This book will show you how to attract a lot of applicants, effectively screen-in just the best candidates, assure candidate transparency and honesty, reveal not just candidate strengths but their weaker points, and enable you to always get accurate verification of what candidates said. The Resources section will help you get started using the tools and methods you will learn about, and present ways to continue your mastery of Topgrading.

Our promise to you is this: use just the methods featured in this book and you will begin hiring more A Players, whether you are a CEO, first-level supervisor or HR professional. And yes, there is unprecedented evidence that Topgrading delivers the promised results. We have dozens of documented case studies and hundreds of informal accounts, from Global 100 companies to fast-growing start-ups, that achieved an average of 85% success hiring high performers. Tens of thousands of managers have accelerated their careers using this process to ensure their teams boast mostly A Players. And Topgrading methods utilize hard, factual candidate information to minimize bias and discrimination.

We’ve written Foolproof Hiring to get you started in your quest to hire better. Think of it as first aid for your hiring ailments. You will learn methods that can produce quick improvement, but, continuing the metaphor, reading this book will not turn you into a “Hiring Brain Surgeon.” Some keys, such as in-depth interviewing, require more learning and practice to master. Think about the training necessary to become an EMT versus the education and experience necessary to work as a surgeon; the same principle applies here. Using the solutions in the book to get some quick hiring wins will motivate you and your team to keep learning and practicing the methods. As you continue to improve your hiring success rate you will achieve a really strong, cohesive team that not only has fun, but gets better results.