How to Assess Your Current Background Checks Provider

Background checks are a critical component of an organisation’s hiring, compliance, and risk mitigation strategies. As regulatory environments evolve and candidate expectations rise, it is essential to periodically reassess whether your current background check provider continues to meet your needs.

This guide has been developed for HR, Operations, and Risk & Compliance teams to help you evaluate your current provider’s effectiveness, compliance and value. 

Mutual alignment

Are you aligned? Your provider should support your onboarding process, ensuring they can match up to your hiring, risk and compliance objectives. Take the following into consideration when reviewing your provider.

• Does the provider offer screening services aligned with your industry and risk profile (e.g., financial, healthcare, education)?
  
  
• Are their services scalable?
  
  
• Do they support the types of roles you hire (permanent, contract, remote, global)?
  
  
• Can their service be integrated into your existing systems?
  
  

To answer these questions, it’s worth reviewing them internally with HR and Legal with a clear idea of the business’ needs to compare whether or not they align with what the screening company provides.

Comprehensive coverage and screening

You need to ensure your provider can cover all the background checks you need for your industry and organisation; there’s no point partnering with a provider that cannot provide comprehensive screening.

• What types of checks are offered (criminal, employment history, education, right to work, credit, etc.)?
  
  
• Are checks customisable by role or risk level?
  
  
• Do they support international background checks?
  
  
• How current and reliable are their data sources?
  
  

Compare their service catalogue against your internal policy and hiring jurisdictions. Businesses can suddenly need to expand in other countries, so a provider that can conduct checks across the board is key.

Compliance and regulation

A background screening provider should comply with local and international regulations to ensure you’re not restricted when it comes to hiring top global talent. Gone are the days of being restricted to your country of origin for work – and a global workforce needs global compliance.

• Are they compliant with GDPR, FCRA (if applicable), local employment laws, and other relevant regulations?
  
  
• How do they obtain and store candidate data and consent?
  
  
• Do they have clear adverse action processes?
  
  
• Are there regular compliance audits or certifications (e.g., ISO 27001)?
  
  

Risk & Compliance must conduct an audit on the provider to ensure adherence to all international laws and regulations. Any breach of them could cause your company to be liable.

Turnaround times

Turnaround times are crucial in the hiring process – a long turnaround time could put off a potential hire. A background checking service needs to be as quick as possible to ensure you can onboard the candidates you want with speed.

Checklist:

• What is the average turnaround time for each check type?
  
  
• What are the error or dispute rates?
  
  
• Do they provide transparency into status and delays?
  
  
• Are turnaround times meeting your service-level expectations?

Candidate experience

Candidate experience can make or break an entire hiring process. If the background check is invasive or not easy to use, candidates may drop off in favour of another company whose process is simpler and quicker.

• Is the background check process transparent and easy to complete?
  
  
• Are support resources available (e.g. instant chat, contact points, available in different languages)?
  
  
• Is it laid out and communicated clearly?

The best way to audit this is to ask candidates for feedback, as well as recently employed staff as the process will still be fresh in their minds.

Technology and ease of integration

Technology is ever-evolving and your provider should be able to implement the latest technology to help you and constantly improve their services for you.

• Do they offer API or integration with your ATS/HRIS?
  
  
• Is the candidate and recruiter interface user-friendly?
  
  
• Are real-time tracking and status updates available?
  
  
• How secure is their platform (encryption, access control)?
  
  

This is the perfect time to get your IT team involved. Ask them to conduct a technical review of the provider, with a particular focus on cybersecurity.

Customer service

The ideal background checks provider should respond to any issues ASAP. There should be a constant point of contact if any issues arise so they can be resolved quickly and don’t affect your operations for longer than necessary.

• What support channels are available (phone, email, portal)?
  
  
• Are issues resolved within agreed timelines?
  
  
• Is there a dedicated account manager?
  
  
• Do they offer performance reporting and reviews?
  
  

The best way to review this is through data – have a look at any logs that have been made over the past year and analyse resolution times. There may also be additional support available that you may have to request – it’s worth engaging with your provider and asking if they have any additional support you’re not aware of.

Risk 

You need to know how much risk a provider will expose you to – a partnership with a provider should be built on trust and mutual agreement in terms of risk prevention, procedures that are in place to mitigate risk, and any plans should a breach happen.

• What are the contractual SLAs and penalties for a breach?
  
  
• Do they carry professional indemnity or cyber insurance?
  
  
• What is their data breach history?
• What cybersecurity protections do they have?
  
  
• Do they have a business continuity and disaster recovery plan?

It’s important to get clear documentation outlining all of this from your provider so you can refer to it whenever necessary. Having it documented also gives peace of mind as there’s clear protocol. Also, you’ll know where you legally stand should the worst happen.

A robust, compliant, and efficient background check process is fundamental to a great hiring experience. By conducting a thorough review using the criteria outlined in this guide, your team will be better equipped to ensure that your provider not only meets current needs but is also adaptable to future workforce and regulatory changes.

If the assessment reveals areas for improvement, work collaboratively with your provider to address them or consider evaluating alternative providers that may better align with your requirements. Regular reviews like this should form part of your ongoing risk management and workforce planning strategy.

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