The Best Ways to Speed Up Your Employment Background Checks
Upon successfully concluding an interview process and identifying the ideal candidate, the final step often involves conducting employment background checks.
Swiftly completing this check is crucial in helping your company secure top talent and enhancing productivity by swiftly filling vacant positions. Unsurprisingly, many hiring managers prioritize the turnaround time when conducting background screenings.
Nevertheless, various factors can impede the expeditious completion of a background check. Some of them include delays in employer verifications, inefficient retrieval systems for court records, or sluggish responses from county clerks.
They lie beyond the control of the screening provider. Fortunately, not all aspects are beyond your influence. You can take numerous measures to expedite the processing of background checks.
1. Implement a Digital Disclosure and Authorization Process
Automating your candidate’s approval for a pre-employment background check makes it user-friendly, enhances compliance, and saves time. Many places now have specific rules about disclosures and consent forms.
Using digital disclosure and consent in an applicant system ensures candidates complete the proper documents based on their address and work location.
The best applicant systems are mobile-friendly, allowing users to complete the background screening application and consent documents on a tablet, phone, or computer, even when moving. It speeds up candidate engagement and shortens the hiring process.
2. Supply All Necessary Documents to Your Background Check Provider
The background checks on employees depend on the applicant’s information, which can range from basic details like their full name, Social Security number, and birth-date to more extensive data like a driver’s license number, professional license number, or, for international screenings, a passport number or country-specific documents.
The provider needs this information promptly after receiving the screening request to begin the screening process. With it, the provider can move forward — however, the process is delayed until the employee provides all required data.
3. Make Use of Online Data Collection
Starting an employment verification background check, ensuring applicants complete the necessary forms, and collecting their information doesn’t have to be a hassle for hiring professionals.
Technology-savvy consumer reporting agencies (CRAs) offer web-based applicant platforms for electronic data collection and secure document uploads. These platforms can integrate with your ATS to streamline workflows and speed hiring.
These mobile-friendly platforms make it easy for applicants to complete the process on their phones or tablets. After the employer initiates the background check, applicants receive a link through email or text to enter their data and complete consent forms electronically.
4. Offer User-Friendly Solution With Progress Tracking
Today’s applicants are cautious about their personal information and are tech-savvy. They prefer having control and insight into the hiring process, including pre-employment background checks. Employers who are transparent can make a positive first impression and build patience and resilience in candidates, even if the screening process takes longer than expected.
Employers that applicants value allow them to:
- Enter their details for the background check.
- Receive, review, store, and print disclosure and consent documents.
- Electronically sign authorizations and acknowledge consent forms.
- Monitor the progress of their background check.
- View and save completed results.
5. Act Early in the Day
Submitting requests for employment background checks early in the day has several benefits. It allows in-person court searches to include your file on the same day and helps applicants schedule drug screen collections. Collection facilities typically stop collecting specimens in the afternoon to send them to the testing lab.
If your applicant is in an earlier time zone, a noon submission could result in a one-day delay in processing. Be mindful of holidays and Friday afternoons when processing background checks, as courts and collection facilities may have limited hours or be closed.
6. Automate the Adverse Action Process
Employers are legally obligated to follow specific guidelines when deciding not to hire a candidate based on their pre-employment background check report.
This process begins with sending the candidate a pre-adverse action notice, which should include the name and contact information of the company that prepared the report, mention that the report’s findings could affect their job application, and provide a copy of the report along with instructions for disputing any inaccurate information.
7. Select the Right Screening Provider
Some businesses make the mistake of choosing a screening provider solely based on cost, leading to increased time-to-hire and productivity loss due to unfilled positions. Choosing a provider with a streamlined background check for employment practices is better for quicker turnaround.
For instance, many providers outsource their workers overseas, leading to longer turnaround times due to language barriers and unfamiliarity with the American judicial system. Choose those compliant with the regulations and offer faster client turnaround times.
Quick Turnaround Streamlines Your Hiring Process
A faster turnaround time brings substantial advantages to the onboarding process. When you offer a job pending a background check, a swift turnaround minimizes the risk of candidates losing interest or accepting another offer.
Following the steps above can reduce unnecessary delays in your background check process. However, working with an agency for employment background checks would be best.
ADC is the name you can trust regarding background checks. We have the skills, network, experience, and resources to do the job quickly.