Candidate Background Checking Services: 9 Points to Consider

Hiring a candidate for a company is a big decision. So, the recruiters need to check the candidate’s backgrounds and verify their educational and character certificates. The company should ask the selected candidates to submit their documents and check their authenticity in detail before recruiting them. This is a time-consuming and lengthy process if the recruiters check the documents of the candidates manually. So, the companies that recruit a huge number of candidates every day, outsource the background checking service. It saves their time and lets the recruiters focus on attracting more talents and retaining employees. 

You may get plenty of options when it comes to searching for the best background checking service providing companies. But, selecting the best background checking company to hire genuine candidates is challenging.

What does background checking service mean?

Before checking the tips for hiring the best background checking service provider, you need to understand what the service covers. Background checking of the candidates includes various documents. It includes checking the educational record, past employee details, identity proof, and more. The information that the candidate provides should be authentic along with proper documentation. 

Information that you can check through background checking services 

The background checking services go through various information about the candidate and cross-check its reliability. 

  • Governmental identity proof

Different types of identity-proving documents that we may use for different purposes. While checking the candidate’s identity, it’s important to submit governmental proof that contains the residence, name, age, and birth identity. The responsibility of the background checking department is to find the reliability of the document for identity. 

  • Educational certificates

The candidates need to submit their educational certificates that prove their educational degrees. The certificates from the educational institutions as per the requirements of the company should be submitted. The background checking officials should check the candidates’  admit cards, registration certificates, and results to understand their educational qualifications. 

  • Address proof 

Address proof is a part of identity checking. The identity card contains the details of the address of the candidate that the background checking service providers need to verify. 

  • Criminal background check

This is an important part that the background checking department should check in detail before giving a green signal to a candidate for recruitment. The criminal history of a candidate means, checking whether the candidate was ever associated with any legal offense or not. A candidate who has no criminal background may expect a clearance from the background-checking service providers. 

  • History of past employment 

If the company already has a history of past employment then the background checking services should cover this part. The position of the candidate in the past employment, the duration of holding the position at that organization, and the last drawn salary. These things help an organization to confirm that the candidate is genuinely leaving the previous company. The information related to the working experience is true. Depending on this professional experience, the candidate may hold a new position in the new organization. 

  • Driving license 

This is an additional area that some organizations need when they need to recruit employees with the proper driving knowledge. The driving license and the other driving-related legal documents should be checked in detail in case of the company’s preference. 

  • Social media checking 

Social media makes understanding the candidate’s personality easy. The social media profiles of the candidates show their interests, hobbies, personal preferences, and other details. 

Tips for hiring background checking services from the best company 

Now, you can go through the following tips to understand what to follow for hiring the best candidate background checking services.

  1. Required type of background check

The first thing that the recruiters need to determine is the type of background checking services. It is better to check all the details about the candidate before hiring to reduce the risk of hiring the wrong one. Starting from the criminal background to the identity of the candidate everything should give the clearance to hire the candidate. If the candidate applies for a particular position in which they have to drive then check the driving history. 

You should also check whether the background checking service providers cover the specific criteria or not. If you need the report of driving background checking of the candidate then the company which you are hiring should cover the same. 

  1. Whether the company is expert and competent or not?

The background checking service has many complications. You should hire the service from the company which has already earned a good experience in the market. It involves various moving parts including governmental and legal verification. Proper documentation is also a part of the background checking service. So, before making a final decision you need to make sure that you are investing in the right place. The experienced staff should handle the cases with patience and give you authentic reports about the candidates. 

  1. What is included in the services of the company?

When you are hiring background checking services from a reputed company, you must check the details of their services. The background checking services may take complete responsibility or you may also hire the service for specific requirements. If you need specific requirements then you should check it with the company. It is safe to hand over the entire responsibility of checking the background of the candidate to the expert company. This helps the recruiters to avoid legal complications and rely on in-depth research. The research of the agency is not restricted to online checking only. The experienced staffs conduct deep research and find out the right result without any biasness.

  1. Reliability of the company 

While choosing the best company for the selected candidate’s background check, you should be sure of its reliability. You should make sure that the company generated authenticated report of the candidate after reviewing their background. You can also check what the other clients say about the company and its services. The reviews and ratings on the companies help you to understand the service quality and the reliability of reports. 

  1. Timeline 

Different background checking service providers may give you different timelines to complete the checking. You should opt for the service which is good in quality and prompt at the same time. The standard background checking process takes a couple of days in general. But it may vary depending on your requirements. It is always better to talk to professional executives before hiring the service and making the final decision. 

  1. Budget

When you need to invest in a company for background checking then you need to check the standard market price before all. The budgets of the companies differ depending on their policies and services. Check the quality and details of the services along with the cost of hiring the service from the company. If you find the cost is within your budget then you can opt for it. 

  1. Customer support 

The companies should provide the best customer support through phone calls, emails, or messages. The customer support may vary depending on the company policies and you should choose the suitable one for your requirement. Strong support from background checking service providers helps you to get solutions whenever they meet a problem. Receiving prompt service from the background checking service providers in urgency is always an added advantage. 

  1. Industries served

The industries for which the background checking company has already served should suit your requirements. That means the chosen company for background checking should have experience in a similar industry. This experience of the experts helps them to speed up the entire process. 

  1. Working process

One thing you should never miss is to check when you are outsourcing background checking services to another company. Different companies work in several strategies and you should check the details of the background checking processes of the company. You should talk to the professionals and check the technical details they use for verifying the candidate’s details. Once you like the background verifying process of a company, you can opt for the same further.  

Apart from these tips, you need to understand the steps that the agency follows for checking a candidate’s background. The following points let you understand how these companies check the background of the candidates. 

Role of technology in the background verification process

Technology is everywhere now. The background checking process is not an exception as well. The implementation of technology makes the process of background checking fast and accurate. In the competitive market, completing the task within the shortest period has become a prime criterion. Technological upgrades can fulfil this requirement in a promising way. Let us check the following points to understand the right technological implementations in background verification. 

Access huge data within a shorter period 

The technical implementation of the huge data access can reduce the time and effort of the executives. The background checking services become short with the help of such technical implementation. The background checking service providers access the information of the employees and filter those who have a clean record.

Accurate screening result  

The applications for checking the background of the candidates assure more accurate results than manual checking. The background checkers may not check all the parts of the documents minutely but when it passes through software, this shows an accurate result. Moreover, the scope of bias results also becomes less. 

End-to-end automation 

Another advantage is making the entire background checking process automated. The candidates need to fill up an online form at the company’s portal. And the entire verification process is done automatically and the report is generated for processing the recruitment further. 
These are the main advantages of technological implementations in the background verification process. So, when you hire a reliable background checking service, you need to note down all these points. Along with that make sure you get the accurate result on time. From the start to the end, the executives need to be very much cautious and responsible to verify the process. Honesty and reliability are the main keys to get success in the background verification process.