Make Your Next Five Minutes Matter: The New SterlingNOW For You

Five minutes.

It’s not that much time, but just think about how easy it is to waste five minutes in a workday. In fact, join me on a journey of How David Wasted 5 Minutes Today: Figuring out which version of the budget spreadsheet is in fact the Final_Final_Final. Hunting for a missing dongle. Waiting for someone to start the video conference. Doing the thing I want to do more than the thing I should do… My day can easily be lost in five-minute increments.

And yet, there’s so much to do. My days as General Manager of the SMB group here at Sterling are full and busy. And I vividly remember what it was like to be an entrepreneur and small business owner, when truly there was not a moment to spare—there were critical product decisions to be made, engineers to be hired, investor meetings to prep for, supplies to be ordered. Every five-minute window was precious.

That’s why I am so proud of what my team has been working on. It gives small business clients, who don’t have five minutes to spare, a way to make those five minutes really count. In five minutes, you can order a background check that you can trust—and take crucial steps to protect what you’ve built.

THE NEW STERLINGNOW

We launched SterlingNOW just over a year ago specifically for small and mid-sized businesses. Sterling has been a global leader in background screening for over 40 years, providing companies of all industries and sizes—many in the Fortune 500—with the deep industry knowledge, proprietary technology, and reliable information they need to hire with confidence. We wanted to make these resources more accessible to smaller businesses with an easy-to-use, self-service solution tailored to their needs.

SterlingNOW has a growing base of loyal customers, and we were thrilled this summer when Business.com selected it as best self-service background check for 2019. But we remained committed to making SterlingNOW faster, easier, and more intuitive—especially for first-time users. Background checks are necessarily intricate on the backend, but the experience for the user should be simple: easy to order, fast to complete, quality to rely on. My team has been working tirelessly to sharpen our focus on this promise. Today I am so happy to announce that we have launched a renewed SterlingNOW experience—one that makes it easier than ever to order an online background check—a real and dependable one, not a cursory, gap-filled search billed as a background check— in minutes.

LOWER EFFORT, HIGHER IMPACT

So what’s so special about SterlingNOW? Let’s first zoom out and review what we know about background checks in general.

What makes a good online background check?

1. High-quality results you can rely on
2. Compliance with complex and ever-shifting regulations
3. Fast to start and fast to get results
4. Customization options
5. Price transparency

How does SterlingNOW stack up? Here are a few ways SterlingNOW makes us especially proud.

• Comprehensive. It can feel like there are constantly new companies hawking online background checks. They vary widely in how and where they search—some simply rely on a third-party database, which is a useful resource but full of gaps. SterlingNOW goes straight to the source, relying on primary data and our proprietary CourtDirectTM technology that catches what others might miss. Our systems undergo thorough quality assurance. The result is screening you can trust for important hiring decisions.
• Accredited. Sterling is accredited by the Professional Background Screening Association (PBSA). SterlingNOW is designed to help you comply with the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA).
• Conveniently self-service. When you find the right candidate, you want them on the team. With SterlingNOW you can submit your first order in minutes. No need to talk to Sales unless you want to. Just set up an account, provide your business details for credentialing, and submit. It takes longer to buy Friday morning donuts. Plus 90% of our criminal checks are complete within a day.
• Tailored by you, for you. Each position calls for a different skill set, so your pre-hire needs will be different as well. SterlingNOW has three screening packages to choose from, and you can further customize by adding features like education verification, past employment verification, and driving records.
• Transparent costs. I am no fan of hidden setup fees. I really appreciate it when pricing is clear and I don’t have to spend time hunting it down. SterlingNOW lists prices upfront and has a pay-as-you-go model (no monthly subscriptions), so you only pay for the background checks you need.

WHY IT MATTERS

OK, so you can order a background check worthy of your trust in under five minutes. Why does it matter? Well, you’ve invested a lot in your business. Blood, sweat, and tears. Just one bad hire, sadly, can be incredibly costly. In the best-case scenario, exiting and replacing a bad hire is draining and time-consuming. In more difficult situations, bad hires can lead to bad decisions, fraud, theft, or even lawsuits. And in the worst-case scenario, the wrong hire can put your customers or team, along with your brand and business, at risk.

So these five minutes are an investment—one that, luckily, takes less time than agreeing on the pizza toppings for team lunch. It certainly takes a fraction of the time that you’ve invested finding and interviewing your candidate.

Your time is valuable, and so is your business. It’s worth everything to invest five minutes to protect what you’ve built—and what you’ve poured your heart into.

And hey, thanks for sharing five minutes of your time with me.

Sterling is not a law firm. This publication is for informational purposes only and nothing contained in it should be construed as legal advice. We expressly disclaim any warranty or responsibility for damages arising out this information. We encourage you to consult with legal counsel regarding your specific needs. We do not undertake any duty to update previously posted materials.