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Who: The A Method for Hiring | 
 enlarge | Authors: Geoff Smart, Randy Street
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Category: Book
List Price: $24.00
Buy Used: $10.84
You Save: $13.16 (55%)
New (36) Used (10) from $10.84
Avg. Customer Rating:  17 reviews
Sales Rank: 1276
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 208
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.9
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 5.6 x 1.1
ISBN: 0345504194
Dewey Decimal Number: 658.311
EAN: 9780345504197
Publication Date: September 30, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Condition: Good, solid and clean copy. Light dust jacket and usage wear. Price sticker remnant. SHIPS FAST! 1100W
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Product Description
In this landmark book, 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.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 12 more reviews...
 Save your money - get "Hire With Your Head" instead. November 20, 2008
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.
 Good book on hiring November 18, 2008
Great book on hiring the right people - If you hire right, 85% of your manager's job is complete!
Clear, Concise and Actionable November 17, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
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.
Easy-to-Read, a True Mirror & Actionable November 13, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
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.
Who: The A Method For Hiring November 4, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
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!
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