7 Ways to Boost Candidate Conversion in the Background Check Process

Are your background check processes putting your staffing firm at risk? An outdated approach to background screenings can cause costly delays, resulting in friction for both candidates and customers; a poor overall experience; and a hit to your staffing firm’s bottom line.

With top talent at a premium and candidate expectations soaring, your organization’s background check process is key to placing candidates quickly. When staffing organizations put the right technology in place and partner with a qualified background check provider, they can deliver a better background check experience—one that improves candidate conversion rates, saves money, and keeps clients happily supplied with top talent.

Let’s take a closer look at the seven ways staffing firms can improve candidate conversation rates by providing a more positive background check experience.

As staffing professionals, your clients count on you to recruit and convert the best talent—quickly. Candidates expect a positive, stress-free background check experience. Setting the right tone with candidates from the start is critical. Your initial invitation can make or break whether candidates decide to stay in your hiring funnel; affect candidate conversation rates; and directly impact  time-to-hire.

Checkr makes it simple for staffing firms to present themselves professionally when inviting candidates to begin the background screening process. Using the Checkr dashboard, you can easily create candidate-friendly invitations with no development work required. Your invites are automatically mobile-optimized and can be sent to candidates by email or SMS text message. For an even more professional and polished look, a few extra clicks are all it takes to customize invitation emails and texts with branded elements like your staffing firm’s logo or messaging.

Building trust is a key aspect to converting candidates. If your background check process feels generic and your communications with candidates are sparse, it’s easy for candidates to feel treated like numbers, rather than people. Candidates may also have concerns about the security of the personal data they share as part of a background check. Friendly, personalized, and consistent communication can help keep candidates engaged in the background check process from start to finish. It can also create confidence that their personal data is safe with you. When candidates enjoy a more positive overall experience, they’re less likely to drop out of your hiring pipeline.

Checkr automatically generates personalized candidate communications that help drive candidate engagement in the background check process. Easily brand your communications with your logo, colors, and other elements to improve brand recognition and enhance trust. After receiving an invitation to kick off their background check, candidates can securely sign in to Checkr’s candidate portal using their personally identifiable information, with no need to create an account or remember a password. This simplicity and ease-of-use keeps candidates in the loop and engaged from start to finish.

During the background check process, navigating confusing interfaces and completing time-consuming forms can be overwhelming for candidates. The majority of candidates work with more than one staffing firm and are likely submitting applications to several employers, making the process even more tedious. If your background check process isn’t intuitive, candidates may delay submitting forms or send forms that are incomplete, causing hiring bottlenecks. A frustrating background check experience could even cause candidates to drop out of the funnel altogether.

When a background check is requested, Checkr automatically sends the candidate the appropriate communications and forms based on the screening being run and the candidate’s location. This workflow automation frees up time for legal teams to devote to higher-value tasks. It also reduces compliance risks by eliminating guesswork as to what forms and communications are required for local compliance.

Checkr makes managing forms simple for candidates, too. Using Checkr’s candidate portal, candidates can easily access and electronically sign background check forms, like consent and authorization documents, from any device. Checkr’s workflows guide candidates step by step through the process so they know exactly what information is required for each form. Should a candidate make a mistake, such as mistyping their name or Social Security number, our built-in error detection alerts them so they can make corrections or upload missing documentation. Facilitating self-correction reduces the need for candidate contact and keeps the screening process moving forward.

Candidates can easily feel left in the dark during the background check process—especially when they don’t know how long the process typically takes from beginning to end. Different types of screenings have varying turnaround times, which can further frustrate candidates. Candidates eager for updates on their background check status may reach out to your team, which can overload your staff and potentially cause additional delays. When they feel the process is taking too long or lacking transparency, candidates may drop out of the hiring process altogether or accept an offer from a faster-moving competitor.

Real-time data pipelines that streamline background screening enable Checkr to return 89% of criminal record checks, including county searches, within one hour. In addition to speed, Checkr gives both candidates and HR teams transparency into background screening statuses. Using machine learning and data from the over 35 million background checks we conduct each year, we’re able to provide candidates with an estimated completion time. This real-time visibility has been proven to help staffing firms enhance overall transparency and decrease candidate contact rates by up to 15%.

For the nearly 80 million adult Americans with a criminal record, the background check process can be extra stressful. They may be worried about not getting the job because of a past arrest or conviction. Out of fear, these candidates may choose to remove themselves from consideration before even getting a chance to see the results or learn if their history affected your hiring decision.

Checkr’s candidate stories feature enables candidates to share additional context about their background check results. From within the candidate portal, they can easily provide information about their background, explain their rehabilitation efforts, and tell a more complete story. This can help you make a more informed hiring decision and help alleviate some of the anxiety candidates may feel around criminal background checks.

Guiding candidates through the screening process is essential to a positive experience and to timely onboarding. But, while tackling all their other tasks, busy talent teams may struggle to provide the support candidates need to move through the funnel quickly. Outdated background check technology or laborious manual processes can eat into the time you have available to assist candidates. No wonder nearly one in five candidates say recruiters frequently fail to respond to their questions in a timely manner. If they can’t get an answer from your team, candidates may reach out to your client for an update, which can reflect poorly on your organization.

Checkr eases burdens on both your team and your candidates, providing solutions that free busy staffing professionals from directly fielding most candidate questions. Checkr’s estimated completion times enable candidates to easily check their screening status. Candidates also have easy access to helpful self-service tools, such as a built-in FAQ section and resources that proactively address common concerns. When candidates need more help, Checkr’s multilingual FCRA-certified candidate support team offers assistance through online chat, email, or phone.

If a candidate’s background check report contains information they believe to be inaccurate, they might call your team for help or drop out of the funnel altogether. Not only is this frustrating for your staff and your candidate, but it can also lead to costly hiring delays, unfilled positions, and unhappy clients. Candidates have the right to dispute information in their background check, and if your screening provider makes it easy to manage this process, there’s a better chance they’ll stay in the funnel. Examples of disputes may include:

When candidates discover information on their records they believe to be inaccurate, Checkr makes submitting a dispute easy. Candidates simply visit the candidate portal to  submit a dispute and upload supporting documents. Once a candidate has filed a dispute, Checkr has 30 days, under FCRA regulations, to review the report and conduct a reinvestigation of the contested information. After the reinvestigation is completed, Checkr notifies both the candidate and your organization of the results by email.

Keeping candidates in your hiring funnel is always a challenge. Don’t let your background check process get in the way. Checkr helps HR teams make better-informed hiring decisions, move higher-quality candidates through the funnel faster, accelerate onboarding, and ultimately reduce employee turnover.

Checkr provides candidate-friendly invitations, automated workflows that keep candidates engaged, easy-to-complete forms, dedicated candidate support, and transparency into expected completion times. Plus, Checkr’s candidate stories feature provides individuals the opportunity to tell their story, helping to support fairer hiring decisions. With Checkr, your staffing firm can deliver a more positive background check experience every step of the way.