Topgrading

Though some clients are sticking with the categories A, B, and C player, many have simply begun discussing whether someone is an A player, has the potential to become an A player on a timely basis (usually within a year), or is a non-A player without A potential.  Based on Topgrading’s definition of A player, a high performer who is in the top 10% of the talent available for the pay, it really doesn’t matter whether a person is a B or C player - there are A players out there who will do that job for the same compensation and perform at a much higher level.  Research from several sources estimates that a top performer is twice as productive as an average or below average employee. 

Just keep in mind that A potential is not a perpetual category.  If you deem someone “A potential” and that person has not improved enough within a year to be considered an A player, it is probably time to figure out where that person can be a high performer elsewhere.    

Another trend we have noticed, and recommend, is the separation of the administrative accountabilities of the human resources function and talent management.   Too often those administrative responsibilities such as benefits and employee relations take precedence over packing the organization with A players.  The administrative things are often acute problems, fires to be put out now, while having a lower-than-possible percentage of A players in the company is more of a chronic problem. 

Several Topgrading organizations mentioned in previous posts separated those jobs after they began implementation of Topgrading tools and principles.  They realized that managing talent is a big job; a big job that has the potential to have a gigantic positive impact on the organization.  Aric Dershem (VP of People Development, National Heritage Academies), Danielle Robinson (Topgrading Director, Rudy’s Country Store and BBQ), and Travis Isaacson (Director of Organizational Development, Access Development), all have one main focus - increasing the percentage of A players in their respective organizations.  

Figuring out how many A players are in your organization is a fantastic way to gauge the success of your Topgrading efforts.  However, without doing Topgrading assessments on all of your employees, accurately putting people into those categories can be challenging.

Aric Dershem, Vice President of People Development at National Heritage Academies, gives this advice about annual talent reviews.  Rather than getting hung up on whether someone is in the top 10% of talent available in the market, ask this question about all of your employees, “Would I enthusiastically re-hire this person?”  If the answer is yes and you have high performance standards, that person is probably an A player.  That will get people into categories; describing each person’s strengths, weaker areas, and potential for development will further refine your list.

Those of you who have read the latest edition of Topgrading may remember that the statistics on promoting success are as dismal as those on hiring success.  Why?  Too many promotions are based on the candidate’s performance in their present job.  The candidate’s strengths and weaknesses in relation to the new job are not scrutinized closely enough.  When that happens, too often you get to experience the “Peter Principal” first hand.  (The Peter Principle is the idea that employees within an organization will advance to their highest level of competence and then be promoted to and remain at a level at which they are incompetent.)

Next time you consider someone for promotion, especially if that person will be moving from an individual contributor position to a management position, go through the following steps.

 First, create a detailed Job Scorecard for the new position if one does not already exist.  Next, conduct a Tandem Topgrading Interview with the candidate.  Ideally, the interview should not be conducted by the candidate’s current boss.  However, if that is unavoidable, be sure the other interviewer is an unbiased third party.  After the Topgrading Interview, do 360 interviews with 8 to 10 coworkers.  Those 360 interviews should focus on the new job. 

Follow that process and you will be as successful in promoting high performers as you are in hiring them. 

A recent book, Hard Facts: Dangerous Half-Truths & Total Nonsense, included Topgrading. What an honor! Ooops — it’s a critical review! Oh, no, after three decades of helping companies improve from 25% to 90% high performers hired, the “fact” is — Topgrading is all “BS?” (my initials, get it?)

The book says, p. 89, “Smart’s book Topgrading emphasizes the “fact” … that A players hire A players … The War for Talent makes the same point … We call it the Rule of Crappy People: Bad mangers managers hire very, very bad employees, because they are threatened by anyone who is anywhere near as good as they are.”

“Duh,” you say! Obviously there are exceptions, which I have pointed out in various writings, but does anyone want to seriously challenge something as obvious as A players trying to hire A players? Maybe college profs think, “Gee, our C player dean hired A player me!”

Actually, the authors go on to cite research with college kids that really does support the Rule of Crappy People — conscientious college students tend to hand hang out with college students, and a guy I was in my Ph.D. program with (Frank Schmidt) did study showing really smart people tend to hang out with really smart people — “certainly part of (Smart’s) A player profile.”

Maybe I’m being defensive, but get a life, academics! In the Epilogs of my books I beg the scientific community to research important topics, such as how Topgraders double and triple their hiring success. I wouldn’t waste any time trying to scientifically “prove” that A players tend to favor A players, and C players tend to favor C players!

I had the opportunity to speak with Marlis Oliver earlier this week. Marlis is the Area Director of K & N Management in Austin, Texas; K & N Management owns four Rudy’s BBQ & Country Stores in the Austin area. Marlis has been instrumental in transforming K & N into a true Topgrading organization.

We often get asked the question, “Should we Topgrade our organizations from top to bottom?” Marlis would answer that question with a resounding, “Yes!” K & N not only does tandem Topgrading interviews for management candidates, they conduct Topgrading interviews on EVERYONE that joins the organization, including the people that clear the tables and clean the floors in their restaurants. They realized early on that their hourly employees are the ones that have the most contact with customers, making it imperative that they are A players.

The results have been astounding, proving to Marlis and the rest of K & N’s management team that all of the time spent selecting the right people and regularly monitoring their performance has been worthwhile. K & N currently owns four Rudy’s BBQ & Country store franchises; those four locations do more food volume than any other restaurant in Austin, their four locations perform better than other franchise locations…and last year they experienced double digit store growth!

It is possible to hone your skills as a Topgrading interviewer and still not achieve the level of success in hiring and promoting you expect. “How could that possibly be?” you ask. If you do not spend some time early on in the selection process defining what A player performance is, you will still have a high probability of putting the wrong person into that job even if you do a fantastic job in the Topgrading interview.

Most managers jump into the selection process without ever clearly defining what an A player “looks like” for a given position. If you do not know exactly who you’re looking for, it is pretty difficult to know when you have found them. It is no wonder that most managers experience a dismal hiring and promoting success rate.

You can significantly increase your chances of hiring a high performer by spending an hour or two at the beginning of the selection process to specifically define the accountabilities for a given position and the mission-critical competencies an A player candidate will exhibit. You can think of it this way: the accountabilities are the results you expect the candidate to exhibit in the first 12 months on the job and the mission-critical competencies describe the manner in which you expect the results to be delivered.

For example, increasing revenue by 12.5% within 12 months may be an accountabilty for a sales manager. A few mission-critical competencies for that sales manager candidate may be resourcefulness, tenacity, redeploying B/C players, and customer focus.

Thinking about what results an A player needs to achieve and the behaviors you would like that person to exhibit will get you to your goal of having all high performers on your team quicker than you can imagine!