Moving from basic facts to true value

INTRODUCTION

“Verifications” have been a staple in employment background screening programs for more than 50 years. Verifications are typically used to confirm work history, educational background and professional credentials, while attempting to obtain an overall gauge of potential employee competency. With the Bureau of Labor Statistics reporting that the annual employment turnover rate across all industries in the U.S. is nearly 40%, verifications provide a needed tool set to assist an organization in hiring the right person.

The challenge is the deteriorating organizational value realized by performing verifications. Growing legal concerns limit the communication of honest and forthright employee evaluations, leading current or previous employers to provide only the basics when verifying employee work experience. In fact, the overwhelming trend – upon advice from legal counsel – is to provide verification of only dates of employment and position(s) held.

With 8 out of 10 companies utilizing their own Human Resources staff to conduct reference checks, the time-consuming practice of making multiple phone calls for each applicant – while garnering only minimal information – has turned due diligence verifications into a minimal-to-no-value cost center.

Given the inherent weaknesses in the traditional verifications methodology, Proforma Screening Solutions has partnered with HumanR to redefine the value proposition for verifications. By combining an applicant-driven, web-based system, with detailed reporting categories that are anonymously aggregated and scored across all references, meaningful value is re-introduced to the verifications process, while internal cost centers are eliminated.

The TRUVIEW reference management solution shifts the verifications paradigm from a costly and labor-intensive gathering of only basic facts, to providing honest, easy and cost-effective global snapshots of potential employees. Bringing true value to the verifications process; finally.

BROKEN PROCESS

The verifications process has deteriorated into a costly, labor-intensive act of due diligence that delivers little information and correspondingly little value for making informed hiring decisions. The net result is increased levels of both man hours and frustration, for the return of ever-diminishing information.

Consider these facts provided by the Society for Human Resources Management (SHRM):

• In 1996, 92% of potential employers checked personal and/or professional references
• By 2003, that figure had dropped to 80%
• In 1996, 84% of potential employers verified previous work history
• By 2003, that figure had dropped to 79%
• 80% of Human Resources professionals said that their staff was responsible for conducting reference checks
• Two-thirds indicated that they were usually able to obtain information regarding only dates of employment
• Three-quarters believed that laws shielding those who provide references in good faith from legal liability would lead to more accurate and open sharing of information on current and former employees

The ultimate goal of the background screening process is to increase the probability of hiring the right person. While the verification of basic facts such as dates of employment and positions held is useful information, it takes considerably more much more to gain an understanding of how well a candidate will fit into your organization and predict success.

Requisite skills, cultural values and sensitivity, manageability, leadership, and follow-through are some of the key intrinsic candidate characteristics that can serve to elevate the hiring process from that of the placement of warm bodies to the development of a first -class organization. To provide a complete picture, these characteristics need to be assessed and quantified from different perspectives; those of supervisors, co-workers and peers. This in-depth evaluation and multi-level knowledge is completely missing from the traditional verifications process.

NEW VALUE PARADIGM

In response to the need for greater insight and therefore value in the verification process, Proforma Screening Solutions (www.proformascreening.com) has teamed with HumanR (www.humanr.com) to introduce the TRUVIEW Reference Management Solution. Proforma brings more than twenty years of experience in the fields of background screening and risk mitigation, while HumanR has pioneered leadership development and organizational feedback since 1975.

TRUVIEW provides significantly more value to the employment marketplace by delivering a substantially increased level of useful decision-making information at prices comparable to current outsourced spending levels. The TRUVIEW Reference Management Solution redefines verifications by:

• Reducing internal HR labor costs by shifting the impetus of verification fulfillment to the applicant, and shifting the mechanism from multiple internal staff telephone interviews to a tested web application that manages the interaction between the applicant, reference contacts and the HR department
• Delivering more useful information via best-practice question sets that analyze areas like performance, work ethic, integrity, and interpersonal skills, and can be customized to provide a true view of the applicant through the eyes of previous employers, management, co-workers, and personal acquaintances
• Increasing contact privacy and participation by anonymously aggregating all responses into average scores by category that are simple to use and easy to understand – effectively eliminating the legal concerns that arise from providing honest evaluations
• Uncovering applicant strengths and weaknesses within the self-evaluation that can lead to meaningful training opportunities or alternative placement
• Predicting long-term success via data mining and historical evaluation to identify and customize the key organizational “fit” indicators
• Providing real ROI by delivering exponentially greater value than traditional outsourced verifications at comparable price levels

COMPREHENSIVE SOLUTION

The TRUVIEW Reference Management Solution not only verifies previous positions and dates of employment, but, it goes much deeper, evaluating areas critical for success. Each customizable question set establishes multiple evaluation areas within a specific job competency framework, such as:

• Specific skills
• Interpersonal relationship aptitude
• Manageability
• Cultural sensitivity

Instead of purchasing multiple products to garner the required information, TRUVIEW covers multiple reference areas with a single solution. The traditional verification products that are both enhanced and replaced by TRUVIEW are:

• Employment Verifications
• Professional References
• Personal References

TRUVIEW can be used to gain a global perspective of the applicant by analyzing, contrasting, and comparing feedback - from the identical question set - from the applicant, co-workers, supervisors, and peers. This is accomplished via a robust feature set that includes:

• Easy-to-use web application
• Pre-developed “best practice” questions sets for industries and hiring levels that can be customized to meet each client’s specific needs
• Applicant self-evaluation on same questions references will receive
• One-click entry for contacts to perform assessment
• PDF report that aggregates all references responses into a single, anonymous report that rates the applicant on the established categories
• Contrast report comparing reference ratings to applicant self-assessment ratings
• Ability to develop client-specific key indicators that will pinpoint employment mismatches, training opportunities, and long-term success criteria

A BETTER WAY

TRUVIEW takes the legwork out of verifications while providing exponentially greater insight into the potential organizational fit and probability of success for each applicant. The key to its increased value lies in the TRUVIEW process. The TRUVIEW process takes the burden from an internal HR staff and shifts it to the applicant while simultaneously enabling a much richer understanding of how the applicant is perceived by their supervisors, co-workers and peers.

The results are simple: Reduced effort and costs while providing better information for better hiring decisions.
CONCLUSION

The difference between traditional verifications and the TRUVIEW Reference Management Solution is akin to the difference between a casual acquaintance and a close personal friend – shifting from surface knowledge to real understanding.

While traditional verifications deliver little useful information at a great cost, TRUVIEW

• Provides the information you need to make informed hiring decisions
• Delivers a quantifiable return
• Frees your internal resources to focus on more strategic activities
• Reduces turnover through better organizational “fit”

Finally; verifications with value.