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Topgrading: The Proven Hiring and Promoting Method That Turbocharges Company Performance
“BRAD HELPED US DEVELOP THE TOOLS TO PICK A-PLAYER LEADERS AT GE.” —JACK WELCH
Great companies, large and small, rise or fall because of their talent; the more high performers on your team, the more successful your organization will be. Of course, that’s easier said than done. Research shows that only about 25% of all new hires turn out to be high performers.
But companies that have used Brad Smart’s Topgrading system over the past two decades have boosted their hiring success rates dramatically—sometimes even to 90%.
Three huge problems account for the typical poor results in hiring: dishonesty (via deceptive résumés), incomplete information (via shallow interviews), and lack of verifiability (via biased references). Topgrading shows how to solve all three problems. Instead of hiring by your gut reactions to résumés and interviews, you can start using a scientifically honed process that compels candidates to be totally honest.
Smart, one of the world’s foremost experts on hiring, has personally helped hundreds of companies double, triple, or even quadruple their hiring success rates. His clients have ranged from global giants such as General Electric and Honeywell to midsize and small businesses in every field imaginable, and to not-for-profits such as the American Heart Association. And hundreds of thousands of readers have applied the lessons and tools of the first two editions of Topgrading.
The Topgrading system makes hiring easier, faster, and more successful than any other process. And it works at every level, from the front lines to senior management.
For the first time in seven years, Smart has fully revised and updated Topgrading with many new tools, techniques, and case studies. This edition now features 40 companies of all sizes, across a wide range of industries and home countries. It’s the most advanced and useful version of Topgrading ever. The third edition includes:
Simplified Topgrading methods for entry-level jobs. The new Topgrading Snapshot, which screens out weak candidates in just 15 seconds. The latest version of the acclaimed Topgrading Interview script. Case studies from 35 companies not featured in any previous edition. Many additional innovations created by Topgraders.
Topgrading isn’t just about hiring and promoting—it’s also about developing talent. It enables leaders to reward their A Players, coach their Bs to become As, and weed out the Cs who are beyond improvement.
Many great leaders know that Topgrading works. Find out how it can help your company gain a big competitive advantage.
Great companies, large and small, rise or fall because of their talent; the more high performers on your team, the more successful your organization will be. Of course, that’s easier said than done. Research shows that only about 25% of all new hires turn out to be high performers.
But companies that have used Brad Smart’s Topgrading system over the past two decades have boosted their hiring success rates dramatically—sometimes even to 90%.
Three huge problems account for the typical poor results in hiring: dishonesty (via deceptive résumés), incomplete information (via shallow interviews), and lack of verifiability (via biased references). Topgrading shows how to solve all three problems. Instead of hiring by your gut reactions to résumés and interviews, you can start using a scientifically honed process that compels candidates to be totally honest.
Smart, one of the world’s foremost experts on hiring, has personally helped hundreds of companies double, triple, or even quadruple their hiring success rates. His clients have ranged from global giants such as General Electric and Honeywell to midsize and small businesses in every field imaginable, and to not-for-profits such as the American Heart Association. And hundreds of thousands of readers have applied the lessons and tools of the first two editions of Topgrading.
The Topgrading system makes hiring easier, faster, and more successful than any other process. And it works at every level, from the front lines to senior management.
For the first time in seven years, Smart has fully revised and updated Topgrading with many new tools, techniques, and case studies. This edition now features 40 companies of all sizes, across a wide range of industries and home countries. It’s the most advanced and useful version of Topgrading ever. The third edition includes:
Simplified Topgrading methods for entry-level jobs. The new Topgrading Snapshot, which screens out weak candidates in just 15 seconds. The latest version of the acclaimed Topgrading Interview script. Case studies from 35 companies not featured in any previous edition. Many additional innovations created by Topgraders.
Topgrading isn’t just about hiring and promoting—it’s also about developing talent. It enables leaders to reward their A Players, coach their Bs to become As, and weed out the Cs who are beyond improvement.
Many great leaders know that Topgrading works. Find out how it can help your company gain a big competitive advantage.
364 pages, Kindle Edition
First published April 7, 2005
232 people are currently reading
1571 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 33 reviews
September 18, 2017
This book has some valuable information and ideas about how to improve your odds of hiring keepers, but it is also painful to read.
