July 16th, 2024 | Sterling

Client Success at Sterling: A Deep Dive into Our Global Support Structure

In today’s ever-evolving business landscape, client success hinges on proactive strategies, collaborative efforts, and staying ahead of emerging trends. We sat down with Candace Ray, Associate Vice President of Client Success for Sterling’s Technology and Business Services Commercial Group, to share her experience on Sterling’s approach to client support, global implementations, and the latest trends in background screening.

Our discussion sheds light on how to: 

  • navigate complexities
  • foster client partnerships
  • drive a successful background screening program

You can watch the full Sterling Live episode here:

Q: Can you introduce yourself and your role at Sterling?

A: Absolutely. My name is Candace Ray, and I serve as the Associate Vice President of Client Success for Sterling’s Technology and Business Services Commercial Group. I’ve been with Sterling for almost eight years now, starting as a Client Success Partner (CSP) and gradually moving up to a leadership position.

Overall, I have 14 years of experience in client, facing teams and presently I oversee a team of CSPs supporting our clients end-to-end needs, primarily in the mid-market business.  My role here is to enable our CSPs with all the resources they need while acting as an additional layer of support, leading strategic and tactical conversations, promoting retention, and our client’s business goals. In a nutshell, I assist and enable my support team to ensure that our client has ultimate success with their background screening program with Sterling.

Q: We’re going to start with an overview of client success. How does the verticalized structure of Sterling lend itself to greater client support?

A:  We have categorized our clients based on their industry needs to ensure that we are providing them with relevant subject matter expertise. Our verticalized structure is designed to cater to clients’ industry-specific needs, ensuring they receive tailored support and expertise in their respective practice areas.

By aligning ourselves closely with clients’ industries, we gain deep insights into their pain points and challenges. This enables us to provide focused and meaningful support systems that address their unique needs, ultimately mitigating risks and building successful partnerships.

Our two-tiered support system ensures that clients of all sizes receive the attention and solutions they require, with dedicated teams providing day-to-day support and CSPs acting as advocates and strategic partners. This structure allows us to deliver fully-optimized solutions and ensures that our clients’ programs perform at their best, setting us apart as a leader in client support within the background screening industry.

Q: How does Sterling tailor background screening solutions to meet specific needs of individual clients?

A: Our approach involves aligning each client with support in their respective industry. This verticalization not only allows us to collaborate closely with similar industry clients but also facilities the exchange of best practices. By leveraging insights from successful industry peers, we continuously refine and fine-tune our process and workflows to deliver tailored solutions.

At the heart of this process is scoping with our Professional Services Group (PSG). They engage in in-depth discussion to uncover and understand each client’s unique business requirements, layering them with industry best practices. This involves conducting thorough industry analysis, including regular surveys, collaboration with industry-specific experts, and updates from our compliance team. We also host industry-specific Leadership Councils to have an open conversation with clients around best practices in the overall hiring process.

From this, we develop and present tailored recommendations, ranging from entry-level positions to executive investigations, covering all aspects of the client’s requirements. This approach ensures that we deliver simplified, yet highly customized solutions. Our PSG team, in conjunction with our client success team, excels in enhancing the overall experience by crafting solutions aligning with the client’s needs.

Q: How does your team stay proactive in optimizing client programs?

A: We have a proactive approach to staying informed about industry developments. Our day-to-day support contacts act as our eyes and ears on the ground, understanding emerging trends and sharing this information with our CSPs. This collaboration is essential in driving our strategic initiatives forward.

Additionally, we prioritize keeping our clients updated on compliance and regulatory changes, recognizing their significant impact on hiring workflows. To facilitate clear communication, we assign a dedicated team to support these programs, enabling them to cultivate relationships and share updates and best practices. By engaging in these proactive discussions, we can asses the impact of these updates on hiring process and provide tailored solutions to our clients.

As we consider optimization, individualized assessment emerges as a key strategy. With the increasing mandate for individualized assessment in the adverse action process, we’ve proactively communicated with our clients to deliver solutions such as digital adverse action processes. By integrating critical compliance components, we ensure our clients remain compliant while streamlining their screening processes. This approach aligns with our commitment to simplifying our clients’ hiring criteria based on their specific needs, industry, and risk appetite.

Our client adjudication matrix further enhances this process by redefining hiring criteria based on industry best practices and organizational preferences. By establishing clear screening outcome criteria, we streamline hiring processes, reduce manual work, and enable quicker hiring decisions. This exemplifies our dedication to providing optimized solutions tailored to each client’s unique requirements. 

Q: Could you elaborate on the relationship between Sterling’s CSP and the client? What are the typical interactions and touchpoints?

