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By Greg Stiles Mail Tribune October 13. 2014 2:08PM Harry & David will hold hiring fair Thursday Gourmet food and gift giant Harry & David says it will hire more than 1,100 to handle holiday call-center operations and 1,300 overall for seasonal production and shipping needs. Harry & David will ramp up its holiday hiring this week with a hiring fair from noon to 6 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 16, at its Corporate Employment Center, 2800 S. Pacific Highway, between Medford and Phoenix. The need is similar to last year, said employment center supervisor Anna Hayter, who is overseeing the addition of more than 1,100 call-center workers for the holiday season and an additional 200 or so for other temporary roles. "This year is a little more compressed season, hiring on top of other hiring," she said. Seasonal hiring began in mid-August and will accelerate through November. The company annually needs more than 1,000 temporary workers for its crunch season. "A lot of those early positions were filled with recalls, but we've been doing new hiring for about a month," Hayter said. Harry & David is partnering with Grants Pass-based Dutch Bros. Coffee for the fair. Gift cards, goodies and other prizes will be given away. "We're taking a different approach how to entice people," Hayter said. "We've got hiring deadlines now through the end of November." Potential employees can apply online or in person with department representatives on hand to answer questions. Once applications are completed, a 20-minute interview follows. "We want to make sure they are in the right department, based on their skills and interests, so we can align them for the job that suits them best," she said. "We do have full-time positions available as well, but applicants for those positions are working primarily with recruiters." Harry & David was recently purchased by 1-800Flowers.com, a New York firm with similar online gift operations throughout the country. 1-800Flowers CEO Jim McCann and Harry & David CEO Craig Johnson said whatever changes occur will not take place until after the first of the year. McCann is banking on Harry & David's ability to grow beyond a heavy holiday-centric model. Reach reporter Greg Stiles at 541-776-4463 or [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/GregMTBusiness , on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/greg.stiles.31 , and read his blog at www.mailtribune.com/Economic Edge .     http://www.mailtribune.com/article/20141013/NEWS/141019855 © 2015 Copyright © 1995-2011 Crain Communications Inc. All Rights Reserved. Terms of Use Privacy Statement -->