How many top performers have you hired this year? If you’re reading this article, the answer is probably not too many.
We talk to professionals like you every day—people who spend countless hours sifting through resumes and conducting interviews but still can’t find the right candidates. Maybe you’ve invested in the latest hiring tools, such as resume scanners, gamified assessment tools, AI-powered platforms, personality tests, and others.
Do they deliver on their promises? Not really.
Research shows these products have some value but limited scope. And let’s be honest, candidates are getting better at gaming these systems with answers they think you’re looking for. Traditional hiring methods are also flawed:
- Inaccuracies. Resumes are often inflated—about 40% are riddled with lies—and references are unreliable. They might confirm the basic details, not true performance. Instead, you usually end up with a biased list of references that don’t reveal the negatives.
- Poor evaluations. Traditional interviews usually don’t reveal a candidate’s true potential. Most are superficial conversations sprinkled with a handful of questions. Even leading companies with lengthy competency interviews struggle with a staggering 75% mis-hire rate.
In a tight job market, it’s tempting to settle for “OK” or marginal candidates. Traditional hiring methods often struggle to consistently identify top talent: the A Players. This, too, often leads to poor performance, high turnover, and high expenses. If this sounds familiar, don’t blame yourself. It’s not your leadership skills that let you down; it’s your hiring method.
Topgrading: A Better Method
I’ve spent many years partnering with companies of all sizes and industries to discover what’s missing from the hiring equation and what it takes to make the process more fruitful and satisfying. Of course, interviews, references, and other traditional methods are still a mainstay of the hiring process, but how that information is collected is far different.
We identified the root causes of hiring mistakes and replaced them with proven solutions for building high-performing teams. Hence, the Topgrading method was born, and it’s helped thousands of businesses thrive, including Culligan, a major player in the water treatment industry. Despite being a household name for decades, their hiring process was painful until they adopted Topgrading. We’ll get into that a little later.
The Benefits of Topgrading
First, here’s a brief overview of what Topgrading is and why so many companies are using it to improve their workforce and increase revenue.
- Better job descriptions. Topgrading starts by defining the ideal candidate profile with a “job scorecard” that outlines the essential skills, experience, and personality traits you want.
- Better recruitment. Attracting the best candidates involves incenting your A Player employees to recruit their A Player friends.
- Better screening. Instead of relying solely on resumes, Topgrading uses a proprietary applicant screening tool that motivates applicants to be totally honest and then identifies the highest-performing, most honest applicants. After a phone screen interview, top candidates complete work history forms that go deeper into their experiences and results achieved.
- Better interviews. The best interview strategy is a multi-step process. There are no shortcuts on this one. The famous Topgrading Interview is a chronological interview that delves into the candidate’s total career – every job, their main accomplishments and mistakes, their relationships with their managers and others, and their career goals and ambitions.
- Better references. “A” Players provide honest references who are open and candid during conversations. This allows you to confirm the performance and behavior patterns you’ve already identified, complete your analysis, and validate your gut feeling.
Success in Action
Culligan is a great example of how a company measurably improved its workforce and revenue with Topgrading.
- The challenge. Like many companies, Culligan struggled with making the right hires. They needed a way to identify candidates who weren’t just qualified on paper but who would also thrive in the company culture and contribute to long-term success.
- The solution. Culligan implemented Topgrading across the organization. This involved creating detailed job scorecards, utilizing in-depth work history forms, and conducting structured behavioral interviews. They also emphasized reference checks, including contacting direct managers for a more comprehensive picture of the candidate.
- The results. Culligan’s CEO, Scott Clawson, says the company’s corporate high performers jumped to 85%, and its enterprise value increased from $400 million to an astonishing $3.4 billion projected for 2024. Key to their success was that Culligan identified and avoided hiring numerous C candidates by using the Topgrading method.
Culligan’s success story goes beyond just numbers. Topgrading helped build teams with a better cultural fit, leading to improved collaboration and communication and a marked decrease in turnover. With the right team in place, Culligan is experiencing record sales and profits.