First the painful part – The book shamelessly plugs its own brand and company and this borders on nauseating at times. The methodology explained in the book is labeled "Topgrading" and if had a dollar for every time this term was mentioned in the book, I could retire. His success is self-evident because of the adoption his processes, at companies such as GE, however the author seemed compelled to go past the obvious benefits into ridiculous hyperbola at times. One passage says Topgrading may save your life or at the very least make your healthier. The other knock on the book is that it could have been half the length – if the self-promotion was eliminated as well as the redundancy. At the start of one redundant passage, Smart writes he knows this was previously covered, but since business people skim so much, he was repeating everything in case you missed while skimming the first time -- really?
A synthesis the core elements of the "Topgrading" methodology results in these two steps:
1) START OF INTERVIEW – At the start of the interview, tell the candidate you will be asking them to arrange multiple interviews with their past bosses (assuming they move to the next hiring stage). The idea is that telling them this is a bit of a truth serum, since the candidate is less likely to exaggerate their accomplishments, if they know you will be talking to each of their previous supervisors. Then after the interview, assuming the candidate is still in the running, ask them to arrange reference calls with a list of previous bosses you have selected.
2) INTERVIEW -- Perform long in-depth interviews, by working through the history of candidate. Start with their post-secondary education, and move toward their most recent position. Focus on their relationship to with their boss and peers in each of their past jobs. Dig deep into their relationships with others in these companies. Talk about their failures and success in each job. Try to understand what went right and what went wrong. Do accept simple answers that just make the candidate look strong (Example: “I guess I just worked too hard in that position”). User follow up questions to get to the truth of all issues. Keep careful notes.
Very solid ideas in this book, but very hard to push through to the end due to is over-the-top self-gratification.
First the painful part – The book shamelessly plugs its own brand and company and this borders on nauseating at times. The methodology explained in the book is labeled "Topgrading" and if had a dollar for every time this term was mentioned in the book, I could retire. His success is self-evident because of the adoption his processes, at companies such as GE, however the author seemed compelled to go past the obvious benefits into ridiculous hyperbola at times. One passage says Topgrading may save your life or at the very least make your healthier. The other knock on the book is that it could have been half the length – if the self-promotion was eliminated as well as the redundancy. At the start of one redundant passage, Smart writes he knows this was previously covered, but since business people skim so much, he was repeating everything in case you missed while skimming the first time -- really?
A synthesis the core elements of the "Topgrading" methodology results in these two steps:
1) START OF INTERVIEW – At the start of the interview, tell the candidate you will be asking them to arrange multiple interviews with their past bosses (assuming they move to the next hiring stage). The idea is that telling them this is a bit of a truth serum, since the candidate is less likely to exaggerate their accomplishments, if they know you will be talking to each of their previous supervisors. Then after the interview, assuming the candidate is still in the running, ask them to arrange reference calls with a list of previous bosses you have selected.
2) INTERVIEW -- Perform long in-depth interviews, by working through the history of candidate. Start with their post-secondary education, and move toward their most recent position. Focus on their relationship to with their boss and peers in each of their past jobs. Dig deep into their relationships with others in these companies. Talk about their failures and success in each job. Try to understand what went right and what went wrong. Do accept simple answers that just make the candidate look strong (Example: “I guess I just worked too hard in that position”). User follow up questions to get to the truth of all issues. Keep careful notes.
Very solid ideas in this book, but very hard to push through to the end due to is over-the-top self-gratification.
August 24, 2012
Didn't find this book as ground-breaking as other readers. Yes, the main concept was interesting, but it seemed like a one long promo for his childrens' consulting busineses.
July 5, 2012
Whoa!
Way too long!
Way too long!
November 3, 2016
There are some good nuggets of best practices scattered throughout the book but the author's amount of self promotion makes them easy to overlook. My CEO asked me to lead a book club at my company to discuss this book and senior leaders were so focused on the amount of times Smart used the word "Topgrading" that many were not able to focus on the value of best practices such as interview standardization, using reference checking as a legitimate tool and doubling up for team interviews. Additionally, the book is incredibly repetitive in terms of introducing and reintroducing best practices. Had the author restricted himself to 5% of the word "Topgrading" and limited some of the repetition, I bet this book would have been less than half of its current size and a more productive and enjoyable read. Our managers (and I) could not wait for this book to be over!
