January 27th, 2023 | Harris Bornstein, Vice President of Strategic Alliances and Channel Partnerships, Sterling

The Right HR Integration Can Kick-Start Your Hiring in 2023

As we heard from our visitors on the floor of the last HR Tech conference, HR processes are now business-critical since they’ve become instrumental in hiring and onboarding talent in a competitive hiring market. As a result, these processes are often unique to each organization and are usually quite complex. This complexity can in some cases cause delays and also contribute to poor candidate and employee experiences. In turn, this can have longer-term effects of higher turnover and other issues such as low employee engagement. In fact, Gallup reports that at least half of all employees are so-called “quiet quitters”.

As a result, employers often look to integrations to simplify these complex HR processes and streamline their candidate experiences. However, the problem lingers mainly because, as everyone knows, deciding the best integration for your company’s needs and successfully executing the implementation process can be difficult undertakings. In fact, we offer advice on this topic in our recent blog post, “5 Questions to Ask About Your Background Screening ATS Integration.” Change management isn’t easy even at the best of times, and this fear can cause companies planning background screening integrations to delay necessary updates to their hiring program.

On the other hand, integrations – when implemented successfully – are key to achieving HR leaders’ top-line goals in meeting hiring goals, reducing candidate drop-off, building authentic cultures, and retaining employees. According to “Hiring Reimagined,” Sterling’s latest research report, 89% of our 1,200 HR respondents who are investing in their hiring processes stated they’re “investing in new tech to streamline the candidate experience and automate hiring.”

HR staff often ask for more tech tools in order to do their jobs more effectively. However, in recent years there have been a profusion of these solutions, which only seem to keep increasing. This may point to a disconnect: HR departments might not need more tools, but to get better use out of the ones they’ve got. For example, if a company is already using an ATS, is it already integrated with a background check provider so that it can handle background checks and/or I-9 verification?

But how can companies more easily integrate background checks into their total tech stack to offer candidates a seamless experience? What does a successful integration look like after it goes live? Let’s outline how hiring challenges are driving the need for HR integrations, and how HR decision-makers can identify the right background check vendor to propel hiring in 2023.

How Candidate Drop-Off Has Spurred HR Tech Investment

UKG’s new research report, “The State of Today’s HR Tech Stack 2022-23,” reveals a trend driving HR tech investment: “Businesses today are operating in a unique and unprecedented “VUCA” (volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous) environment. This has placed considerable demands on organizations and has come with a shift in employees’ attitudes regarding how, when, and what work is done.” Likewise, the report spotlights how a lack of integration of HR tech stack solutions is a barrier to achieving business goals. Only 29% of respondents said that the components of their HR tech stack usefully integrated with one another “well or extremely well.”

People Management magazine cites Sterling’s study, reporting that more than three-quarters of job seekers surveyed said that they would drop out or consider dropping out of lengthy recruitment processes.

To mitigate the cost of candidate drop-off, companies are investing in HR tech, in part to integrate background screening into the total hiring process for a seamless candidate experience. When the background check process is placed smoothly into the hiring process, companies gain confidence to take the next step with their candidates and celebrate them as new hires.

How Do Successful Integrations Improve Candidate and Employee Experience?

HR processes are complex, requiring multiple services and programs to get from open role to filled seat. That’s why companies are investing in integrated tech vs. additional tech to improve candidate and employee experience. Referencing UKG’s report, just 49% of respondents say their HR tech stack supports their organization’s business goals and strategies well (39%) or extremely well (10%). Another fifteen percent say that it supports their organization’s key business goals and strategies poorly or very poorly. Over the next two years, 43% of respondents say they expect their organization’s HR tech stack to improve integration abilities.

Form I-9 integration is a common focus of HR leaders looking to boost hiring by streamlining the candidate experience. Sterling’s partners currently supporting an I-9 integration include Bullhorn, Workday, iCIMS, Oracle, and Ceridian, with more to come in 2023. Today’s more comprehensive HR integrations also include an identity verification service to thoroughly vet candidates and prove that they really are who they say they are.

AI technology is another emerging trend in HR tech, helping companies to automate time-intensive tasks. For example, Paradox, Sterling’s newest partner, utilizes AI by way of a chatbot recruiter named Olivia. Olivia helps companies around the world hire faster by handling many traditional HR duties including screening, scheduling, and onboarding. Meanwhile, her automated chat feature helps to make visitors’ conversations simple and intuitive. You can see Olivia in action here.

HR tech innovations are also focusing on streamlining hiring by improving the candidate experience. For example, Sterling’s proprietary Candidate Hub helps companies to accelerate their hiring programs by adding a native mobile experience. HR technology advances like this help keep job seekers engaged, help prevent candidate drop-off, and help reduce the time from recruiting to onboarding.

Sterling’s iCIMS Prime Integration Upgrades the Hiring Process

What does a successful HR tech integration look like? Recently, Sterling helped Hudson Valley Credit Union to support its expanding hiring needs. Being an existing iCIMS customer, our client sought to work with an iCIMS preferred screening partner who also offered a robust iCIMS Prime integration to upgrade their current hiring program. Sterling stood out to the client owing to our long-standing relationship with iCIMS, along with our ability to fulfill these needs while also delivering excellent customer support.

“From the beginning, we’ve been impressed with Sterling,” said Dan Drewnowski, Manager of Talent Acquisition with Hudson Valley Credit Union. “Sterling’s expertise, ongoing investment in their technology, and compliance has given us tremendous confidence.” Read more about this successful HR tech stack integration here.

Clearly, new hiring obstacles are spurring companies to update their HR technology. Although HR tech integrations can be a complex undertaking, organizations can place background checks in their total tech stack to propel 2023 hiring goals. HR leaders can help overcome doubts around change management by partnering with a background check provider with deep industry expertise, helping to assure a successful integration tailored to their unique business needs.

A successful integration can deliver accelerated hiring, a stronger candidate experience, and improved employee retention. These efficiency improvements also free up HR staff to do what they do best: putting people first by celebrating new hires as a milestone for the company.

Explore our partner ecosystem or contact our expert team to learn more about our integration offerings.

Author Bio:
Harris Bornstein is the Vice President of Strategic Alliances and Channel Partnerships for Sterling.

He joined the company in 1999, holding several senior leadership and business development positions in Sterling’s Strategic Channel Partnerships group, as well as serving as Regional Director of Sales. Harris has helped recruit and manage many of Sterling’s top partners. He focuses on identifying ATS/HCM partners with best-in-class technology and growing Sterling’s partner ecosystem to best serve clients.

Harris holds a BS degree in Administration of Justice from Rutgers University.

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