Our Story

Way back in the 1970s Brad Smart was eager to master interviewing and testing in order to help companies hire and promote high performers. Consultancies advised Brad to get a Ph.D. in Psychology, and he did. But he was disappointed that no studies in business showed impressive methods that identified high performers. After taking 11 courses in tests and measurements there were hundreds of studies on hiring tests, many of which were “valid” but weak at identifying high performers.

Brad joined a consultancy of management psychologists that assessed candidates for executive jobs. Their success was 33% -- enough to satisfy clients who achieved 20% without professional assessments. But Brad went home and told his wife, “If I were a medical doctor and two-thirds of my patients left the hospital in body bags, I’d feel like a failure.”

So Brad’s passion was to identify WHY hiring was so poor and found the main causes to be

1. Candidates, especially low performers, exaggerated strengths and hid weaker points.

2.Interviews, though structured and with the same questions for all candidates (then for KPIs, now called competencies) were too short and too shallow to reveal nearly enough.

3. Verification of what candidates said was weak, rarely including reference calls with managers candidates reported to.

Brad’s passion became and is to find solutions that:

1. Screen applicants with a tool that identifies the most forthcoming, best performers.

2.Use interviews that reveal all the important strengths and weaker points (we all have weaker points, right?

3. Include reference calls with managers of candidates, with no phone tag.

Right from the start we carved out our niche – focusing on hiring not just “okay” performers, but HIGH performers, A Players.

Unfortunately, despite new approaches to hiring, the same problems exist today and most managers are disappointed in half the people they hire. But not for Topgraders. The hiring solutions are documented in dozens of unequalled case studies in which companies tripled their success hiring high performers. What is also unprecedented is the testimonials in which CEOs say in their own words that Topgrading has made their company more successful.

Our goal has always been to have the most proven, most successful hiring method.

Our Topgrading Professionals assess candidates for hire to executive positions, where the costs of a bad hire are astronomical. But we are the only firm that trains all managers at all levels in Topgrading methods. Tens of thousands of managers have packed their teams with mostly high performers, enabling them to enjoy more successful careers. Can you believe that you and other managers could possibly hire mostly A Players? We were pretty sure that as professional interviewers we could achieve 90%+ success. But it surprised us that almost all ordinary managers, in all functions, using Topgrading, do hire 75%+ high performers. So it’s no surprise that with Topgrading at all levels of a company, the business results improve.