Sponsored by Checkr.
Hiring is about far more than filling roles. It’s about forging connections with talent that can build a viable pipeline and lead to a qualified, engaged workforce, and shaping a candidate experience that functions as an investment in the future. Gallup found that exceptional candidate experiences lead to employees who are 2.7X more likely to say their job meets or exceeds expectations, 3.2X more likely to feel truly part of the organization’s culture and 3X more likely to be extremely satisfied.
What makes or breaks a great workplace often happens well before the hiring decision is made. And what candidates experience along the hiring journey forms an indelible first impression — in terms of culture, process, and the technology that delivers them. The challenge: improve one aspect of your recruiting process and leave another alone, and you’re not going to necessarily gain any ground, as employers are finding out when they invest in one aspect and the needle doesn’t move. But there may be one arena in which you can, indeed, make an enormous difference — and that’s background screening.
Employers at a Crossroads
In modern talent acquisition the objectives may not vary all that much across industries or types of employers: essentially, fill open roles with qualified candidates expediently and efficiently, protect the business from risk, and overall, provide a standout candidate experience that builds the foundation for engaged, aligned employees. But what’s different is the velocity of HR’s evolution.
These aren’t simple goals — when looked at closely — to begin with. But compound the need to accomplish them with the speed and scale of changing regulations, talent shortages, industry shifts and market pressures, and rapidly evolving technology that turns the talent race into a contest between the haves and have-nots — and today’s employers are at a crossroads.
Background Checks as the X Factor in Hiring
A recent survey by Checkr found that senior leaders name quality of hire, employee turnover rate, and time to fill open positions as their top HR metrics for tracking performance in 2025. Nearly a third note they’re missing an agile HR function that can flex with dynamic business needs. They know their teams need the means to “level up” — reduce time to hire, reduce uncomfortable gaps in communication, and increase trust and transparency.
It’s also clear to them that tech here plays a key role, including enhanced tech stacks, better data tracking and analysis, and AI-powered workflows that free teams up to focus on strategic work. A full third (33%) of these senior leaders believe that enhancing talent acquisition with AI will help their organization stay competitive; that harnessing the power of automation and machine learning will greatly reduce time spent on manual tasks, improve accuracy at scale, and build on data to continually improve and iterate.
Back to the X-factor. One critical function that can make a marked difference in the quality of the hiring journey — and shape CX — is background screening. It’s an arena in which landing on the best practices and best tools can transform a candidate’s experience, signaling to candidates how much you, as an employer, value your people before they even start. Employers that reach for powerful, integrated solutions including robust, responsive, and transparent screening tools are going to be the ones in front.
The Candidate’s Perspective
Not sure? Step into the shoes of a job-seeker and consider screening from their perspective. They’ve had an interview. Now comes the background screening. How it’s handled speaks volumes — does it feel like a roadblock or a welcome mat? Does the screening portal build anxiety or trust? Why is one form available to mobile phone users, but another requires finding a computer and spending time filling out the same questions as on another form?
Further, when it comes to questions — whether loaded, like Will X have an impact on my qualifications as a candidate? or simple, like How long does the screening process take? — how are they answered? Is there a chatbot who can offer an illuminating set of FAQs? Is there a means to access a hiring team who can handle any further complexities, if necessary in real-time? Does the portal offer a clear look into the process to come, or does it simply collect the information and shrink behind the scenes into a hidden process?
AI and Empathy
From a psychological standpoint, the more discussion and queries from a person regarding screening, the more uncertainty, the more a sense of mistrust may develop in a candidate. It’s too easy to wonder if every candidate is getting treated the same way, or if screening is truly fair and objective.
The upshot: negative experiences during the screening component of a hiring journey — including gaps in communication, mystifying lag times, slow turnaround, and the suspicion of bias or unfairness — are not going to be forgotten. In fact, given that these have to do with the candidate’s past, their life, and perhaps some uncomfortable (or misconstrued) moments, they may be taken very personally.
Here’s the modern paradox: AI and automation are what enable empathy and power a trustworthy screening process in which a candidate feels like they’re being treated like a person, not a number, and treated fairly, not arbitrarily.
Leaning into Solutions
Checkr looked at the critical areas for which CHROs say they need better solutions — the operational pain points. Along with outdated processes, an over-reliance on manual tasks, and wrong-fit communication platforms, CHROs share the need for better screening — resume screening, candidate assessments, predictive analytics and background checks. A modern screening process, with its integrated combination of back-end and front-end tools and innovations, levels up via AI-powered and automated functions for a flexible, customized, faster, more inviting, trust-enhancing, friction-reducing experience.
Screening In
What that looks like: Smart workflows. Transparent candidate portals. Clear status updates that eliminate speculation and confusion. Adjudication tools to support fairer, more consistent decisions and reduce bias — a critical step in building diverse, inclusive workforces. They also support the new best approach of practicing inclusivity — the philosophy of screening in, not screening out.
This is a notable, positive shift in how employers approach screening that addresses compliance on the one hand and reshaping the culture of screening on the other. It also reflects a best practice in terms of hiring objectives: fair chance hiring, which looks for qualifications rather than disqualifications, and focuses on accurately identifying qualified candidates while reducing manual error and potential hiring bias while maintaining compliance. AI and automation enable this kind of nuanced approach at scale, with a consistent, data-based accuracy that’s simply not possible when done as a manual task. Moreover, machine learning can help detect and eliminate bottlenecks and weak points in the journey, giving hiring teams an invaluable view of how their screening (and hiring) process is working.
A Timely Solution, a Screening Reboot
Checkr’s breed of modern screening platform is setting a noticeable standard. It enables all parties to honor the best intentions, aligning employer and candidate needs. Employers gain the advantage of fast, accurate screening with clear communication; candidates experience that in terms of fairness and flexibility.
This is a platform that’s purposely designed to provide employers with a candidate experience that excels — from overall approach to specific tools. Integrated into your sourcing, recruiting and hiring tech stack, it’s a solution made for the modern hiring journey that offers employees the means to reboot their screening capabilities.
These aren’t simple times for anyone in HR or recruiting, and they’re certainly not easy. But in this industry, practitioners want to rise to the challenge. Learning on the sophistication and intelligence of an AI-powered screening platform may be just the strategy needed. It’s a way to not only attract great, qualified candidates and mitigate the possibility of any risks to the business, but enhance your competitive edge as an employer of choice.
To learn more about Checkr’s AI-powered background screening platform, visit checkr.com.
And look for my conversation with Jessica Bent, Talent Operations Manager at Checkr, coming up on #WorkTrends later this month.
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