April 8, 2019
Almost entirely self-promotion. Rather than spending most of the book explaining how to Topgrade, Smart instead brags about Topgrading’s success and occasionally promotes his (likely very expensive) Topgrading workshop.
That’s too bad, because many of the core concepts of Topgrading are reasonable: interviewing should take a good deal of time, questions should be prepared, questions should be deeply probing, there should be a note taker, etc.
GE and Jack Welch play prominently here. If you’re stuck in the cult of Welch worship and haven’t realized how many of his policies resulted in the problems at GE, you’ll find that persuasive. I did not. Topgrading, especially if combined with rank-and-tank, is bound to lead to a backstabbing culture.
That’s too bad, because many of the core concepts of Topgrading are reasonable: interviewing should take a good deal of time, questions should be prepared, questions should be deeply probing, there should be a note taker, etc.
GE and Jack Welch play prominently here. If you’re stuck in the cult of Welch worship and haven’t realized how many of his policies resulted in the problems at GE, you’ll find that persuasive. I did not. Topgrading, especially if combined with rank-and-tank, is bound to lead to a backstabbing culture.
December 29, 2019
The first time I interviewed someone, I had no idea what I was doing and the candidate could clearly see that.
If I had read this, that would not have been the case at all. While most case studies are focused on large and medium sized companies- this is a critical handbook for hiring whether you’re increasing your team by 1 or 100 people.
I started this book with a highlighter that had post it flags attached to it. I used the entire highlighter up and almost all the post it flags while annotating this masterpiece.
If I had read this, that would not have been the case at all. While most case studies are focused on large and medium sized companies- this is a critical handbook for hiring whether you’re increasing your team by 1 or 100 people.
I started this book with a highlighter that had post it flags attached to it. I used the entire highlighter up and almost all the post it flags while annotating this masterpiece.
Read
April 20, 2020This is a terrible book, based on hiring practices that are meant for intimidation under the Industrial Age rules.
June 1, 2023
I came to Topgrading because of Scaling Up and this book wasn't quite what I expected. I was hoping for a more straightforward approach and the methodology that drives Topgrading is pretty out there. It's a rather different (and seemingly labor-intensive) approach that I'm not sure how well smaller firms can implement, but we'll see.
And while the content of this book is pretty meaty at its core, there's also a lot of repetition as the book feels like it is actively trying to sell everything to you and to get you to sign up for their professional coaching program or sign up for their other tools in order to enhance your Topgrading journey.
I'm still going to think about this book before I get to fully embrace things but I do see value in a lot of it.
And while the content of this book is pretty meaty at its core, there's also a lot of repetition as the book feels like it is actively trying to sell everything to you and to get you to sign up for their professional coaching program or sign up for their other tools in order to enhance your Topgrading journey.
I'm still going to think about this book before I get to fully embrace things but I do see value in a lot of it.
December 6, 2023
This book is a classic on executive recruitment and hiring for critical positions. It provides a specific and actionable model on how to approach hiring and managing executive team members. Very useful for anyone who has hiring responsibilities. Great companion read to a separate book by the Smart team called "Who'
June 7, 2023
This is a 10 hour audible advertisement for an expensive online hiring tool. I listened to HOURS of it trying to weed out the info on hiring “A”s. Whether I choose to purchase the online assessment or not- this is not an information book. It’s an ad.
January 12, 2026
I wouldn’t call it a fun read but super valuable content. Definitely has an element of self-promotion throughout that I could have done without, but ultimately it’s great content that, when successfully implemented, is guaranteed to drive results.
August 29, 2018
Good insights but written in a very corporate way
July 26, 2020
One of the best books read.......
This book is a must read for every executive, Manager, senior Manager, General Manager, CEO...... It's a Shre shot success pill.
This book is a must read for every executive, Manager, senior Manager, General Manager, CEO...... It's a Shre shot success pill.
January 5, 2021
Useful information but the majority of the book was spent selling the concept instead of teaching it. Could definitely be reduced down to about 100 pages.
