Review of "The Best Team Wins: Build Your Business Through Predictive Hiring," by Adam Robinson

Review of

The Best Team Wins: Build Your Business Through Predictive Hiring, by Adam Robinson ISBN 9781626343825

Five out of five stars

 In the modern world, the key assets that many companies “own” are their intellectual property (IP) and the skills of their employees. There are many adages regarding the value of knowledge and experience as well as the enormous differences in the value of the top performers versus the average achievers. Yet, the process of evaluating and analyzing potential new hires often does not reflect these facts.  

 The purpose of this book is twofold, to argue that the hiring process is not a place to attempt to rush and save money and to give a series of tactics that can be used to quantify what is largely a subjective process. Robinson succeeds in both these endeavors. When reading the book, I was reminded of the great college basketball coach John Wooden, he was always telling his players, “Be quick, but don’t hurry.” In other words, wait for the opening to develop and then move quickly.

 The extensive deliberative and vetting process put forward in this book will not guarantee that you avoid a bad hire. Human behavior and the world is far too complex for that. However, what it can do is dramatically reduce the probability of such an event. Given the salaries of high quality employees, the total cost of employees and the potential value of your IP that will be in their heads, the more you can lower the probability of making an error, the better your bottom line. I strongly recommend that all people involved in the hiring process read this book.