July 12th, 2022 | Sterling

Hiring Reimagined: Sterling’s 2022 Benchmark Report Provides Optimistic Outlook for HR Professionals

There’s no debate that the hiring process has changed dramatically in the past two years. In light of the Great Resignation during the Covid-19 pandemic, virtually no business has been spared the need to seriously rethink best practices when it comes to matters of employment in general, whether speaking about recruitment, background checks, onboarding, or employee retention.

However, the HR professionals we surveyed seemed to express optimism in their answers to our questions. Many see these challenges as opportunities to reimagine hiring. Their goal is to move forward using innovative tactics and technologies to succeed and secure top talent. At Sterling, we’re proud to have helped our clients face these challenges over the last few years and to turn them into such opportunities.

Now is the time for staffers, HR professionals, and businesses across industries to take a strategic step back and envision the best path forward to move into the future of hiring. In our latest industry research report we’ve compiled valuable insights related to hiring and background checks from HR professionals and job seekers to help guide businesses towards best practices as they refine their hiring processes. Here’s a quick look at the scope of our new report, along with a glimpse of the new opportunities we uncovered from over 4,900 global respondents.

Focus & Methodology

Above all, our 2022 benchmark report’s aim was to produce valuable insights which could help HR professionals successfully navigate today’s rapidly-evolving hiring process. Beyond initial recruitment and onboarding, Sterling’s focus naturally extends to additional trends related to background screening and the overall candidate experience.

Importantly, we wanted to do more than merely identify the latest background check trends in HR, but also to provide guidance about how HR professionals can seize this moment to re-imagine and improve the hiring and background check processes going forward. As you’ll discover, the findings of our report speak as much to the future as they do to the current state of hiring across industries and geographies.

Sterling distributed surveys and collected data from more than 1,200 HR and staffing professionals, asking about their experiences with hiring and background screening in today’s HR landscape. In order to gain further insight and put these experiences into the perspective of the candidates, we also collected data from over 3,700 job seekers. Their responses may enable HR professionals to overcome common hiring challenges in the near term, and ultimately reimagine more productive and sustainable hiring processes in the future.

In order to paint as broad a picture as possible, both surveys were conducted on a global scale, and our respondents included staffers and job-seekers from 13 countries and over 16 industries.

HR Respondents Reveal Actionable Insights

While you can now access our 2022 report to uncover the full spectrum of its findings, here are a few key topics and takeaways you can expect to discover (including many which might surprise you):

Background Checks Are Changing, But How?

Facing unprecedented competition to hire talent and meet basic staffing quotas, the HR professionals we surveyed revealed how this recent hiring shift has specifically impacted the background screening process.

Given the combination of efficiency challenges and evolving expectations among today’s candidates, background screening processes have been re-examined and sometimes revamped to ensure that companies can fill positions without compromising the need for trust and safety.

In addition to exploring how HR professionals expect the hiring process to change in the near future, our report also reveals what job-seekers currently expect from the candidate experience — and ways they wish HR professionals would make the overall hiring process run more smoothly.

Emerging Trends in Adverse Action and Equitable Hiring

In today’s ultra-competitive and complex hiring environment, it’s more important than ever for HR professionals to keep up with compliance.

Two of the biggest regulatory challenges facing HR professionals today involve the compliant use of adverse action and the emerging obligations surrounding equitable hiring. In our report, we reveal the various ways in which compliance is changing and impacting the hiring process, and also what HR professionals and legal teams have been doing to prepare.

Identity Verification in the Digital Age

While the pandemic may have helped spark the remote work revolution, the need for businesses to integrate virtual hiring and work-from-home or hybrid arrangements won’t be subsiding any time soon. In fact, digital transformation has become such a widespread incentive across industries that it can no longer be described merely as a trend.

But for all of the productivity and cost benefits of leveraging a remote workplace, it has also greatly complicated the background screening process: more specifically how HR professionals approach identity verification. In our report, we illuminate the latest challenges associated with identity verification, including the evolving — and costly — risks of identity fraud. We also delve into the main reasons why HR professionals are increasingly turning to technology and automation to help mitigate these risks.

Regardless of Challenges, HR Professionals Remain Optimistic

While there are no simple solutions for all the challenges facing HR professionals today, our report reveals that the overall sentiment among employers and job seekers is optimistic.

The insights in our report reveal a genuine sense of excitement at the prospect of reimagining the hiring process. Considering redesigns and improvements to recruitment, background screening, onboarding, and employee retention, HR professionals are taking a realistic view of what they can accomplish in the near term, and an opportunistic view of how the hiring process can evolve going forward. Discover all these actionable insights and learn more about how background screening and identity verification services can help you reimagine the hiring process. Download the full benchmark report:

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.