There are various ways to perform a background check depending on your needs and timeline. Traditional background checks can be expensive and take weeks to complete. However, ShareAble for Hires provides fast, pre-employment background checks. Because the reports are completed online, you can get results in just a few minutes rather than several days.
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These days, hiring new employees is a bit like watching the Kentucky Derby. If you’re too slow, you might completely miss out. According to a recent report from data site AppCast, top candidates stay available for only 10 days before getting hired. Is your hiring process fast enough to keep up
Among the endless tasks of running your small business, it can be difficult to find time to run an efficient, streamlined hiring process. You may be tempted to take a candidate’s word on their glowing past successes or believe everything they’ve jotted down on their application and resume. Unfortunately, you can’t always trust your gut.
Given that one in three Americans admitted to lying on their resume, it’s obvious that thorough screening is a hiring step you can’t afford to miss. However, some small business owners get caught in the trap of skipping over essential screening to save time. Thankfully, this isn’t necessary.
While some types of background checks can take weeks to complete, pre-employment screening through ShareAble for Hires® can deliver criminal, credit, and identity reports in just a few minutes.
This article covers what you need to know about the length of background checks, common employee screening myths, what to look out for with background screening companies, and other helpful information about background checks for new employees.
Here's what it includes:
Why Is It Important to Complete Background Checks Quickly?
You want the fastest turnaround possible when screening candidates. The cost of an unfilled position can quickly add up through losses in productivity. Plus, top candidates may be quickly snatched up by competitors if your screening process takes too long.
According to data from the Society for Human Resources Management (SHRM), it costs an average of $4,700 to fill an open position. On top of that, hidden costs, such as time spent interviewing, lost productivity, and new employee onboarding can skyrocket total costs even higher. Add a time-consuming traditional background check into the mix and you’re looking at steadily increasing costs—in time, money, and your sanity.
Why do Traditional Background Checks Take So Long?
Traditional background checks can take longer than you might expect. Unfortunately, it’s common to wait weeks for reports to be snail-mailed to you. Why so long It depends. Numerous factors can extend the timeline of results in a traditional background check.These include:
Hassles to get started
With many traditional––and even some online––background check providers, just getting started can be a major hassle. Here are some of the common holdups you might expect with many background check providers:
- Tedious application process
- Endless forms asking for lots of business details
- Required calls withs sales teams to find the right plan
- Site visits and business reviews
- Start up, application, and visit fees
- Waiting around until your application is reviewed
- Bottlenecks to to limited employees
- Risk of rejection and starting the process from scratch
All of this adds time until you can get reports––and risks your candidate looking elsewhere.
How to Fix It
With ShareAble for Hires, there is no paperwork, hidden fees, or waiting. You can simply create a free account and start screening immediately.
Form Data Errors and Typos
Many times, delays in the traditional background screening process may be due to errors by the background check company or employer running the check, such as:
- Incorrectly entering SSN
- Spelling part of an applicant’s name wrong
- Getting the phone number, zip code, or state mixed up
If the background check request form isn’t filled out accurately, your results will be fruitless. You’ll have to start back at square one.
How to Fix It
You can use a screening provider that requires job applicants to enter their own information for the search, such as ShareAble for Hires. This not only helps protect candidate privacy, it also can help reduce the risk of inaccurate data entered into the search.
Name or Nickname Mismatch
A job candidate’s legal name may be different from the name they use day to day.
Example: Your applicant introduces himself as “Jack Jobby” but his legal name is “John Jobby”
Then, if you conduct background screening with the name “Jack Jobby,” your search could return inaccurate or insufficient results.
How to Fix It
Like the previous example, using a screening service that lets candidates enter their own information puts job applicants in control and helps to reduce the chance of inaccurately entered information.
County-Level Criminal Checks
One of the most time-consuming checks that can be performed is a manual county-level criminal record search. This type of check requires a person to physically visit a courthouse to view criminal records and can take as long as 30 days to return results. This is too much time when it comes to today’s competitive hiring market.
