Is Your Employee Screening Company Meeting Your Expectations? Probably Not….

As an HR or Recruitment Manager responsible for sourcing and selecting the best workforce for your business, an employee screening company may be one of the partners you rely on to do the job properly. A reliable background screening partner will use sound processes to deliver accurate, comprehensive reports, helping you mitigate risk and hire the right people.

However, we all know employee screening can sometimes be seen as delaying and frustrating, rather than supporting, the onboarding process. At Vero Screening, we hear this from our HR industry peers all the time. Luckily, we don’t seem to be tarred with the same brush, but we do learn from what they tell us. This in turn enables us to provide excellent levels of service which challenge the perceived ‘status quo’ for our industry.

Clients who come to us from other background screening providers bring stories of one size fits all packages that simply don’t work for their needs, poor customer service, slow turnaround times, inefficient processes and difficulties in getting the data they need, when they need it.

In our experience, enterprise organisations need their employee screening company to understand their business inside and out. Only then can they propose a bespoke solution that balances compliance and business needs with budget, risk tolerance and recruitment requirements. They need international support and expertise, guidance through the processes and complete transparency on screening progress and service deliverables.

Some questions HR and Recruitment professionals should be asking about their screening partner are:

Can they deliver a customised, bespoke offering?

In our view, one size definitely doesn’t fit all in this industry. With so many variations in industry compliance, international law and business requirements, it is simply not possible to shoehorn large organisations into employment screening “packages”. Such a rigid approach risks corners being cut and greatly limits the ability to be pro-active and adaptive.

Can they support international recruitment and background screening of those candidates?

With the onset of technology, the Internet of Things, Artificial Intelligence and more, the world is a smaller place. Most FTSE companies are recruiting internationally and therefore should rightly demand a consistent screening approach company-wide, regardless of international location. For this, the screening partner needs to have language capability, in-house expertise on international laws and an understanding of different cultural practices.

Are they using the latest technology to streamline the checking process and to ensure end-to-end transparency?

This is an important question since turnaround times are vital when screening candidates and having the right information at your fingertips is equally essential – especially when you have management requesting urgent updates. HR Officers need to be able to access candidate data and screening progress status quickly, easily and from any device whilst on the go. A good employment screening company should be harnessing the latest technological developments to enhance the checking process for both HR Managers and candidates alike. At Vero, our online portal uses graphical wheels to clearly and quickly show the progress of a candidate screening. We also have a candidate portal which is mobile and tablet friendly, ensuring candidates can fill out their questionnaire whenever and wherever is most convenient for them. It has been specifically designed to offer an enhanced candidate experience, ensuring levels of contact are minimised and screening turnaround times are reduced.

Do they realise they are representing your Brand and are they proud to do so?

One thing we hear a lot is that background screening companies lack focus on candidate experience. As a result, the checking process often creates a poor first impression for their candidates. This negative impact on brand reputation is a key concern for HR professionals, who feel their employee screening partner does not reflect their own organisational values. In our view, it is vital to understand the client’s brand and ethos from the outset and then mirror this in your own approach with their candidates. Those first impressions are so important, but many screening companies forget that.

Are they delivering excellent Customer Relationship Management and service?

In our experience, HR and Recruitment Managers need a dedicated contact within their screening partner who they can liaise with day-to-day. They need clear lines of contact and escalation. This is essential to drive consistency and transparency and build a great working relationship on all levels. The more we work together, the better we can understand our clients’ business and, in turn, the better solution we can provide to meet their business needs. We believe in regularly speaking to, and meeting with, our clients. We know the quality of our relationship management is one of the key things that attracts our clients, many of whom have had bad experiences previously, with screening partners who are only contactable over email and don’t offer regular catch up meetings or a single point of contact.

Are they adaptable and ready for Millennials?

A good employee screening company should be ahead of the game, continuously monitoring upcoming trends which affect the checking process. It’s no secret the millennials workforce is now on the move, starting to enter the market from SMEs right up to corporates. Millennials are a different generation, consuming media and relying on digital channels far more than any other workforce generation. That’s why employee screening companies need to be ready. At Vero, we have already been considering how we can best serve millennial candidates from a screening perspective – for example, through the use of video and by ensuring, at the bare minimum, that we can allow them to provide information digitally, via their mobile/tablet devices when they are on the move!

So as the battle for high value, high performing talent continues, we think employee screening companies need to raise their game and allow organisations to harness this talent as efficiently as possible. We hope the efforts we have made – and continue to make –particularly with respect to our technology and our emphasis on candidate and client experience, will go some way to improving the reputation of the industry in the future.