Lou Adler's latest volume on performance-based hiring is a combination of a message Lou has preached for more than a decade with an update on some of the latest trends and issues that hiring managers in organizations face today.
I deliberately say preach because Lou has fought a powerful fight to improve the hiring process for organizations based on sound management principles, powerful legal verification, and many years of overwhelming evidence that the techniques work for organizations that have implemented them. I also say preach because Lou's message contains a continuing increase in the frustration over why more hiring managers in organizations don't implement these practices. Lou has been calling for the elimination of traditional job descriptions in the hiring process since long before the publication of his first book. If the reader doesn't perceive a bit of frustration over the place they still hold in many hiring processes, they are either not reading the book carefully enough, or they haven't had the honor as I have of meeting and working closely with Lou in implementing performance based hiring concepts. The job description as a basis for recruiting and hiring guarantees the overall failure of the goals to hire top performers in an organization.
In addition to Lou's powerful repetition on the danger of using job descriptions, he continues to provide sound advice on how to write better ads, craft a better recruiting strategies, and perhaps most important from my perspective provide excellent advice on how to conduct an interview. This is perhaps the area where my professional frustration will come into play and clearly illustrate why I so strongly support Lou's position. I remain amazed after being connected to performance-based hiring for almost 15 years now, how I can routinely find cases of interviewers, whether they be hiring managers or human resources staff, asking insanely stupid interview questions, particularly when Lou Adler has clearly nailed the power of the performance-based hiring questions. The two questions he so carefully details and demonstrates throughout the book can perform better than any collection of "700 Great Interview Questions."
If I have any concern over the content of Lou's latest message I wish he would have made it clearer that the techniques and messages he outlines can be applied at all levels. Performance-based hiring has been implemented for entry-level positions in a variety of organizations, including those where the hiring process may be limited to a single interview. I also know that there have been successful applications of Lou's hiring techniques to environments like college recruiting. Lou makes brief references to these applications in the book, but the overall presentation that Lou presents as a professional recruiter is that of a multiple stage interview process with the recruiter referring candidates to the hiring organization.
I would be remiss if I did not also mention the high quality, dead-on accuracy of the information that Lou presents to job seekers. I remember when the first edition of Lou's book, Hire with Your Head, appeared, it was dedicated to job seekers. I have always appreciated and honored Lou's dedication to helping them better understand the flaws of the typical hiring processes and how to use his excellent hiring techniques from the job seeker standpoint.
The electronic only publication of Lou's new book presents a couple of minor obstacles. First of all, the book is so filled with excellent advice and clear statements of tactics that I found myself bookmarking almost every page. As I read the book electronically on my Kindle, it's a book I would also buy in hardcover form to have printed references to some of the key material. One final note on the electronic publication of the book. Lou provides excellent resources in the form of documents and checklists that he urges readers to use. The forms can easily be acquired for download by obtaining a password. However, the documents when downloaded are in a protected PDF format that does not allow them to even be printed for use. This restricts the application of these documents significantly, and I'm hoping that "able to print" versions of these forms become available in some fashion, quickly.
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Top reviews from other countries
Craig Rollason
Great insights to get the right people
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 23, 2016
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Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 26, 2020