How You Can Increase Hiring and Onboarding Velocity with the Latest Background Screening Technology

The need to hire fast has never been more critical. With talent scarcity and declining unemployment, employers need to onboard and hire eligible and desired candidates at unprecedented rates. And although it can be tempting to speed up the process by cutting corners or skipping steps, doing so comes with risk. Instead, leveraging the latest background screening technology can help ease some of the administrative burdens on your team, create a better candidate experience, and fill roles faster, all without sacrificing workplace safety.

When you make the decision to hire a candidate, there are several steps that follow, starting with conducting a background check. You begin by collecting candidate information to run the check, and companies like Sterling help you perform these as swiftly as possible. But how can you be certain that the information your candidate has provided is accurate and truly belongs to them? Verifying this information is crucial.

Verify Candidate Data Upfront

Background screening companies play an increasingly important part in the rapidly evolving digital identity space. New technologies that impact employers, both good and bad, highlight the need to keep up. With a rise in data breaches and fraud, it’s more important than ever to protect your business and people. According to Verizon’s 2020 Data Breach Investigations Report, 58% of data breaches involved personal data such as names, phone numbers, and physical addresses. So, when you’re onboarding a new employee, it’s important to confirm that the personal information they provided, such as name and physical address, truly belong to that candidate. By verifying candidate data upfront in the hiring process, you protect your workplace and people.

Identity Verification a Fundamental Part of Hiring

Identity verification helps speed up onboarding by collecting accurate, verified candidate data upfront in the hiring process, reducing errors or missing data that can lead to inaccurate or incomplete screens or delays. With candidate consent and cooperation, this data can be conveniently and rapidly collected from pre-verified sources, such as telecom carrier records, government-issued ID documents, credit bureaus, and more.

Our experience with identity verification has shown us that a one-size-fits-all approach does not work. A few background screening companies offer identity verification solutions that require candidates to take a photo of a government-issued ID document and then a selfie, with no other verification options available to the candidate. The issue? In fact, there are many! Not all candidates will have a valid license, and others may not have a passport. In some instances, a candidate’s ID documents may be extremely worn, making it difficult for a camera to pick up the necessary information and document features. So, what do candidates do in one of these situations? When it becomes impossible for them to verify their identity quickly and conveniently, they may be routed through a slow, clunky, manual process that can lead to a suboptimal experience. The candidate you worked so hard to find can slip through your fingers to another employer in a job seeker’s market.

To ensure a successful verification and the best possible experience, candidates need multiple failover options. All candidates are different, unique, and frankly will have different pieces of identity information at their fingertips. By allowing candidates to choose how they verify their identity, whether it’s cross-referencing their information against their cellphone record or taking a photo of a government-issued ID document, the chances of a fast and successful verification are maximized.

There are several benefits to collecting verified candidate data upfront in the hiring process, including:

• Minimizing background screening errors by using accurate candidate identifiers
• Populating your benefit and payroll systems with accurate data
• Accelerating onboarding and screening with less back and forth communication with candidates to confirm their information
• Gaining confidence in candidate identity

Hiring and onboarding velocity gains help you maximize your chance of landing first-choice talent in a competitive hiring environment. Incorporating identity verification technology into your processes can make the candidate hiring experience smooth and seamless.

Taylor Liggett is the General Manager of Sterling Identity, where he leads Sterling’s global identity services business. With more than a decade of domestic and international experience in background screening, identity, and biometrics, he brings a unique perspective to the emerging and rapidly evolving identity space.

This article was originally published by Toolbox HR.

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