How Purple Innovation Transforms their Pre-Hire Process with Checkr

Purple Innovation is a company that creates mattresses with an exclusive GelFlex® Grid material, making them unique among mattress manufacturers. From innovation and manufacturing, to staffing their retail stores and their ecommerce operations, Purple hires for a wide variety of roles.

Purple began searching for alternative solutions after their previous background check provider was unable to fulfill their requirements for streamlined hiring. Karina Holt, Senior Manager of People Operations, had specific priorities that weren't being met, so the new provider had to fill those gaps. The most important requirement was faster turnaround times on background checks. "We have retail stores with high turnover, so we need to fill those positions in a matter of days," Karina explained.

A user-friendly interface was also a top priority. Purple needed a better experience for candidates that would let them complete their background check quickly, especially when using mobile devices. Finally, they required an effective integration with their HRIS, Workday. Upon encountering Checkr, they found that it met all of those requirements.

From her first conversation with their Sales team, Karina was impressed with Checkr. She noted, "Checkr presented a clear agenda and vision. We felt that they listened attentively to our requirements, and demonstrated a product that we were confident would satisfy our needs and align with our priorities."

Karina's team immediately noticed a positive impact on the candidate experience upon switching to Checkr. Her team previously faced delays due to candidates not completing their background checks, but with Checkr, this is no longer a concern. Troubleshooting and chasing down candidates to complete their background checks is a thing of the past thanks to Checkr. “Candidates now have a better understanding of how to complete their background checks because Checkr handles the communication for us. Candidates know what their next steps are, and they aren’t getting stuck in the process,” Karina said.

As Purple designs and manufactures their own mattresses in the US, they operate their own production facilities and employ workers who operate heavy machinery. This requires conducting more rigorous background checks for those in safety-sensitive positions. Along with the standard criminal background check, Purple also administers drug tests to guarantee maximum adherence to safety protocols. Before using Checkr, drug screenings were a challenge for Karina and her team. Results previously took an average of seven days, but with Checkr, they've been able to reduce that turnaround time by 50%.

In addition to drug screenings, Purple uses Checkr for Motor Vehicle Record (MVR) checks for employees required to drive for their job duties. "We need to ensure that these employees have valid driver's licenses, especially our Department of Transportation (DOT) employees on our transportation team, who must have the appropriate CDL licenses," said Karina. "Checkr does an excellent job of assisting us in maintaining compliance with DOT and MVR regulations, which can vary from state to state."

Another key focus in their transition to a new background check provider was having an efficient integration with their HRIS tool, Workday. This integration is important for Karina and her team. It lets them easily track the status of background checks and move them quickly through different stages of the hiring and onboarding processes. 

Checkr and Workday collaborated to establish a generous timeline, ensuring clear expectations throughout the project. “After we switched to Checkr, we met with the Workday integration team within two weeks to initiate the integration process,” Karina explained, “The original timeline was set at 12 weeks, but we were able to reduce it by a whole month. We signed on to Checkr in April and by the first week of June, we were running background checks that were pushed through Workday.”

The integration between Checkr and Workday provides Purple's HR teams with improved transparency, enabling them to conveniently track a candidate's progress in the hiring and onboarding stages. Karina explained, "Through our Workday integration, we have developed a specialized dashboard for our background check onboarding procedure. This allows our talent acquisition team, HR business partners, and recruiters to address inquiries from Hiring Managers instead of directing them to us."

Checkr allows Karina and her team to monitor the average amount of time it takes for background checks to be completed, with most results being received within three days. This quick turnaround time is crucial because they aim to onboard new hires within one to two weeks of receiving an offer, and Checkr helps them meet this goal efficiently.