March 24, 2021
Too long and wordy. Would have been better packaged up in a book of less than 100 pages with links to resources and case studies. Too much "selling" of why TopGrading is valuable.
July 30, 2025
One of the hiring books of all time 😐
January 9, 2022
Introduction
In Topgrading, Bradford D. Smart lays his cards on the table on the first page by stating unequivocally that “Topgrading will make your company more successful.” Without question the single most important driver of organizational performance and individual managerial success is human capital, or talent. Yet most of us business leaders struggle to consistently get the superior talent that we need. Topgrading sets out to provide the antidote to this struggle.
Why wouldn’t you want to fill your organization with nothing but A Players (people in the top 10% of the talent pool available)?
Why You Should Read This Book?
Anyone who has hired knows how painful it is to get it wrong. Given the current labor market and how challenging it is to find good people, it behooves all hiring managers to use whatever tools necessary to improve their odds of success. Topgrading claims to be the book to do just that.
In today’s version of the War for Talent, it’s getting harder and harder to consistently find people in the top 10% of the talent pool. Similar to the California Gold Rush of the 1850s, striking gold is becoming rarer and rarer with traditional recruiting techniques.
In order to have your own “Eureka” moment, you need to improve your odds, and Bradford D. Smart is here to help. Topgrading companies tend to look harder to find talent, screen harder to select the right people, and act more quickly to confront nonperformance.
You should read this book if you are like me and want the top 20%, the middle 70%, and the bottom 10% of all employees to be A players in the right roles.
Final Thoughts
By using Topgrading hiring managers will solve three huge consistent problems in hiring:
1. Rampant dishonesty by weak candidates who easily get away with fudging their resumes and faking their interviews,
2. Insufficient information, because most companies use superficial hiring methods that enable candidates to control and hide what they share about themselves,
3. Lack of verifiability, as most reference checks are practically useless.
One thing you get throughout this book is the confidence that Bradford D. Smart has in his approach to hiring. At times it feels like you are reading/watching an infomercial with a money back guarantee. But in reality, his confidence is well placed. After reading Topgrading, I have more confidence in my ability to ask the right questions and go far deeper than I have ever gone in most of my hiring interviews to date.
Peter Drucker once said the ability to make good decisions regarding people represents one of the last reliable sources of competitive advantage, since very few organizations are very good at it. Topgrading solves the three biggest hiring problems so profoundly that managers get superior talent and their organizations ultimately perform better. And hopefully you and your company can start to turn the tide in your favor when it comes to talent acquisition.
Topgrading Lite Version
If you do nothing at all please follow the “Lite Version” of Topgrading set out below:
· Use the TORC (Threat of Reference Check) Technique to convince candidates to reveal the whole truth.
· Use the Topgrading Career History Form, which produces the Topgrading Snapshot.
· Use the Starter Topgrading Interview Guide.
· Use two interviewers because two heads are way better than one.
· Ask candidates to arrange personal reference calls with their former bosses and others you choose.
Other Key Takeaways
· It’s highly unlikely a company will embrace Topgrading launched by HR and achieve 75%+ high performers if the C-Suite is unwilling to reinforce the Topgrading disciplines.
· Top-grade (täp'grād) v. -graded, -grading, -grades, -er. 1. To fill at least 75% of positions in the organization with high performers (A Players) by hiring and promoting people who turn out to be high performers at least 75% of the time.
· A Player: someone in the top 10% of the talent pool available
· B Player: someone in the next 25% of the talent pool available
· C Player: someone in the bottom 65% of the talent pool available
Easy to Read: (3/5) 60%
Deep Content: (4/5) 80%
Overall Rating: (3/5) 60%
Deeper Insights Here
In Topgrading, Bradford D. Smart lays his cards on the table on the first page by stating unequivocally that “Topgrading will make your company more successful.” Without question the single most important driver of organizational performance and individual managerial success is human capital, or talent. Yet most of us business leaders struggle to consistently get the superior talent that we need. Topgrading sets out to provide the antidote to this struggle.
Why wouldn’t you want to fill your organization with nothing but A Players (people in the top 10% of the talent pool available)?
Why You Should Read This Book?
