When your background screening vendor performs well, they are invisible. Candidates flow smoothly from the final interview to day one orientation, and your hiring and HR teams have extra time to devote to other strategic tasks.
But when a screening provider stops delivering, the cracks start showing up everywhere. You face ghosted candidates, frustrated hiring managers, and a mounting pile of manual paperwork.
The worst part is that many HR teams tolerate mediocre screening vendors for years. They assume long turnaround times, clunky portals, and support gaps are just “how background checks work.”
They aren’t. If your vendor is exhibiting any of the following signs, they may be standing in the way of your hiring goals – and it might be to time to look for new partners.
Candidates are abandoning your pipeline during the background check
Today, candidates expect fast, convenient and mobile-friendly digital experiences. That extends to background screening. If your vendor requires them to fill out clunky, non-mobile-responsive PDF forms, the friction can cause immediate frustration.
Furthermore, if a candidate hits a roadblock, like an unclear question about their employment history, and cannot get immediate help, they get nervous.
In a competitive market, a candidate rarely waits around for a glitchy portal to clear up. If a rival employer offers a faster, friction-free onboarding path, your candidate will take it. If your candidate drop-off rate spikes during the screening phase, your vendor’s technology may be driving talent away.
Questions to ask potential partners:
- How can candidates navigate the background check platform? Can they navigate the portal and upload documents from their phones?
- What other self-service capabilities are available for candidates?
- What kind of instructions do candidates see while they’re completing the background check? Is this available in multiple languages?
- How are candidates notified about delays and status changes? Can they check their ETA within the portal?
- How can candidates schedule drug tests? Do they need to use another system to schedule their test? Can they schedule tests within the background check portal? Can candidates complete same-day drug tests? How broad is the vendor’s testing clinic network?
“9-to-5” support and service gaps create additional delays
Hiring doesn’t stop at 5:00 PM, and it certainly doesn’t stop across different time zones. That’s especially true if you’re hiring internationally or serving round-the-clock fields like healthcare or transportation.
So if your background check vendor’s support channels operate only on standard local business hours, that adds another bottleneck to your hiring process.
Consider a candidate submitting their information for background screening on a Friday evening. They encounter an error uploading their tax documents. If your vendor’s support team is offline until Monday morning, that candidate sits in limbo for more than 48 hours.
By the time a support agent responds on Monday, your candidate might be busy working and unable to respond for a day or two. Their momentum is gone, and your time-to-hire metric has taken a hit (that is, if you don’t lose them to a competing offer).
Or consider ABC Company, an American business that has extended an offer to Jane, a candidate that lives in Singapore. If the company uses a background screening vendor that’s only open during US business hours, Jane is only able to submit questions or resolve issues in the middle of the night.
That means global, always-on candidate support isn’t just a nice-to-have anymore. It’s what companies need to effectively screen and onboard top talent.
But round-the-clock support is necessary, but not sufficient, to deliver effective candidate experiences. Availability means nothing if the support team lacks the authority or knowledge to solve problems. If your candidates or your hiring team call the vendor and constantly hear, “I will have to escalate this to a specialist,” your provider is still falling short.
To contrast, a quality screening partner trains their frontline support staff to resolve data discrepancies, platform glitches, and document verification issues during the very first interaction.
Questions to ask potential partners:
- How can candidates get their questions answered? Do they need to make a phone call? Can they use other channels, such as Live Chat?
- Can candidates contact support outside of their standard working hours? Does the vendor provide 24/7 support?
- When a candidate contacts support, are they connected to a representative within the company? Are they directed to a chatbot? This can impact the quality of the support provided, so it’s worth investigating during the vendor selection process.
- Is support available globally? Are there any geographic restrictions you need to be aware of? Is support available in multiple languages?
- What is the vendor’s first-call resolution rate? Target 90% or above.
Turnaround times keep creeping upward (or quality is slipping)
Slow background checks create a domino effect. Hiring managers get frustrated because teams are short-handed. Candidates get anxious, wondering if something is wrong with their report, and start considering other offers from faster employers.
Every background check has variables, such as slow county court jurisdictions or unresponsive international universities. However, your overall average turnaround time should remain predictable and stable, especially for basic packages.
If you notice that standard criminal checks and employment verifications are taking five, seven, or ten days without a clear explanation, your vendor is likely understaffed or relying on outdated, manual retrieval methods.
However, fast background checks are useless if you can’t trust the information that they uncover. Or worse, if you regularly face disputes based on inaccuracies in your background checks. So as you evaluate vendors, it’s important to strike a balance between prioritizing speed and accuracy.
Questions to ask potential vendors:
- What are their average turnaround times for criminal record checks? What is the breakdown by region? By position?
- What kind of tools and workflows does the vendor use to accelerate turnaround times? Do they contact institutions and licensing boards directly?
- What strategies does the vendor use to maintain turnaround times in locations with data redactions and/or court delays?
- What measures do they take to balance speed with quality control and accuracy?
Compliance is treated as your problem
Between evolving Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) guidelines, state and local “Ban the Box” and Fair Chance laws, and changing Clean Slate laws, background screening is highly regulated.
Properly conducting background screening often requires more subject matter expertise and attention to detail than many hiring teams can manage on their own.
While employers are ultimately responsible for complying with these laws, an effective background screening provider can make it much easier for employers to understand their compliance obligations and respond to new legislation.
For instance, vendors like Accurate provide proactive updates about new and changing rules and regulations that may impact background screening. A best-in-class vendor will also update their workflows, disclosure forms, and adverse action processes to align with compliance requirements.
Questions to ask potential partners:
- How does your team keep track of new and evolving legislation? How are changes communicated to clients? How far in advance are clients notified of upcoming legislative changes?
- What features and workflows does the platform use to help clients stay on top of their compliance obligations?
- What kind of reporting does the platform provide to help employers prepare for audits?
The technology isn’t keeping pace with your screening needs
Workforce risk looks different now than it did even three years ago. Employers are increasingly adding an identity verification step before the background check process in order to identify fake candidates.
Organizations are becoming more concerned about ongoing workforce risk, and shifting from annual rescreens to a continuous, always-on screening model. Industry, federal, state and local laws that apply to background screening are always evolving.
If your background screening provider isn’t evolving in response to these shifts, they’re behind the curve. That leaves your organization may be exposed to unnecessary risk.
But the right provider can help you stay ahead of new workforce screening requirements, all while helping you hire faster, save time, and make more informed hiring decisions.
Switching background check providers? Accurate combines enterprise-grade background screening technology with the hands-on support and screening expertise that growing businesses need. Contact us today to see why global employers of all sizes trust Accurate with their background checks.