How to Fix It
Because of the time-consuming nature, most employment background checks do not include country-level criminal checks. ShareAble for Hires criminal records check scour millions of records searching for a potential match for your candidate.
These reports include information from dozens of law enforcement agencies, including:
- FBI’s Most Wanted List
- National Sex Offender Public Registry
- The U.S. Marshals, Secret Service, and the Treasury Office of Foreign Assets Control
- The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives
- Federal, state-level, and local jurisdictions (in 43 states)
Pro Tip: Not all hits on a criminal record check are in instant disqualifier. Learn what to do if a candidate has a hit on a criminal record, so you’re prepared if it happens.
The Amount of Information Returned
Employers looking to fill positions that require extensive screening may wait longer because of the volume of information needed. More reports mean more time spent waiting around––and more money wasted.
How to Fix It
Use an ultra-fast, online employment background screening provider. ShareAble for Hires delivers easy-to-read reports just moments after your candidate consents to the screening. This means you could even interview, screen, and hire on the same day.
How Long Does a Background Check Take with ShareAble for Hires
- The short answer? Just minutes.
- ShareAble for Hires removes roadblocks for small businesses who want to screen job applicants quickly and fast-track the hiring process.
- Other screening solutions might require applications from small businesses to get started. Some applications get rejected due to ineligibility. Other solutions require you to talk with a salesperson to establish an account. A business might have to wait hours or days until they are authorized to screen.
- ShareAble is different. Designed specifically for small business owners with only occasional screening needs, you get immediate access to screening tools.
Getting started is lightning fast. You can even sign up, screen, and get results all on the same day. This quick, affordable convenience is exactly why hundreds of thousands of small business owners have successfully screened with ShareAble for Hires.
How Do I Use ShareAble for Hires
Vetting candidates needn’t slow down your company’s productivity and progress. Pre-employment screening couldn’t be easier for busy small business owners. Here’s how to run a background check:
- Sign up and create a free account in just a few minutes
- Enter your candidate’s email address
- Your candidate consents and enters their personal information
- Background check reports are delivered to your inbox in a flash
This “push” process boosts report delivery, and job applicants control who their background information is ”pushed” to. Employers and job applicants alike share, verify, and protect sensitive personal data.
And, because this process is entirely online, you’ll receive results in just a few minutes rather than a few weeks. All of this means faster, more accurate reports that could supercharge your hiring pipeline.
What’s more, your ShareAble for Hires dashboard lets you view and manage all screening applications in one convenient location. Stay organized as you easily track the status of different applicants and view their screening results in one place.
Proven Screening, Powerful Reports
Flexible, affordable screening packages mean you get only what you need and only when you need them. There are no hidden fees. Simply choose which reports you want from the following:
Credit Check
Understanding a candidate’s financial track record can be especially important if your job includes managing cash, proprietary data, or sensitive customer information. ShareAble for Hires pre-employment credit reports contain important information about your applicant’s financial status, including payment history, potential bankruptcies, and the amount of debt they hold.
Criminal Background
A job applicant with a history of relevant crimes may put your current staff, customers, or business at risk. Criminal reports scour millions of records searching for a potential match to your candidate.
Identity Verification
Is your job applicant really who they say they are ShareAble for Hires’ built-in applicant identity verification helps give you more confidence that you’re screening the right person.
Pro Tip: As a small business owner, it’s your responsibility to help protect your staff, customers, and business from harm. Learn how to help protect yourself from a negligent hiring lawsuit.
Speedy. Simple. ShareAble for Hires
Unlike a horse race, the hiring process can be slow and lengthy when you consider the amount of time it takes to post a job, read resumes, interview candidates, check references and screen. But with the right pre-employment screening tools, you can sort out who will win the crown––and who is just a one-trick pony.
Look deeper into a candidate’s criminal, employment and credit history without losing your stride. Although traditional background checks can take weeks to complete, with ShareAble, you can get ultra-fast pre-employment screening reports in just a few minutes.
When you're in the home stretch, don’t send great candidates running for the hills with a drawn-out background check process. Turn your screening into a day at the races with ShareAble for Hires.