Anyone who has hired knows how painful it is to get it wrong. Given the current labor market and how challenging it is to find good people, it behooves all hiring managers to use whatever tools necessary to improve their odds of success. Topgrading claims to be the book to do just that.
In today’s version of the War for Talent, it’s getting harder and harder to consistently find people in the top 10% of the talent pool. Similar to the California Gold Rush of the 1850s, striking gold is becoming rarer and rarer with traditional recruiting techniques.
In order to have your own “Eureka” moment, you need to improve your odds, and Bradford D. Smart is here to help. Topgrading companies tend to look harder to find talent, screen harder to select the right people, and act more quickly to confront nonperformance.
You should read this book if you are like me and want the top 20%, the middle 70%, and the bottom 10% of all employees to be A players in the right roles.
Final Thoughts
By using Topgrading hiring managers will solve three huge consistent problems in hiring:
1. Rampant dishonesty by weak candidates who easily get away with fudging their resumes and faking their interviews,
2. Insufficient information, because most companies use superficial hiring methods that enable candidates to control and hide what they share about themselves,
3. Lack of verifiability, as most reference checks are practically useless.
One thing you get throughout this book is the confidence that Bradford D. Smart has in his approach to hiring. At times it feels like you are reading/watching an infomercial with a money back guarantee. But in reality, his confidence is well placed. After reading Topgrading, I have more confidence in my ability to ask the right questions and go far deeper than I have ever gone in most of my hiring interviews to date.
Peter Drucker once said the ability to make good decisions regarding people represents one of the last reliable sources of competitive advantage, since very few organizations are very good at it. Topgrading solves the three biggest hiring problems so profoundly that managers get superior talent and their organizations ultimately perform better. And hopefully you and your company can start to turn the tide in your favor when it comes to talent acquisition.
Topgrading Lite Version
If you do nothing at all please follow the “Lite Version” of Topgrading set out below:
· Use the TORC (Threat of Reference Check) Technique to convince candidates to reveal the whole truth.
· Use the Topgrading Career History Form, which produces the Topgrading Snapshot.
· Use the Starter Topgrading Interview Guide.
· Use two interviewers because two heads are way better than one.
· Ask candidates to arrange personal reference calls with their former bosses and others you choose.
Other Key Takeaways
· It’s highly unlikely a company will embrace Topgrading launched by HR and achieve 75%+ high performers if the C-Suite is unwilling to reinforce the Topgrading disciplines.
· Top-grade (täp'grād) v. -graded, -grading, -grades, -er. 1. To fill at least 75% of positions in the organization with high performers (A Players) by hiring and promoting people who turn out to be high performers at least 75% of the time.
· A Player: someone in the top 10% of the talent pool available
· B Player: someone in the next 25% of the talent pool available
· C Player: someone in the bottom 65% of the talent pool available
Easy to Read: (3/5) 60%
Deep Content: (4/5) 80%
Overall Rating: (3/5) 60%
Deeper Insights Here
October 25, 2016
Topgrading is a hiring process that is supposed to increase the percentage of “A Players” from 25% to 90% in your company.
The principle are that you keep job candidates honest through thorough reference checks on their background, extremely clear KPIs for roles and other principles, and you either weed out or convert B and C players into A players. A lot is focused around principles for large companies, which have actual HR departments and more than 1 person in a role so that position descriptions & performance targets can be easily defined.
However, smaller companies like mine (less than 20 employees) can still benefit from implementing the same principles from this book.
At my company we have started using all the Topgrading steps for finding, screening, and interviewing candidates, and while it is still early days, I feel like our hiring process is at a minimum more consistent, and at best, will prevent 95% of future potential mis-hires.
My one criticism is the rambling nature of the book and that besides reading the chapter headings, there is no succinct summary of the (many) steps involved. It is, ultimately, a marketing tool for the organization which administers and trains companies on the Topgrading process. But I absolutely recommend any business which is building a team, however small initially, to read this book.
The principle are that you keep job candidates honest through thorough reference checks on their background, extremely clear KPIs for roles and other principles, and you either weed out or convert B and C players into A players. A lot is focused around principles for large companies, which have actual HR departments and more than 1 person in a role so that position descriptions & performance targets can be easily defined.
