Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/227268
Cover Story a Fort Myers, Fla.-based employee lifecycle management provider that provides background screening services and ATS solutions. The firm takes compliance so seriously that it has hired a former Secret Service agent, James Parker, as its director of compliance. "He works with our legal department and chief operating officer to make sure that any changes in state employment laws or federal regulations are carefully and closely monitored," Phillips says. "We then make fast and thorough adjustments to our system to ensure we are in compliance with the changing regulations, and at the same time inform our clients of these changes." McEntire from Frito-Lay says the data analytics she receives on a routine basis from First Advantage assists the company to make more informed decisions. "We are at the mercy of court records, and First Advantage helps us determine what background searches and components are most likely to return the most accurate and comprehensive records. While we want to hire the best quality candidate possible, we also want to give every candidate the opportunity to compete for the job. First Advantage helps us do both." Branding Benefits Employment branding is playing a larger role in the talent acquisition process, and swift and painless background screening can have a positive impact. Organizations strive to portray the reasons why the best and brightest would want to work for them. A hiring experience that is error-prone, overly intrusive, or suggests the employer is technologically unsophisticated will likely steer top-notch talent elsewhere. "The competition for skills is fierce, making it that much more important that the employer strike the right tone with the candidate by ensuring a smooth and speedy hiring experience," Franck says. "It also must provide the highest degree of accuracy." In this regard, the firm has developed a dispute mechanism whereby it allows candidates at any time to get their full background report. "If we find something derogatory, we notify the candidate in writing what we've found. If they feel the information is not accurate, they can call into our dispute center and work towards a resolution," Franck says. Accuracy, speed and an efficient, positive candidate experience are the same qualities that gaming company Penn National seeks to provide its job applicants. "My job [12] HRO TODAY MAGAZINE | NOVEMBER 2013 is to focus on efforts that improve interactions with our job candidates, and simplifying the application process is a huge part of this," says Tamsin Bencivengo, talent acquisition manager at the Wyomissing, Penn.-based gaming company, comprised of 19 casinos, race tracks and off-track wagering sites across the country. "The integration between our ATS and our provider's background screening technology is crucial in these regards," she explains. "We want everything to be electronic and in one system, and for the candidate to not realize there is a separate background screening vendor [Orange Tree] in the background." One of her goals is to limit the amount of candidate effort involved in the hiring process. "By pulling the data the applicant provides to Orange Tree into our ATS, they only input this information once," she says. "This makes the experience simplified and streamlined and it shortens the time to hire for us. It's a win-win: It enhances the candidate experience, while positively affecting our bottom line." System-to-system integration is important also to Frito-Lay. "We can order a background check from our ATS and view all updates in the ATS," McEntire says. "It is nice for our front line administrators and hiring managers not to have separate accounts, logins, and people for resets and other issues." Franck from First Advantage points out how the process works: "They give us the candidate information and we send emails to the applicants to create their own login, user ID and password. To the candidate, it all looks like Frito-Lay is contacting them for this information directly and is also receiving it." Technological sophistication is similarly important to the candidate experience, he adds. "If we are missing certain information, we interact with the candidate electronically, which is the way most job hunters, particularly Millennials, want to interact," Franck says. "Again, it appears they are interacting solely and exclusively with Frito-Lay." Since candidate information is only entered once, there is less chance of error. "The fewer touch points there are, the greater the accuracy and speed, which is important in the `war for talent,'" Franck asserts. "The recruiter and the hiring manager each get the data right away and have a single view of this information."