Don't miss a step in hiring

Save Time. Save Money. Hire the Right People First.

Ten minutes posting your job online.

Thirty minutes reviewing resumes.

Twenty minutes scheduling interviews.

Two hours interviewing your best applicants.

Twenty minutes scouring the internet for assessment tests.

Ten minutes arranging drug and background tests for your new employee.

Hiring employees is the life blood of your business, but it can be an arduous and time-consuming process, especially if you don't do it often. Anyone in the human resources profession knows that high turnover can be costly, which equates to $11 billion per year in the United States (Bloomberg BNA). Yet, important steps are often skipped during the hiring process resulting in a new employee who isn't the best fit for the job. Even worse are the psychological scars that firing someone you just hired has on your company and the employees left to deal with the fallout.

Back in November we launched an employer-driven portal, MySuncoastTalent.com, with the goal to help you gain control of your time and hire the right people first. Great hires help to create great businesses, and we want to make our community its best by empowering employers and job seekers to make the best match possible.

We purchase thousands of assessments and screenings at deeply discounted rates, so it only makes sense to pass these savings onto local employers and help give your small business the buying power of a much larger enterprise.

We've also found that many employers are looking for new outlets to promote their positions, because just posting their jobs online isn't enough to get them the exposure to the best talent possible. Are you engaging job seekers on social media? Are you using targeted databases to find the best candidates?

When you hold an interview, do you ask every candidate identical, un-biased questions in the same structured en

vironment? This can be difficult when you are juggling so many other tasks, so we've come up with a process to conduct and record structured interviews that allow you to view them from the comfort of your office at your convenience.

Are you assessing skills and making sure what is written on their resume is in fact part of their skill-set? With the ability to proctor validated assessment tests, our team can ensure that your new employee really does understand Microsoft Excel if she put it down as a skill on her resume.

Looking over a resume and interviewing a candidate can tell you quite a bit about a person, but it's not always enough. Personal WorkStyle Reports can give you insight on how to communicate with your new employee and a peek into what drives them to achieve. Why wait months learning a new employee's personality when you can have it down on paper for their peers and supervisor on day one?

I know finding candidates can be a frustrating process when doing it on your own. When done right, it takes a lot of time. It takes a lot of money. It uses a lot of resources. But, if you fill a job opening out of desperation you will waste time and money trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. In the end, your business is the one that loses.

Don't make these mistakes, hire the right people first. As one of our board members said, "The right people are all of it." Our brand new resource, MySuncoastTalent.com, can help you take back control of your time and hiring process to focus on the things that really matter.

Ted Ehrlichman, president and CEO of CareerSource Suncoast, writes about workforce issues across the region.

This story was originally published March 6, 2016 at 8:15 PM with the headline "Don't miss a step in hiring ."