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The Hirers Guide to the Best Employee Verification Services: How to get the best value for your money

Every organization that wishes to grow has to hire new employees every year. Also, they need to hire new employees at a higher rate than the outgoing employees. Only then the organization can grow sustainably. Another critical element of hiring these new employees is to ensure that people joining the organization are genuine and would contribute positively to the growth of the organization.

The HR team is dependent on external employee verification services for conducting background checks on the employees.

In this blog, we will discuss how HR professionals should decide on the right partner for their employee verification needs.

For those who are new to the subject, let’s first discuss what are employee verification services.

Employee verification services are a way for businesses to ensure the accuracy of the information entered into employee applications. They can help to prevent intimidation or fraud, and can also help to verify the identities of employees who may be eligible for benefits or promotions.

These services offer various benefits. These include:

Being able to ensure that employees are who they say they are

Being able to protect company secrets

Preventing blackmail and extortion

Helping to reduce the number of fraudulent claims against employers

How HRs can go about scouting their potential employee verification services partner?

Let’s quickly check various factors the HR team should consider while finalizing their partner tasked with verifying the authenticity of documents & references provided by the candidate during the recruitment process and the genuineness of the candidate.

Quality of the Service

One of the most important factors to consider when choosing an employee verification provider is the quality of the service. It goes without saying that the whole purpose is defeated if the service provider fails to deliver quality results. HR may end up getting fraudulent candidates if the service provider doesn’t do the job well and the company has to eventually suffer.

Many companies prefer to use reliable and reputable sources, such as respected staffing agencies or staffing firms, to vet potential employees.

HR can ask for references to assess the quality of the service. They can offer pilot work to evaluate the reporting quality and the time taken for the verification process. They can also cross-check the work quality by giving controlled samples containing both known good and bad people from previous experiences unless the provider is going to ask the people for the information in person.

Scope of the verification

While searching for the verification services provider, it is also important to know what is the scope of their candidate verification services. Many times, the verification would be straight forward.

However, at times special checks are required to assess the employee appropriately. If your company has a need for such specific verifications then it is better to include such checks in the verification partner selection factors.

Looking up for a new partner when the need arises may not be a good idea. Also, without a prior relationship with the verification service provider, you may not know their working style, SLAs, and turnaround time.

Customer reviews

Companies can easily look up the reviews online for the partner in discussion. HR can ask for one-on-one interviews with the past clients of the verification service provider. A good service provider has no reason to connect HR with their past customers. During such interactions, the HR can enquire past customers about good and bad aspects of the service rendered and experiences undergone during the engagement period.

Longevity of the company

As a company, you don’t want to look for new partners every quarter or year. It’s better to check the longevity of the prospective partners. If they are in the business for long then you can invest in the relationship with them. A new partner can also be considered if they have something unique to offer. Every company has started at some point but to be able to safeguard the interest of your company, it simply makes sense to go with the dependable player who has been in the market for a long.

Certifications

The company that HR is going to offload the employee verification work needs to be at least ISO certified. That should be the basic criteria. If a verification service provider has an ISO certification, then it displays their seriousness about the business along with acceptance towards processes.

Report standardization

HR should also check if the reports coming in are in a standard format. Unless these reports are in the standard format, your recruitment team will find it difficult to read and comprehend these reports. This can hamper your pace of processing the candidates in a given time period. You should choose a partner offering standardized reports over the one offering an ad hoc format of reports.

Real-time access

When a resignation is in progress, it is crucial for HRs to be aware of the status of the candidate’s checks in real-time. They can expedite the offer rollout depending on the candidate’s status.

A few good background verification companies offer access to their verification services portal, where HRs can look at the status of the candidates in real-time, rather than waiting for a data dump to arrive in their inbox.

Service Automation

To streamline the recruitment process, it is crucial to avoid miscommunication and resulting delays. A good service automation platform can help address these both things. If HR can connect their ATS directly with the verification services portal of the background verification company then information flows smoothly and instantly between the two companies. This helps to prevent human errors and time gaps.

These are the basic factors to evaluate the potential employee background check provider. However, they are often overlooked. A key to getting the right employee in the organization is to have the right partner doing background checks diligently for new hires.

Closing Note

We offer a wide range of verification services that are perfect for your business. Whether you need to check employee licenses or make sure employees are who they say they are, we have the solution for you. Our team is passionate about helping businesses get the most out of their employee verification efforts, so don’t hesitate to give us a try!

