Best HR Books: 26 Picks Recommended by CEOs

Joel Spolsky argues that a great programmer can outproduce several ordinary ones, so hiring well decides a software company’s fate, and gives his methods for sorting resumes, finding candidates and interviewing them. Mark Foster notes useful tips on where to look and on helping new hires settle in.

Patty McCord, once chief talent officer at Netflix, argues that most companies get recruiting, motivation and team building wrong, and favors radical honesty, parting with people who no longer fit, and challenging work over perks and annual reviews. Laurene Powell Jobs calls it a playbook for workplaces where colleagues thrive.

Diversity and inclusion expert Jennifer Brown argues that inclusion is vital to an organization’s survival and asks leaders to trade command and control for systems that value differences of identity, background, thinking and style, tied to business results. Doug McMillon recommends it.

Zeynep Ton of MIT Sloan argues that poor pay, meager benefits, scant training and erratic schedules are choices low-cost firms make, and shows through Costco, Trader Joe’s and two other retailers how investing in staff can cut costs and lift profits. Doug McMillon named it among his most instructive reads.

Lou Adler sets out Performance-based Hiring, his method for matching the right candidate to any role, which many thousands of hiring managers and HR staff have used; this edition adds new case studies and more on hiring online. Madalina Uceanu says his writing on headhunting still inspires her.

Lauren A. Rivera observed recruiting at elite banks, consultancies and law firms and shows how their ideas of merit and talent favor applicants from wealthy backgrounds at every stage. Angela Pham says it made her rework her resume and interview candidates more thoughtfully.

Elaine Biech, a leading name in talent development, covers the science of workplace learning and the craft of running training when plans go wrong. Armina Sirbu, a decade into people development, tells newcomers to the field to start with it.

Geoff Smart and Randy Street attack failed hiring with their A Method, drawn from interviews with hundreds of chief executives: define the outcomes a role must deliver, keep a steady flow of A Players and ask questions that separate them from weaker candidates. Matthieu David-Experton finds it very useful.

For Eric Chester, engagement is where good workplaces start, not where they stop; he interviewed leaders at Wegmans, Marriott, The Container Store, Ben & Jerry’s and smaller firms about helping staff perform better and stay longer. Steve Caldiera praises its strategies for attracting, developing and keeping great employees.

Mainly a guide for new managers, Julie Zhuo’s field notes cover hiring and firing, including whether to hire a candidate whose interview went badly, along with meetings, trust and planning. Stewart Butterfield says Slack handed it to its new managers.

Mainly a management book, Kim Scott’s framework of caring personally while challenging directly sorts feedback into four behaviors, from ruinous empathy to radical candor, a guide to the praise and criticism managers owe their people. Daniel Pink praises its guidance on giving and receiving feedback.

Marcus Buckingham and Gallup’s Donald O. Clifton argue for building on strengths rather than repairing flaws, using the StrengthsFinder assessment, which reports a person’s five top themes out of 34. Sheryl Sandberg credits it with shaping Facebook’s approach to developing its people.

Mainly a leadership philosophy: Bob Chapman and Raj Sisodia describe how Barry-Wehmiller treats employees like family, and how in the recession it avoided mass layoffs by cutting costs in caring ways, such as a month’s unpaid leave. Simon Sinek points to Chapman as an example of putting people first.

Mainly about group culture, Daniel Coyle visits the San Antonio Spurs, Pixar, IDEO and SEAL Team Six to find three skills that build cohesion, with advice on repairing a toxic culture and building trust. Charles Duhigg calls it the best guide to how successful groups signal and speak.

Marcus Buckingham and Cisco’s Ashley Goodall challenge nine common beliefs about work, for instance that people want constant feedback, that culture drives success, and that competencies need measuring and weaknesses fixing. Adam Grant calls it one of the most provocative books on work he has read.

Ellen Pao recounts her discrimination and retaliation lawsuit against Kleiner Perkins, where she says women and people of color were shut out of key meetings, dinners and trips, a personal account of workplace bias rather than a manual. Eric Ries describes it as a whistleblower’s fight against discrimination in tech.

Mainly about management, Brian M. Carney and Isaac Getz profile liberated companies such as Harley-Davidson, USAA and Gore & Associates, which dropped top-down control in favor of trust and let employees use their own judgment. Nicolae Andronic describes it as a study of firms that drop the chain of command.

Mainly a management memoir: Ricardo Semler describes letting Semco employees set their own quotas and schedules, read the company’s financials, share in profits and rotate jobs after he dismissed a layer of senior managers. Joel Gascoigne likes that Semler challenges ingrained beliefs, even about the value of growth.

Douglas Stone and Sheila Heen shift attention from giving feedback to receiving it, arguing that organizations would get more from training receivers, and draw on psychology and years of work with companies. Alan Echtenkamp says anyone facing a performance appraisal should read it.

Reed Hastings and Erin Meyer explain the Netflix culture of freedom and responsibility, including people policies such as no vacation or expense rules and generous severance for merely adequate performers, framed as management principles rather than a personnel manual. Ray Dalio recommends it.

Dan Schawbel draws on his own surveys of managers and employees in many countries to argue that socially connected staff are more engaged and less likely to burn out or quit, while virtual communication leaves people isolated. Cal Newport calls it an evidence-based case for offline interaction in leading teams.

Robert I. Sutton turns a magazine essay into a rule for keeping bullies out of a workplace, with two tests for spotting them and a Dirty Dozen of offending behaviors. Ronn Torossian calls it necessary reading for everyone at his PR firm, 5WPR.

Chris Ducker shows small business owners how to stop doing every job themselves, HR included, by deciding what to hand off and then recruiting, hiring, training and managing virtual assistants. Pat Flynn says it was a book he could not put down.

Richard N. Bolles wrote for job seekers rather than employers, urging them to find where their best skills and greatest enjoyment overlap and to network their way to whoever can hire them. Armina Sirbu says it showed her that her heart was in training and HR.

Minda Harts writes career advice for women of color, naming the barriers in corporate America, from microaggressions to systemic racism, and giving direct counsel on networks, office politics, pay and negotiation, with a roadmap for allies. Cindy Gallop says every white man and woman should read it.

Hassan Osman offers 17 persuasion tactics to make remote staff more engaged and committed, from wording requests and email subject lines to setting deadlines and building trust. Tom Moor praises its many actionable ideas for running a distributed team.