Leveraging Automated Data to Help Make Background Checks More Efficient 

Most employers are all too familiar with the challenges of hiring. It’s difficult to reach out to and attract candidates, to find candidates that have the right skills and experience for a role, and to choose potential employees that align with the company’s culture. Additionally, considering that the best candidates are typically only available for about 10 days, speed to hire is critical.

To help meet this goal, employers also need to conduct fast yet thorough background checks as a part of the pre-hire process. Verifying an applicant’s criminal history, education, and employment background can give employers greater confidence that a candidate is the right fit for a role and help reduce fraud risk. Verifications also help increase productivity and retention, as research shows that companies that verified employment history in their hiring process saw on average a 45% higher 1-year retention rate than those that didn’t. Background checks need to be completed quickly and efficiently to highlight potential risks while also allowing the employee to start the onboarding process as quickly as possible.

Emerging Challenges to Efficient Background Checks

While employers have long balanced speed and rigor in background checks, some recent trends are reinforcing the need for more innovative criminal history screening processes. Background screeners utilize personally identifiable information (PII) to help ensure employers are finding available court records for a candidate. But this necessary information isn’t always available within court sources.

For example, in jurisdictions like California and Michigan, which together are home to about one in seven people in the United States, recent legal determinations have required the removal of digital access to important PII like a candidate’s date of birth. While these changes have been made in response to growing concerns for the protection of consumer data, they can also lead to challenges in performing background checks. Without digital access to these court records, record verification must typically be done through court clerks. This manual process makes it harder for background screeners to complete background checks and may result in extensive screening delays.

The amount of public data available is constantly evolving, and as some states redact key information, it becomes more difficult for employers to gain a more holistic view of a candidate.

Background screeners already must gather data from multiple sources when they’re conducting background checks, and with these redactions, screeners may also need to retrieve data from multiple courts. This can slow down screening processes and make it more expensive for employers to screen their candidates. Longer wait times for traditional background checks may also stall the hiring process and cause businesses to lose out on some high-quality candidates.

In addition to the challenges specific to criminal background screening research, employers face other obstacles to hiring top candidates. For example, it’s estimated that 40% of people lie on their resumes. This could mean exaggerating a job title, stretching service dates to leave out employment gaps, omitting positions or even making up employment. Whether related to minor exaggerations or major fabrications, such inconsistencies can raise a red flag for employers. As a result, they need access to as much employment history as possible when assessing a candidate’s fit and to help foster employment built on greater trust.

Automated Data Makes a Difference

When employers are making hiring decisions, it’s important for them to have a fuller picture of a candidate’s profile. That’s where professional background screeners can help. Increasingly, background screeners are leveraging automated data sources that can make the process faster than ever, while minimizing the need for old-fashioned manual research. Even in jurisdictions where PII has been redacted, automated solutions exist to help provide for faster turnaround times and increased confidence in research and investigations.  

In addition to reviewing criminal history, employers typically want to verify a candidate’s employment and educational background. Historically, this has required background screeners to reach out to many different data providers. When screeners can gain more streamlined access to data through a single provider, they can often complete background checks more quickly.

Some automated data solutions can also provide the convenience of 24/7 access. Rather than waiting on an employer, court, or educational institution to provide or confirm information about a candidate, background screeners can leverage automated solutions to often provide instant responses—even on evenings and weekends. Accessing multiple types of automated data through a single provider can help address challenges employers face completing background checks quicker while also finding the right fit for open positions.

Meeting the Challenges

As legal determinations bring new challenges to efficient background checks, employers can seek out professional background screeners for help. And those innovative screeners that rely on a more streamlined access to automated data can help employers stay a step ahead when it comes to getting a more informed view of candidates. Not only does this support employers with speed-to-hire, but it can also help ensure that the new hires are a better fit for their roles.

Bart Lautenbach is Senior Vice President and General Manager of Talent Solutions, Equifax Workforce Solutions. He has more than 20 years of experience leading product and sales teams in the industrial manufacturing and technology industries. He currently leads a business unit focused on providing HR professionals and background screeners solutions and insights that help them verify and validate hiring candidates.

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