A: We prioritize proactive engagement with our clients by establishing regular cadences and touchpoints. We typically schedule monthly, biweekly touchpoints with flexibility based on client needs. These cadences serve as opportunities to share updates in advance, preparing clients for upcoming compliance or regulatory changes. Additionally, we emphasize periodic business reviews, providing a platform to delve into clients’ performance, program trends, and areas for improvement. This encourages open conversations, enabling us to address feedback, business changes, and challenges promptly, aligning our goals with clients’ needs and market dynamics. Our commitment extends to regular industry updates, including monthly roundup emails and webinars, offering insights into current affairs and showcasing how Sterling can support client programs effectively.

Q: What metrics do the client success teams use to ensure proper tracking of success?  

A: Our approach to measuring success encompasses two key aspects:

  • First, we rely on basic KPIs to foster the right team culture and behavior, tracking parameters like managing service agreements and frequency of client engagement. These provide clear indicators of individual performance.
  • However, when it comes to evaluating the success of client programs, we take a different approach. We prioritize measuring success based on direct client feedback, whether through post-interaction surveys or direct conversations. This feedback is integral to fostering honest and strategic engagement, ensuring alignment with clients’ organizational goals.

We take client feedback seriously, swiftly addressing any areas of improvement and leveraging internal subject matter expertise as needed. This approach has not only led to increased client retention but also positioned Sterling as a trusted partner, both regionally and globally, facilitating smooth transitions for clients across different scales of operation.

Q: I think some organizations get apprehensive about global implementations, including common concerns about timing, complexity, and support. Could you delve deeper into global implementations?  

A: Sterling stands out as one of the industry leaders in providing comprehensive global screening solutions across 240 countries and territories. Our dedicated compliance team ensures adherence to guidelines globally, collaborating closely with local experts to understand best practices and to optimize turnaround times. Through this collaboration, we’ve developed proprietary country-specific fact sheets outlining our offerings, fulfillment requirements, turnaround times, and restrictions.

It’s essential for clients to manage these nuances upfront to streamline the screening process and manage expectations regarding time-to-hire, which varies due to complexity. We prioritize the candidate experience- our highly-rated Candidate Hub offers 17 preferred language options , ensuring seamless navigation through the screening process and providing essential details in the candidate’s local language. This focus on candidate experience enhances overall implementation and makes a tangible difference in the success of global initiatives.

Q: Can you elaborate on the collaboration between your team, the implementation team, global operations, and other stakeholders involved in the process?  

A: Collaboration is a critical focus point for Sterling to maintain organization and efficiency in delivering outstanding turnaround times with a seamless process. I’d categorize this collaboration into two aspects: internal and external.

  • Internally, our dedicated CSPs in each region oversee the end-to-end process, from data collection to ensuring quality checks are conducted internally to maintain meaningful results. We coordinate closely with clients and candidates to obtain missing information and work diligently to fulfill orders accurately. 
  • Externally, we collaborate with local subject matter experts to stay ahead of changing regulations, constantly seeking ways to automate external fulfillment methods and improve existing processes 
  • One notable collaboration is our partnership with Yoti, a leading provider of digital identity verification solutions. Initially implemented in the UK for criminal and right-to-work checks, we’ve successfully leveraged this technology globally enabling digital identity verification, optimizing processes on a larger scale. Additionally, our global candidate and client support teams ensure seamless support locally, offering real-time assistance and completing the circle in managing clients’ global programs efficiently.

A: Across industries, we’re observing a concerning rise in fraudulent activities. During a recent Leadership Council meeting, nearly every client expressed concerns about the surge in bad actors infiltrating organizations unnoticed, causing reputational damage, ethical disruptions, and financial losses. In today’s digital age, with AI permeating daily interactions, verifying individuals’ identities has become paramount to safeguarding against such threats. Identity solutions have proven invaluable in preemptively identifying these bad actors, serving a robust risk mitigation strategy.

My recommendation would be to have something placed proactively to identify these bad actors ahead of time. I think it would be a responsible thing for any organization to strengthen the background screening program strategically in hopes of avoiding these bad hires.

I can confidently say that every client who has implemented identity solution as part of their background screening program has seen an increased number of cases being reported. This is due to the right individual identity being validated and creating a comprehensive cleaning solution, helping in mitigating unwanted risk.

From our discussion, it’s clear that proactive engagement, robust collaboration, and strategic foresight are key pillars in Sterling’s approach to supporting clients worldwide. By keeping up with industry trends, harnessing innovative technologies, and prioritizing client feedback, Sterling remains strong in its commitment to deliver exceptional client experiences and drive tangible business outcomes.

To learn more about our client support structure, please reach out here!

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