at a company’s career site and
apply for a job.
4. If posting jobs on your website is your principal mode of recruiting, you
may be netting applicants who can’t find positions elsewhere.

27. “Help wanted: TELEPATH.
(You know where to apply!)”

28. WHY REPLACE COMPETENCY-BASED
INTERVIEWS
1. No objective proof that they help to hire better
employees
2. They are too generic - not specific to the
position, in your office, in your institution
3. They predict behavior – not necessarily related
to performance

29. Employer Core Competencies
Flexibility

30. OUT-OF-BOX SOLUTIONS
1. Relate the competencies to the actual job.
2. Expand model to include competencies that
essential (i.e. drive superior OTJ performance).
3. Conduct a performance-based interview
instead of a behavioral interview.

31. QUESTION 1
Using the resume, and working backwards at a high level, have the
candidate take you through the work history for the past 5-10
years. Begin with the most recent position. You will need to obtain
information about the organization, the accountabilities, the
challenges, any recognition earned, etc.
You should be note if the candidates do a good job of specifying
how their background makes them a great candidate for the
position?”
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32. QUESTION 2
“Give me a detailed description of your most impressive
accomplishment.”
This inquiry is the beginning of the in-depth fact-finding part of the
interview process.
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33. QUESTION 2 (Cont.)
It's amazing what THIS performance-based question can
accomplish:
1. You'll be able to quickly separate top candidates from top
employees.
2. Top people want a chance to demonstrate what they've
accomplished.
3. The fact-finding process increases assessment accuracy.
4. Compensation becomes a less important part of the offer and
acceptance process.
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34. QUESTION 3
Use this question to align the Success Profile with the applicant’s
qualifications for the job.
Pick the top 3-4 deliverables from the Success Profile. Ask the
candidate how he/she would go about accomplishing the objective.
Then determine what the candidate has achieved in the past that is
similar to that objective.
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35. Build Your Team
• Review the CIDS guide at least three times
• Gather feedback from all interviewers
• Conduct the In-Depth Reference Checks
• Write comments about each Competency
• Make final ratings on Competencies
• Make decision to hire, promote, or transfer