The Estevan Chamber of Commerce celebrated Small Business Week by offering a “Seven Secrets for a Successful Interview” session on October 18.

David Hagel from High Performance Human Resources was the guest speaker. He said he wants employers to know that hiring the wrong candidate for a job can be a costly mistake.

“You need to do it right, and there needs to be a thoughtful plan to doing things,” said Hagel.

Nearly 20 people attended the session. They learned a step-by-step process that Hagel said is logical and thoughtful. He believes it will yield the best candidate possible.

“I think recruiting is part art and part science,” said Hagel.

Employers need to know what they’re looking for in an employee, he said.A job analysis and an organizational analysis are also needed.

The company also needs to understand its culture and its vision, and the attributes that they want in a new staff member.

“We need to be able to identify all of that, and then we can start to develop questions around those, so we can ask candidates questions about how they operate in certain types of cultures, and how they operate according to the things that important to us, our values and our vision,” said Hagel.

Studies show that a mistake in hiring can cost a company up to two-and-a-half times the employee’s annual salary, Hagel said.  Even a worker makes $10 per hour, at 2,000 hours per year, that works out to $20,000 in wages. If an employer has to fill the position multiple times, the $20,000 starts to add up.

There are also costs related to training and orientating new staff members that accumulate after a while.

Hagel said his message is even more pertinent for local employers due to Estevan's ongoing labour shortage. When there’s a shortage, employers often panic, and they want to hire the first person they interview, and they don't wait for the right person. He believes that not hiring somebody is better than hiring the wrong person.