Craig’s company, Leed’s, is the second largest hard goods supplier in the $15B promotional product industry. They focus on bringing to market the innovative but useful products that will ensure the corporate brand or message lasts far longer than any other advertising medium. As Leed’s grew to over 800 employees, Craig collected a lot of valuable hiring and selection experience. Today, Craig shares some of his experiences with us.

1) What’s the best advice you’ve ever received regarding hiring job candidates? Why was it the best?

• End a job interview when you know you are not going to hire the person.
• This has saved me 50 hours of time over the years: 50 hours that I used to do more productive things.

2) What’s the most effective job interview question you’ve ever used … and what was the outcome from using it?

• What three albums would you take to a desert island?
• This can help break the mid-interview tension and see how they react to something totally out of left field. It also identifies whether they can pull information from deep within their reserves. An important follow up question is “why?” to each album. I once had someone ask if they could bring a PHOTO album.

3) When it comes to hiring, what is the best time/money-saving tip you know? Can you quantify your savings?

• Use the group interview.
• After narrowing down the candidates through quick 5 minute phone interviews, meet with all final candidates at once. Again, time is saved and can be used instead for other things like golfing or family.

4) Where (from what source) do you tend to find your best candidates? Why is it the best source for you?

• Referrals.
• If someone you know personally recommends someone there is less risk. The other source is your supplier or customer. You often have lengthy experience in working with these people, so you can ask many of the key questions, such as; “how will they react in high stress situations?”, “do they excel with the written word?”, “do they talk badly about their boss, co-workers?”

5) What question am I missing from this list, and what’s your answer to it?

• Where do you find out what is not being shared about a candidate?
• I often ask questions about past employers and get them to share people’s names that are not on their list of references, then I call those people. I do not want to talk to people they have on their list of references – I want to talk to the people they chose to leave off. I never hire someone without speaking to their immediate boss or co-worker at their current job.

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