TOPGRADING

Raymond

John

5322 Seminar in MGMTDR Josephine Sosa-Fey

BRADFORD

SMART

1

Bio and early history

Topgrading and Calculations

Advantages

Financial Career Cost

Coaching

Psychological stages & safe hiring practices

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Bradford D Smart

Published in 2005

Accolades and Biography

Occupational Management Consultant

Brad was born in Hartford Connecticut in 1944

In 1971 Brad started Smart & Associates, Inc

International renowned management psychologist

Consultant for many Global 500 Ph.D in industrial Psychology

Topgrading

Fill every position with A -players

Don’t accept a mix of A, B and C players

Topgrading is more rigorous than upgrading

A-players

Among the top 10% available for the position

continually promotable

A-players are not

cheap

Source http://books.google.com/books?id=-7GvCtm-FrEC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Topgrading&source=bl&ots=lb9fIS4Vk3&sig=dVfdfIThiV6S3Fkus9go0zbkvQU&hl=en&ei=ZYTgS8a9MpXqM9_2vZEJ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=5&ved=0CCMQ6AEwBA#v=onepage&q&f=true

Every manager 1st priority

The average company has only about 25% hires of A- players and only promotes the same percentage.

On top of that Management consists of 25-40% A -players in management. If one were to use Topgrading techniques they would promote 90%

Topgrading not about avg % like grades

Basic answer is no.

For example if you have

A=100% B=80% C=70%

10 A 2 B 2 C average is 92 %

Topgrading is about weeding out the weak.

Management at first has to fire a lot of people so the organization can be rid of B and C-players.

Getting the best is not cheap.

What company has benefited from Topgrading?

Companies that have been known to use Topgrading

Topgrading CALCULATOR

If you’re a perfect Topgrader your success rate is 100 % one only needs to hire 1 (who will be A-player as a replacement)

Most companies have only a 25% success rate then that means one will have to hire 4 people to get one success

Result = one A-player and 3 mis-hires

Estimate current number of A-playersEstimate your hiring success rateUse Topgrading Calculator aboveThis will show you total number of people you must hire or promote in order to end up with at least a 90%

GOAL

Typical company

Topgrading

10 20 40 100 115 1400

15

30

45

60

75

90

105

10

20

40

100

90-100% success rate of Topgrading

90% success rate of TopgradingLinear (90% success rate of Topgrading)

People hired

replacements

Linear Forecasting trend

10 20 40 100 115 1400

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

400

3167

141

357

Typical company of only 25%

Typical company of only 25%Linear (Typical company of only 25%)

347-357% Diff

replacements

Topgrading Advantages

Silver bullet

Coaching others

A-team will make company competitive in today's global market

Competent workers on your side

TOPGRADING RUBRICS

How Topgrading changed a company

Beast(Dell) vs calf (Gateway)

In 1985 Ted Waitt founded Gateway.

By the early 1990’s there were rumors that he would sell the company.

The company was able to rebound by using Topgrading techniques

The Financial and Career Cost of not Topgrading

Government studies have shown the cost of mis-hiring at 2-3 times annual salary

Biggest cost is missed business opportunity

Failure to Topgrade can lead to career setbacks

Interpreting All The Data

Observe patterns Assume strengths can be

shortcomings Assume recent past

behaviors Red flags Weight the negatives Strong feelings and beliefs

Coaching 101

Counseling

Mentoring

Teaching

Confronting

The four effective steps in coaching a new hire to succeed

Topgrading interview

Conduct oral

interview

Have a coaching interview

Mid-year Career review

Seven psychological stages of change

Awareness

Rational acceptance

Emotional commitment

Program for development

Reinforcement

Monitoring progress

Conclusion

Safe hiring practices

Perform a through job analysis

Write job description with behavioral competencies

Nondiscriminatory language

Use legally sound job offers

Avoid negligent hiring and retention claims

Use safe managing and firing practices

Follow guidelines

Topgrading in the Future

Community service

Government

Finance

CEO selection by Board

Legally mandated topgrading

Education

Career planning

Future research

The End