Jon Smith or John Smith: The Importance of Identity Verification

You rely on accurate background checks as an integral part of your hiring process. However, similarities in candidate names and addresses, or an incorrect social security number, can hinder identity verification efforts and negatively affect the quality of a background check. 

There’s no reason for commonly spelled candidate names or addresses to slow down your background check or hiring process.  When your background screening provider gives you a proven strategy and best practices for checking on the right person, you get results which accurately reflect each candidate’s background.

Inaccurate Background Checks Hurt the Hiring Process

Incomplete or inaccurate background checks can impair the hiring process and put your organization at risk. Here’s a scenario you hope to avoid: Your candidate, John Smith, has completed several rounds of interviews and you’ve made him an offer, conditional upon a completed background check. You receive the report, but you don’t immediately notice it contains name inconsistencies and background details for the wrong John Smith. 

If your background screener notifies you of errors in John Smith’s background check report, you have to go back to the candidate for clarifying information or re-run his background check. In the time it takes to do these things, John Smith can grow frustrated with the process and accept an offer from somewhere else. If your background check company notifies you of the error too late (or worse, not at all), you could end up hiring John Smith without a complete understanding of his background. Whether you lose a great candidate or make a bad hire, your organization suffers.

In this competitive landscape, candidates don’t have time for an inaccurate background check and neither do you. According to a Professional Background Screening Association (PBSA) survey, 62 percent of employers see turnaround time as their most significant background screening challenge. 

Your background screening provider should be able to deliver quality background screening in a reasonable time frame and for the right individuals. Here’s how Corporate Screening does it.

We Help Collect Complete Candidate Information

Background checks rely on complete and accurate candidate information before screeners get started with any database or court searches. However, without a clear process for collecting a candidate’s full name, address, and other personal identifiers, candidates can misinterpret the background information you’re requesting. They can also forget to complete a section on the authorization form or mistakenly provide erroneous personal information.

As your background screening partner, we can streamline candidate data collection so you have all the required information to begin a candidate background check. Collecting thorough candidate information at the outset helps you to know you’re requesting a background check for the right person, whether it’s John W. Smith III, who lives on 12 Elm Street, or John Smith Jr., who lives on 2 Maple Road. We reduce the likelihood of confusion by clarifying the information fields candidates must complete, for example:

• Full name, including middle name or middle initial, as well as any suffixes (e.g., Jr., III, and so on)
• Any maiden or birth names they’ve used in the past
• Date of birth in a specific format (e.g., mm/dd/yyyy)

We Help Automate the Background Screening Process

When you automate the background screening process, it’s easier to generate, access, and store individual background check records for each candidate. Our background screening technology can help you quickly order individual or bulk background checks, get status updates, and view reports from one platform. 

By integrating screening technology with your applicant tracking system (ATS), you can cut down on double-entry and name confusion. Candidate names and other identifying information, such as an address, former employer, or educational history can be pulled directly from the ATS, eliminating the need for excess emails or paper forms. 

Our background screening platform can also facilitate faster background checks by allowing screening analysts to verify information directly with candidates. Cloud-based technology enables screeners to connect with candidates if there’s a need to confirm a name, address, or another identifier, so recruiters don’t have to chase candidates for that information.

We Conduct a Thorough SSN Trace

The social security number (SSN) is one of the most unique identifiers used in the US, and it is also a reliable tool for conducting thorough background checks—on John Smith, Johnny Smith, Jr., and Jon Smyth. We conduct an SSN trace, a database search providing the year, state of issuance, and address and name history of a particular social security number.

While an SSN trace serve as identity verification for an individual, it can report on information to confirm whether you’re checking on the right person. An SSN trace pulls address and name histories for a social security number, and we match this information against the name, address, and SSN provided by the candidate. From there, we can continue with the background check, or conduct further research if there are conflicts between the SSN trace and the information provided by the candidate.

We Leverage Human Analysis

Background screening technology is most effective in helping you achieve high-quality background checks when it works in tandem with human analysis. Our expert background screeners review background check results for completeness and accuracy, helping to make sure your background check report matches the right person. Each screening analyst is skilled in verifying background checks and reviewing the results before delivering them to you. You don’t get some generic report printed out from a criminal database; you get a fully verified background check report.

Trouble-Free Identity Verification

Your busy recruiting function requires background checks to deliver accurate information about the individuals you intend to hire. We can help you develop a process to streamline candidate data collection and provide quality background checks in an efficient time frame. With the right partner and tools, carefree identity verification can be one of the many benefits of your background screening program.