How a Fast-Growing Paving Network Built a Safety-First Hiring Program at Scale

As Pave America acquires new subsidiaries, it often inherits teams that have never used formal background check programs. That creates immediate compliance and safety risk in a business built around heavy equipment, public roads, and safety-sensitive roles.

In an industry where heavy equipment and public roads are part of every workday, no company can afford the liability of an unscreened workforce. The stakes are real, and Pave America takes them seriously.

“It’s imperative that we’re doing all these checks. The last thing you want is an accident, and in the paving industry, as with construction, you have to be super, super mindful of that,” says Emily Nance, Director of Talent Acquisition.

Beyond the field, Pave America also hires for executive-level finance and HR roles across its subsidiaries, including CFOs, controllers, and HR managers, who require credit checks. Catching serious financial red flags at the point of hire, rather than after someone gains access to company accounts, is a critical risk-mitigation step.

With roughly 10 acquisitions per year, Pave America needed a screening solution that could flex to support a decentralized model: 50+ subsidiary recruiters handling field hiring across 35 companies. At the same time, a small central team manages corporate and senior roles, each with different screening packages and compliance needs.

Pave America’s former Head of Talent Acquisition initially selected Checkr after using the platform at a previous company and brought it in from day one. When that leader moved on, Emily inherited the platform and quickly became an advocate herself.

When Pave America decided to move to a new ATS, seamless integration with Checkr became a top priority. The team had built its screening workflow around the platform, and continuity mattered. Even though the new platform included its own built-in background check solution, subsidiary recruiters were clear about what they wanted to keep.

“Even though our new ATS has its own background and drug screen, our hiring managers gave feedback that they liked Checkr and wanted to keep it. So we are continuing to use Checkr.”

That vote of confidence from 50+ distributed recruiters—the people who use the system hands-on every day—speaks directly to what Checkr delivers: a platform intuitive enough that teams choose it over a bundled alternative. The team completed the integration while preserving the experience that the subsidiaries had come to rely on.

Field workers in the paving industry are not waiting around. Hiring managers who are used to putting people to work want candidates cleared and mobilized as quickly as possible. Checkr delivers the turnaround time that makes that possible.

Criminal background checks and drug screens typically return within 48–72 hours. For field positions, results often come back even faster. When they don’t, the reason is nearly always outside Checkr’s control: a slow county courthouse or a diluted drug screen that requires a retest.

“Checkr is very fast. When it does take longer, it really has nothing to do with Checkr. Some county courthouses take a long time, and that’s completely out of Checkr’s control.”

Because the process moves quickly, Pave America is not losing candidates to a slow screening pipeline. In the construction and paving industry, where competition for skilled CDL drivers and supervisors is high and some competitors skip background checks entirely, every hour matters.

The value of Checkr extends well beyond field hiring. For finance and HR leadership roles, Pave America runs credit checks, and those checks have helped Pave America catch serious issues before they become larger problems.

Pave America also uses MVR checks for all driving positions and manages a tiered compliance structure through regional HR business partners. When a candidate is flagged for a criminal result, a failed drug screen, or adverse credit, the appropriate HR business partner handles the adverse action process. Checkr supports this distributed workflow cleanly.

Managing 50+ subsidiary recruiters across 35 companies would be unwieldy with a complicated screening tool. Checkr removes that friction entirely.

For Emily, one of the most valuable day-to-day features is user management. With acquisitions ongoing, she regularly adds new companies and users to the system. With Checkr, it takes about 2 minutes.

In three years, Pave America has gone from a startup to a billion-dollar paving network spanning 35 subsidiaries and nearly 3,000 employees. That kind of growth depends on scalable systems.

Checkr has been part of that foundation since day one, enabling a small central recruiting team to support a distributed workforce across the country without sacrificing speed, compliance, or control. When acquired companies arrive without any background check program, Checkr provides the infrastructure to stand one up quickly. When 50+ subsidiary recruiters need to run checks independently, Checkr keeps everyone in their lane.

As Pave America continues to grow, Checkr grows with it. Through an ATS migration, acquisitions, and the constant addition of new users and companies, the partnership holds.