Today, I'm excited to interview my friend Neil Spivack, who started and runs the 800-employee Direct Sales Force.  Neil recently sold DSF to Pareto, after ranking 7th in the Profit Magazine Profit 100 list, with 4,374% growth. 

DSF is a leader in face to face marketing services.  They focus on generating new customer acquisition for their clients via sales teams in retail environments like: Shopping Malls, Airports, Tradeshows, Costco, Wal-Mart and Shoppers Drug Mart. 

Neil and I met through Entrepreneurs' Organization, where we both serve on the board in the Toronto Chapter.  Neil's business is his employees - all 800 of them - so it's great to speak with him about his success and how his employee hiring has impacted that. 

(Note: Neil has just started to use ClearFit to find employees who fit, so we'll do a second interview after his experience.) 

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

• The best advice I received was around asking lots of questions about the previous jobs that the candidate has held and continue to ask questions to find the real reason why the candidate left.  It is important to state to the candidate that you will be verifying his response with the references.  This will ensure they tell the truth. 

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

• In my business we hire a ton of sales people so the most effective questions is: "In your most recent employment, did you hit your sales quota?  If yes what was done on your end to ensure that you hit the sales quota; if no, what could you have done to ensure you hit the sales quota?

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

• Good question.  In 2008, we instituted a mandatory criminal background check, so that we can see if a candidate has had issues with the law.  My philosophy is that we are looking to hire top people who are looking to be a part of a honest company with strong ethics. Instituting this was not too expensive and is something that can save you a lot in the back end should you not check this out and find out later that the employee had a criminal issue that could have saved you from the hiring mistakes.

4) What’s your best advice for avoiding hiring mistakes? Why? 

• I was able to see the speaker Geoff Smart who spoke about Top Grading.  The book, along with his topics, listed a number of  ways to avoid hiring mistakes. In particular, you need to know why the person you are interviewing is looking for work.  If they are currently out of work, why?  What is the reason they are out of a job?  How long have they been out of work?  If it is a long time, why?  

• The other thing I learned was that each interview you are conducting must take a minimum of 45 minutes ... and if it is for a senior position, it should take between 60-90 minutes.  Prior to hearing this, I could not imagine an interview that long, but in going through the Top Grading list, I have interviews that now go well past these time limits, which ensures I get to know the candidate very well and make the best hiring decisions.

5) Which source of job candidates has proven the best for you from which to find employees?  Why do you think it's the best source?  

• We hire lots of sales people to work in retail environments, so we post on the internet in most cases.  To be honest, the best resource for us to hire quality candidates is referrals from current employees.  Our currect employees understand the job and are excited for their peers to join us.  We offer cash bonuses to our employees that if they onboard a new employee to our company and this person stays for 90 days.

6) What question about hiring employees am I missing from this list, and what’s your answer to it?

• How much in $$ and time is spent in making the wrong hiring decision for your company? 
• I think this a very important question because in a perfect world if we were to hire the right candidate each time we were in need of someone, then companies would be run much more efficiently and be more effectively. 
• My company specifically has a higher turnover ratio based on the requirements of the job, so when I quantify the number of dollars and time that is spent to hire right candidate, it costs hundreds of thousands of dollars.  We have gotten much better over the past couple of years by instituting the top grading list of questions.  Turnover and employee attrition is something we monitor very closely and is something we constantly work toward improving.  I don’t have the answer entirely, but my hope is that we continue to trend better as we have in the past couple of years. 

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