However, smaller companies like mine (less than 20 employees) can still benefit from implementing the same principles from this book.
At my company we have started using all the Topgrading steps for finding, screening, and interviewing candidates, and while it is still early days, I feel like our hiring process is at a minimum more consistent, and at best, will prevent 95% of future potential mis-hires.
My one criticism is the rambling nature of the book and that besides reading the chapter headings, there is no succinct summary of the (many) steps involved. It is, ultimately, a marketing tool for the organization which administers and trains companies on the Topgrading process. But I absolutely recommend any business which is building a team, however small initially, to read this book.
August 10, 2013
This book was good, as was the concept behind it, and the data that supports it. However, I think that the book was a bit long for what it was trying to prove, and they should have perhaps just stuck with teaching businesses how to conduct meaningful interviews and how to identify good employees and separating them from the bad.
Besides the length and a little bit of fluff in the book, I gave it 5 stars because anyone that has ever given an interview, or anyone who has ever had to write questions or perform an interview, this book will provide not only crucial, invaluable information, but also give a great guideline for conducting interviews that will produce those employees that are productive, efficient, fit into the business model, etc.
I would say that this book is a must for mid managers and anyone in HR in any capacity, from small businesses to large corporations.
Besides the length and a little bit of fluff in the book, I gave it 5 stars because anyone that has ever given an interview, or anyone who has ever had to write questions or perform an interview, this book will provide not only crucial, invaluable information, but also give a great guideline for conducting interviews that will produce those employees that are productive, efficient, fit into the business model, etc.
I would say that this book is a must for mid managers and anyone in HR in any capacity, from small businesses to large corporations.
May 5, 2012
This book was on the shelf in my old boss's office, so I borrowed it just to see what she was reading. Thirteen years later the lessons in the the book have stuck with me.
Most of the book is about why the hiring decision is so important, and why it's important to retain top talent. The reason I still have it on my shelf though, is the great section on how to properly conduct an interview. See p. 226 "A short version of the CIDS interview."
I highly recommend it for anyone making a hiring decision.
Most of the book is about why the hiring decision is so important, and why it's important to retain top talent. The reason I still have it on my shelf though, is the great section on how to properly conduct an interview. See p. 226 "A short version of the CIDS interview."
I highly recommend it for anyone making a hiring decision.
August 4, 2014
Desde Leader Summaries recomendamos la lectura del libro El valor del capital humano, de Bradford Smart.
Las personas interesadas en las siguientes temáticas lo encontrarán práctico y útil: recursos humanos, atraer, motivar y retener a los empleados.
En el siguiente enlace tienes el resumen del libro El valor del capital humano, Cómo identificar a los empleados excelentes: El valor del capital humano
Las personas interesadas en las siguientes temáticas lo encontrarán práctico y útil: recursos humanos, atraer, motivar y retener a los empleados.
En el siguiente enlace tienes el resumen del libro El valor del capital humano, Cómo identificar a los empleados excelentes: El valor del capital humano
April 13, 2009
A must read for anyone hiring anyone. It is hard to think of an organization in any field that cannot benefit from this book. After working in the hi-tech start-up industry for 10+ years (Silicon Valley + International) I agree with about 99% of this book.
Many just cannot get the people thing right.
Many just cannot get the people thing right.
July 23, 2008
The importance of 'A' level employees and why the 90/10 rules is always true
December 20, 2012
Read this for work - very interesting concept for "upping" the talent at an organization. Principles can be applied, but really needs to come from the leadership down in order to be effective.
December 20, 2012
The book has great ideas but 90% of the pages are wasted trying to convince the reader to follow the program. Should be ~100 pages.
February 23, 2013
Thorough if perhaps overly long. Its prescription for extended interviews helped us steer clear of some potential hires. Would that I had read it sooner!
October 21, 2013
This was a great book, top notch for people who want to lead HR in a different way. Highly recommended.
April 29, 2015
May have had some good points... I don't know, because I didn't make it past the 2nd cd. It seemed like a giant advertisement for his company.
October 16, 2015
Catchy title in the category of management tool of the month.
June 8, 2016
Book was good but not groundbreaking. The concept is sound but maybe should've been shorter in length and explained in simpler manner.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 33 reviews