Hiring Best Practices

Topgrading best practices are remarkably easy to understand and implement. Human Resource managers generally keep their existing best practices and add only one component, the Topgrading Interview. But over the years, the leading Topgrading companies have tweaked their best practices by:

Composing Job Scorecards, similar to job descriptions but with more emphasis on measurable accountabilities. Zeroing-in on crucial competencies is more revealing when there are clear and measurable jobs.
Emphasizing hiring from "Virtual Benches," referrals from high performing employees. Usually bounties are offered. Compared to running ads or hiring recruiters, hiring from Virtual Benches is cheaper (no recruiter fees), faster (candidate names are available now), and better (employees are paid to refer only high performers).
Conducting the Topgrading Interview. All the companies achieving 90% hiring success use this chronological interview.
Using two interviewers for crucial jobs -- the Tandem Topgrading Interview is used by all managers we know who achieve 90% hiring success. Managers who conduct 100 Topgrading Interviews per year can "go solo" as Topgrading professionals do.
Asking candidates to arrange reference calls with former bosses. About 90% of the time, high achievers get their former bosses to talk. Knowing they will arrange the reference calls, candidates are more honest in interviews.
Training managers in Topgrading best practices. Our two companies train managers, and the 7-hour train-the-trainer DVD enables HR managers to conduct workshops.