#Sharingiscaring is one of EvoTalents' key principles. We constantly share information and knowledge within our team, with the community around us, and we also invite external speakers to help us learn new approaches and skills.
Recently, our guest speakers were Lesya and Nastya from the A-players Recruiting agency. These guys specialize in recruiting A-players (also known as A-players or top performers) for product teams. In their workshop, Lesya and Nastya talked about how to find and identify A-players in IT, what motivates them at work, and which teams they will bring the most value to.
And we - share what we heard with you :)
Who are A-players?
A-players, also known as top performers, are employees who excel in their work and align with the values and culture of the company. This term originates from a classification of employee types introduced by Jack Welch, the former CEO of General Electric, over a decade ago. According to his classification, employees within a company can be categorized into four types:
C - These employees do not share the company's values and exhibit poor job performance. Welch recommends letting go of such employees as soon as possible.
B - They perform their job well but do not support the corporate culture.
B+ - These individuals align with the company's values but may not excel in performance. In the right environment, they have the potential to grow into A-players.
A - A-players, or top-performers, excel in their roles and are in sync with the company's values.
In the context of recruiting and team building, A-players are highly sought after because they not only perform exceptionally well but also contribute positively to the company's culture and mission.
What qualities are inherent to A-players?
A-players possess a distinct set of personal qualities that make them top performers in a company. When searching for A-players, Lesya and Nastya advise paying attention to the following qualities:
Winner's Mindset: A-players approach challenges in their work not as obstacles but as opportunities, similar to scouts who see them as adventures.
Competitiveness: They are not afraid of colleagues who may be more skilled or knowledgeable than them and do not view them as obstacles or threats. Instead, they appreciate colleagues who are stronger, as there is much to learn from them.
Intelligence, Depth, and Curiosity: A-players value understanding the bigger picture and what underlies others' decisions and reasoning. They are curious and interested in many things while also possessing deep knowledge in a specific area.
More Than Just Creators: A-players do not necessarily need to create something themselves. They can effectively coordinate operational activities, as being an A-player is not limited to a specific profession or role but is about personality type.
Not Necessarily Experts: As mentioned earlier, A-players are not solely defined by their expertise level. A top performer could be a student or someone new to a particular profession.
Extra Value Without Demanding Extra Compensation: A-players are often modest individuals who do not consider themselves to be special top performers and do not demand anything extraordinary. However, they undeniably bring additional value to the team.
These qualities help distinguish A-players as individuals who not only excel in their work but also positively impact the company's culture and contribute to its success.
How to Recognize A-players Among Candidates
Soft skills sound inspiring, but they are practically impossible to recognize in a candidate if you are not familiar with them, haven't worked with them, or at least haven't heard about them.
For such cases, Lesya and Nastya have a checklist: a list of important points they pay attention to during the screening and initial interviews:
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Achievements: A-players always have specific achievements that can be "touched." Moreover, when mentioning achievements in conversation, they often say "we" or "our team," rarely singling themselves out as sole performers but always clearly explaining their individual contributions.
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High Standards: A-players don't settle for mediocrity and strive to maintain high standards in everything - both in their professional activities and in life. They are quite strict with themselves and demanding of those around them. Why do something mediocre when you can do it with maximum quality and excellence?
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Self-Motivation and Self-Discipline: These individuals always know and remember why they are in their position, what they need to do, and what results to achieve. They have a high level of self-motivation, and they don't require micromanagement. In fact, strict control is ineffective when working with A-players.
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Strong Sense of Ownership: In other words, they care. A-players are willing to take on several parallel roles simultaneously in their work. In a recent article about A-players, Lesya highlighted a great characteristic: A-players never say, "That's not my responsibility."
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Involvement: During interviews, you can recognize them by their questions. Top performers are unlikely to ask you about cookies and table football. They are more interested in learning more about the product, who it's created for, the mission, and the big idea behind it. It's crucial for them to know and share the company's values, feeling like a part of it.
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Flexible but Critical Thinking: A-players don't just complete tasks according to clear top-down instructions. They want to see the "forest for the trees," understand the bigger picture.
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Passion for their Work: These people love what they do; otherwise, why bother? When A-players feel they've done everything they can in a particular company, they move to another team where they can make a bigger impact. Their passion for their work extends beyond their job in the company and office. A-players are individuals with many ideas, pet projects, and attempts to start their own business, contribute to additional projects, or dramatically improve their primary role.
