June 2009
#Letter from the President: Background Checks U.S.A., Buy American!
**Jason B. Morris**
Since this issue of The Verifier primarily focuses on the economy, I figured it was a great time to introduce a topic I have been ruminating over for several months: **Buy American!** This may sound hypocritical from someone who has never driven an American car but allow me to explain.
**Would it surprise you to know that many background screening providers have been outsourcing several integral parts of their operations to overseas call and data processing centers?**
Outsourcing any business practice to a third party is always a leap of faith. Your providers are clearly an extension of your organization. In many ways you are asking them to represent you in the same way you would represent yourself.
Selecting a background screening provider is no exception. When an employment screening firm calls to verify employment or education or conduct a reference interview, they are acting as a representative of your organization. This leap of faith can be daunting enough when you have a high level of confidence in your provider’s employees. Now imagine the lack of control when your provider outsources this function to an off-shore call center.
Organizations primarily outsource for one of three reasons: 1) cost/operational advantages, 2) the subcontractor has greater expertise in the function being outsourced and 3) see point #1. Let’s face it, many background screening organizations are looking to control costs, particularly in this economy. As a result, we have seen a rise in the outsourcing and off-shoring of the following screening functions for domestic background check requests:
1. Data entry of job applications
2. Data entry of criminal record data
3. Verification of domestic education, employment & references
4. Customer service
5. Court Research through court indices and Criminal Record Databases
While it is important for every company to consider reducing costs, especially in these trying economic times, we don’t believe that sacrificing the quality of these integral screening processes is in the best interest of the client. Also, it goes without saying that we don’t think someone else can perform this work better than us.
At EmployeescreenIQ, we strive for an unparalleled user experience. This not only applies to the client, but also to their job applicants, their contractors and to the companies and academic institutions they rely upon to verify qualifications and experience. Outsourcing the above functions puts this goal at considerable risk. It also leaves you open to receiving inadequate and/or unaudited reports.
Our objections go beyond the customer experience. Many countries throughout the world, including the U.S., have strict privacy guidelines about how information is transmitted, received and stored. Off-shoring some or part of your tasks dilutes your ability to control this sensitive information. Conversely, other countries have little or no standards for data protection. Where does this leave you if your data is transmitted to one of these countries? It leaves you vulnerable and puts you and your applicants at risk of identity theft.
For these reasons, it is imperative that you ask your provider if they off-shore any portion of the aforementioned tasks, or others for domestic background screening requests.
I am proud to tell you that EmployeescreenIQ’s answer to this question is a resounding NO! We take pride in the fact that our in-house staff and network of over 3,500 U.S. based court researchers perform 100% of our domestic screening processes. This allows us to monitor all elements of a report for quality control, proofing and data security. Ensuring that each report meets our quality standards is tough enough when each of these functions is handled in-house. One can only imagine how much control is lost when ceding management of these processes to a third party.
Later this year we will celebrate EmployeescreenIQ’s 10th anniversary. Since our inception, we have built our company with the mindset that we want our clients to feel like we are an extension of them. When our clients pick up the phone we want them to feel as if we are in the **office across the hall**. Do you get this feeling from your current vendor or do you feel like they are **across the ocean**? Maybe they are!
*Jason Morris is President and C.O.O. for Cleveland-based EmployeescreenIQ, a best practices provider of pre-employment screening services throughout the U.S. and worldwide. Jason can be reached at (800) 235-3954 or by email at jmorris@employeescreen.com.*
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