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3 Problems with Background Screening for Blue-Collar Workers and How to Combat Them

Blue-collar workers make up a large percentage of our workforce. India has nearly 250 million blue-collar employees, working in logistics, construction, mining, manufacturing, maintenance, delivery services, ride-sharing services, etc.

Blue collar workers are the lifeblood of our society. They are the ones who are out on the streets every day, providing us with the food we eat and the necessities we need. It is true that no economy can sustain without these people. There are, however, certain challenges that recruiters face during the hiring process.

One of them being background screening.

Challenges with Background Screening of Blue-Collar Workers

Background screening is a necessary process that organizations undertake to protect themselves from potential risks. The last thing any company wants is to hire someone who is going to cause them any problems.

It is common for companies to conduct background screenings on blue-collar workers to reduce the risk of fraud and provide a safe work environment. However, there are many challenges that come with this screening.

1. Lack of Resources

The first challenge is not every company has the resources to carry out a thorough background check of blue-collar workers. For instance, a construction company that doesn’t have the system and people in place to verify the criminal record of potential hires may unwittingly end up employing people with questionable conduct in the past.

At the least, brands need background verification software and experienced personnel who can run the candidates through national criminal search, national sex offender search, identity verification check, drug screening, past employment record, educational verification etc. All of these sub-processes add additional burden on the shoulders of recruiters, and increase the cost of hiring. Not to mention, if companies don’t already have these systems in place, it may take forever to finally make a hiring decision.

And that’s just one employee. Think about hiring 100 such blue-collar workers for a project and how much time and resources it would take to screen and recruit them. That’s the number one reason why many companies outsource their background screening responsibilities of blue-collar workers to third-party experts like V Trace.

Companies like V Trace take the time to thoroughly look into an applicant’s background. This includes taking a close look at their criminal record, education and employment history, and references. In the event that an applicant is found to be a potential risk, they will flag them.

2. Lack of Information

Background screening is a crucial step in the hiring process for blue-collar workers. However, this type of screening can be a challenge for companies due to the lack of information available. Sometimes, candidates share false identities or don’t even have the appropriate paperwork to show for.

Should any undesirable event occur in the future because of inadequately verified blue-collar workers, the onus is on the company. In fact, it may be held legally liable for providing an unsafe work environment. This is another reason why companies turn to outside background screening experts like V Trace.

They meticulously identify discrepancies in the candidate’s identity, criminal record, address, and police verification records to ensure that employers don’t suffer the cost of a bad hire. Research suggests that companies lose as much as 30% of the employee’s annual salary due to bad hiring.

3. Inherent Delays in the Process

Background screening of blue-collar workers is a herculean task. Many of these workers arrive from remote villages of India. The absence of a central data repository to validate the education status, employment history, financial status, criminal record, and family background makes the process even more challenging.

Not to mention, these people from different districts speak different languages and dialects. Because of these challenges, many companies are forced to cut corners on background screening to avoid delays. However, that’s not a wise choice and it only adds to the problem.

Compromising on the background screening process can expose the employer to risks such as fraud, theft, labor strike, or harm to other workers. Hence, the better choice is to collaborate with a background screening firm to save time and money in the long run. They take measures such as corroborating the candidate’s credentials with the National Database of Unorganized Workers (NDUW) launched by the Government of India in 2019.

One more important point to add is that there is a lot of turnover at these levels, so background verification is always under pressure for a quick turnaround time. Also, many times the addresses, especially of ecommerce workers or delivery boys, are in slum areas where a physical check on the address is difficult. Finding their location is difficult, and many times when our investigators reach the neighborhood, they think we are coming from some loan agency for recovery and they become aggressive and nonresponsive. Needless to say, doing digital address verification is also a big hurdle in similar situations.

Conclusion

Background screening is the process of researching an individual’s past, including criminal records and education, to predict the likelihood of future performance and conduct. In the past, background screening was mainly used for white-collar workers. With the rise of blue-collar jobs, it is now common for companies to perform pre-employment background screening on blue-collar workers.

However, there are many difficulties and challenges that come with it, such as lack of resources and expertise, added cost, lack of information, and inherent delays in the process. Partnering with a background check firm helps combat those challenges, bringing safety, efficiency, and speed to the blue-collar employee onboarding process.