Staffing Smarter: The Critical Role of Verifications in the Staffing Industry

Joy Henry, Executive Vice President, Americas

Hiring the wrong applicant for the job is a costly mistake. According to CareerBuilder, a bad hire costs employers 30% of the role’s total salary on average. Losses incurred from a bad hire do not only take into account hiring costs, but also lost time and productivity and, in some cases, a negative impact on employee morale and the company’s reputation.

To reduce the odds of making bad hiring decisions, employers are turning to verification services, like employment and education verifications. Verifying applicants’ resume claims highlights inconsistencies and helps employers find applicants who will be a good fit both for the role and their company culture. In some industries, like transportation and nursing, verifying applicants’ qualifications is mandatory. Employers can face costly consequences if their new hires haven’t been appropriately vetted – and that’s without going into the issues that can arise if the wrong person gets the job.

Your customers trust you to find skilled people who are a good fit for the job, which comes with an expectation that you’ll do your due diligence and confirm your applicants have the required experience and credentials. An unqualified placement could hurt the brand you’ve worked hard to build.

Identify resume discrepancies with verifications

Staffing professionals can use verifications to identify inadequate credentials. Verifications check applicants’ claims with employers, institutions, and regulators to compare the credentials provided against a primary or reliable source.

Formerly completed in-house, verifications nowadays are typically outsourced to third-party background screening providers, who can better accommodate large volumes and applicants in different time zones.

Which verifications should you perform?

Here are the main types of verifications your staffing agency may want to consider adding to your screening program:

• Employment verifications – verify key details about applicants’ work history, including the job title and dates of employment.
• Education verifications – confirm the details of your applicants’ studies, including their major, start date, graduation date (if applicable), and the degree they obtained (if any).
• Credential verifications – verify applicants’ professional qualifications, such as nursing or medical licenses, accounting certifications, and more.
• Department of Transportation employment verifications – verify employment records in alignment with DOT-regulations, including job title, start and end dates, reason for leaving, prior accidents or injuries, and other DOT-mandated information.

The verifications included in each check may vary based on each specific customer’s needs, which are generally dictated by the industry. Regulated industries, like transportation, finance, and nursing, may require verifications to meet their compliance requirements.

Be sure your background screening provider is well-versed in the best practices and provides the services needed to meet requirements in each sector to help you craft tailored packages for all your customers.

How long does it take to complete a verifications check?

Staffing agencies have to find and screen large volumes of applicants, often within tight deadlines. However, getting a hold of former employers and institutions can be a time-consuming process, especially when different time zones are involved (often the case for international applicants).

Smart use of automation and proprietary data sources by minimizing or eliminating the need to track down specific contacts for confirmation. Through automation, First Advantage’s Verified!® database and SmartHub™ solution can reduce turnaround times by 72% and average costs by 15%, with some verifications being completed within 15 minutes.

How are verifications completed?

The process to complete verifications can vary based on the platform used and whether the employment is for a current or former employer. When Instant Present Employer is used to verify a current employer, First Advantage allows applicants to log into this employer’s payroll provider, if applicable, to generate a verification profile. (The current employer is not notified.) Alternately, applicants can complete their verification details through the standard applicant experience.

Once First Advantage has received the applicants’ details, they’re searched in our proprietary Verified! database.

If a record is found, the applicant’s information is compared to check for discrepancies.

In the absence of an existing record, our SmartHub solution evaluates the elements to determine the best fulfillment method for the verification, based on cost and speed.

Once the verification has been completed, a quality check is performed, and your staffing agency will receive a report stating whether the information provided by the applicant was verified or not. If desired, we can reach out to you or the applicant for documents to help improve verification success.

Your customers are counting on you to source qualified talents. Confirm your hires have what it takes to do the job with fast and thorough verifications packages tailored to each industry.

To add verifications to your screening program, contact us.