Background Screening – An Interview with Dawn Standerwick of Applicant Insight

By Tony Deblauwe

Employers face many challenges in the current economy. On one hand, budgets are tight and few new positions are being created. On the other hand, finding and selecting talent when a position does come available is equally tough especially when people are willing do say anything to get a job. That’s where background screening plays a key role in ensuring employers make the right hire.

Dawn Standerwick is the Director of Marketing & Business Development for Applicant Insight, a mid-size screening firm with over 18 years experience in global screening solutions covering a wide range of expertise in industries such as Insurance, Transportation, Finance, Education and Healthcare. Dawn provided some “insight” of her own about what she sees in terms of market trends.

A big concern for employers is resume fraud. Standerwick notes, “Resume fraud is increasing as people remain desperate in this hard economy.” She sees companies becoming more sensitive to negligent hiring and vetting resume content is starting to become a more critical component to workforce screening programs in terms of perceived importance to employers.

Equal to fraud is the changing regulatory landscape. Changes to I-9 verifications, especially involving employers with federal contracts, require specific steps to approve work authorization. Some clients can’t keep up and often make unintended mistakes or assumptions in the process.
What makes matters worse is the desperate tactics coming from the screening companies themselves. Standerwick points to the commoditization of the market and how some companies auction their services to get a customers bid. This not only creates potential liability in competitive market pricing, but a degradation in quality of service.

Applicant Insight makes an ongoing effort to stay connected to their clients through various education channels including blog updates, newsletters, white papers, and onsite training. In many cases, the efforts to educate on the backend screening process has led to improvements for clients in overall recruiting process efficiencies. Incentives such as no-cost custom integrations and tax credit screenings also help connect Applicant Insight to unique customer environments.

In terms of trends for the industry, Standerwick sees more consolidation of services. In some cases through M&A, but in many cases through partnerships. Applicant Insight currently partners with many competitors to offload specialized drug testing needs. In other cases, Standerwick believes companies will continue to leverage services they don’t currently offer, such as pre-employment personality profiling, tax credit screening and technology integrations, through other vendors to show customers they can offer complete end-to-end solutions.
The screening industry is taking more steps to ensure data privacy protection. Many customers have been surprised to learn that their screening partner off-shored sensitive data (that ended up stolen in some cases).  Many companies, including Applicant Insight, have registered with organizations such as Concerned CRA’s (Consumer Reporting Agency) to bring attention to the fact that many screening companies are engaging in this practice, often without the knowledge of the employer or consent from the consumer.  

Not so much a trend, but a common question Standerwick hears from new customers, is screening candidate or employee social networking profiles. While there are no federal regulations or guidelines concerning this practice, Standerwick recommends clients proceed with extreme caution. “There is too much variability in the social network field that trying to “screen” online profiles in any way sets customers up for potential legal issues.”
The industry continues to evolve, and so does the regulatory landscape. Once a year, Applicant Insight goes to Washington DC to lobby for changes and to suggest ideas around best practices. Recent changes in consumer financial reform has created concern in that the Federal Trade Commission, the current body that regulates laws pertinent to screening, is replaced by a new governing body unfamiliar with screening practices and the industry as a whole. That could translate into more complicated legislation that could make the current process more difficult which will certainly affect the more than 80% of companies with screening programs currently in place.

Fortunately, where background screening services are today demonstrates big advances in shorter cycle times to get companys’ key decision making data. Paperless, online driven forms reduce the time for HR departments and hiring managers to review candidates and it reduces the risk of test administration irregularities. As the job market picks up so will the demand for quality screening. Says Standerwick, “The breadth of screening solutions is growing in line with spikes in job growth and Applicant Insight is ready to meet the challenge.”

For more information about Applicant Insight please visit them at www.ainsight.com