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A-players attract other A-players: When other candidates find out that there are A-players in the team, they want to work with them because they know about their work approach. On the one hand, this is a very good selling point for the company; on the other hand, recruiters can also recognize an A-player during the interview.
What other "indicators" in a candidate's profile can help recruiters understand that they are dealing with an A-player?
Recommendations about the person and what they highlight in their LinkedIn summary, how well their profile is filled with meaningful content, and what they write about and pay attention to can also be helpful.
Promotions and the length of employment are also indicative factors. If a person has worked at many different companies for only a few months each, they are unlikely to be an A-player because it's difficult to deeply understand a project, give 100%, and show tangible results in a short time.
Any volunteer work can also be an indicator. For example, Nastya shared a case of a candidate who created an admin panel for a community website that helps people with hearing problems in Ukraine. He saw a problem, felt the desire to help, and did.
Education can also be informative. It's indicative if a person mentions, for example, a GPA of 4.5 or incomplete education. Among rebels who dropped out of university, there are also A-players.
There are, of course, exceptions to the rules. For example, the A-players Recruiting team has had to meet top performers with no public profiles or profiles with very little information.
Speaking of publicity, the most well-known professionals, especially in IT, often aren't top performers. Conversely, people who are known by few colleagues but have impressive real achievements are our top performers. They are not very public, don't speak at conferences, don't write books; they just perform and love their work.
Who Should Hire A-players and Who Shouldn't
Lately, the topic of A-players has been gaining traction in IT, and many companies believe that they absolutely need A-players for happiness and business growth. However, that's not entirely true.
Top performers will become the most valuable asset and thrive in the right environment – in companies that create real value, produce products that solve specific market or societal problems.
However, A-players are not necessary for every company. Which companies should avoid hiring A-players?
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Where there's no social value: For example, in industries like gambling, microfinance, and others where companies don't create societal value or solve market problems. It's challenging to attract A-players to such industries, and even harder to retain them. In the end, a company that decides to hire an A-player will simply spend a lot of money on recruitment, attracting, and retaining such an employee.
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When the founder is not an A-player: Since A-players attract similar individuals, top performers are unlikely to stay in such a company for long.
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When the founder doesn't see the value in hiring A-players: Founders must be willing to work with A-players because such employees experience burnout more frequently. On the one hand, it's important to load them with the right amount of work, but on the other hand, it's crucial to pay attention to their level of engagement and advise them to prioritize their inner resources when needed.
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Control mania: When a founder can't trust A-players with the areas of work that interest them and seeks to control every detail of the work process, it creates an environment that doesn't suit A-players.
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Lack of management involvement in the recruitment process: Hiring top performers should be a team effort, involving not only the founder, hiring manager, and recruiter but also the C-level executives. If management is not actively involved in the recruitment process, in the detailed elaboration of the candidate profiles that need to be found, then it's not worth investing resources in finding A-players.
How to Attract a Top Performer
If your company has decided that it needs an A-player, here are some tips from Lesya and Nastya on what motivates A-players and what they critically need in their work:
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Boundless Responsibility: A-players value freedom, broad shoulders, and tasks without limits. Talented A-players will tell you what resources they need to complete a task and where they need assistance. However, when constraints on task execution come from leadership, A-players can quickly burn out and are more likely to leave.
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Working on a Product that Makes a Difference: As mentioned earlier, A-players want to work on a product that brings value and addresses important issues in the world because this is one of their deep-seated values.
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Space for Ideas: It's important that openness to ideas is encouraged and part of the company's culture.
A couple more important points about the recruiting process:
Based on the experience of our speakers, only an A-player recruiter can attract an A-player candidate - mentally and professionally mature individuals.
It's essential to maintain authenticity in communication with A-players and not start with the hard sell. Lesya and Nastya suggest "playing the long game," taking the time to learn what the candidate is interested in and building and nurturing communication.
A-players are energetic individuals (and this doesn't necessarily mean they are extroverts), so they pay attention to the level of energy in the hiring team. To establish a connection, it's important that everyone who communicates with an A-player about the vacancy is a brand ambassador, sharing the team's and company's values and vision.
What else to read on this topic
Finally, here are some useful resources from Lesya and Nastya to dive deeper into the topic of hiring A-players and related culture:
How a Developer can get to the best product companies
We hope this excursion has been interesting for you, and you've gleaned some approaches for yourself. What other trends in IT recruitment would you like to learn more about? Write to us!
Article by: Tania Horda
