5 must-haves for your candidate verification experience

1. Digitisation

In today’s world, digital, online processes are needed, and expected by candidates in order to achieve a smooth and robust experience. In our recent survey, 70% of candidates reported they expect pre-screening checks to be completed in less than 2 weeks¹. Yesterday’s manual and offline processes may struggle to meet today’s candidate expectations.

As the pandemic accelerated the trend for remote working, remote recruitment became a necessity and now the norm in organisations. It offers flexibility to recruiters and candidates alike but presents challenges when moments in the verification process rely on manual intervention and employers and candidates are in different locations.

With the recently introduced Digital Identity Trust framework allowing candidates having a DBS Criminal Record Check to validate their identity digitally, DBS checks can be conducted without the need for any identity or address documents to be physically seen or reviewed by an employer.

Without simple, modern and robust process and technology to carry out the required checks, you’re at risk of losing candidates and not meeting regulatory requirements.

These changes in regulation and advances in technology, including the Experian launch of the digitised Candidate Verification process, mean that identity checks through digital services are robust, accurate and much quicker than manual document checks. CRC codes of practice often insist on true hard copy documents and not online print offs, this is open to abuse and potentially fraudulent copies being provided by a candidate.

2. Integration

The candidate verification process can seem like a lot of unrelated admin tasks. Pulling them together into a single, coherent process can be challenging especially if you’re using multiple suppliers with hand-offs into different apps and checks.

A great candidate experience, not to mention a streamlined job for you, will only happen when all the systems are joined. Technology integration is hard, so your supplier should do the hard work for you and deliver a seamless end-to-end process. For the candidate it means not having to juggle multiple apps and work different systems, for you it reduces the risk of drop-outs from the journey and you don’t have to manage numerous suppliers with multiple points of failure.

The other element of integration is with your company culture and brand. The candidate should experience your culture from the very start, so if your journey doesn’t reflect your brand, it impacts how the candidate will feel through the process. A key perception point is around security – you don’t want your candidate feeling concerned that they are putting sensitive data into a separate system from a provider they’ve never heard of.

3. Reliability

The reliability of your technology and process is key to a smooth rapid journey. Candidate verification is a vital part of the onboarding journey and any break in the journey will create delays and impact the candidate experience.

Reliability also extends to the success of the checking process. A system that uses multiple data sources to complete a check type, means that it’s more likely to be right first time and maximise your pass rate.

It’s also important to consider what happens when something isn’t working. Do you have the backing of the service and support from your suppliers in place that resolves an issue quickly and without taking up more of your time?

4. Time and cost effectiveness

When a process is grounded in legislation and protecting your business, you can’t afford to take shortcuts. The integrity of the checks is vital to support compliance backed by the security and quality of the data and information held, but it must also be effective in terms of cost, and more importantly, your time.

Your candidate verification journey needs to be rapid but robust enough to get it right first time. It might be tempting to take a more cost-effective route but with 57% candidates willing to withdraw from a job offer if their onboarding takes too long², what is the cost of your time when candidates drop out of that journey because they don’t understand what they need to do, or checks fail? And what cost to your business and reputation if the checks aren’t robust enough?

It’s your time that is most valuable – what else could you be doing with the time you’re currently spending on admin, chasing and manual processes. Having a seamless automated system means you can easily see where the candidate is in the journey, what’s outstanding and guiding you to the next step will free up your time to add value to the onboarding process.

5. Availability to everyone

A fast verification journey means your candidates are in the business quicker, thereby reducing lost revenue. But, as discussed, it also needs to be right first time. It’s not helpful if 80% of your candidates have a rapid journey but the alternative paths aren’t there for those individuals who might find it more difficult.

Any interruption to the candidate journey means manual intervention from your team and delays which not only impact the candidate experience, but also means it takes longer to onboard your talent.

The answer is not always digital. You don’t want to miss out on, or discriminate against, those candidates who aren’t able to, or don’t want to access the technology or give them a poorer experience.

Your candidate verification journey needs to include other paths which allow a candidate to interact with the service in different ways that suit them, including a manual check of the candidate’s documents. Every variation should be designed to deal with candidates fairly and keep them informed throughout. The systems and processes in place should be able to quickly identify which path is the most suitable and is most likely to be successful.