Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/227268
Cover Story Screening 2.0 Technology is helping to elevate the verification process. By Russ Banham Frito-Lay's respective founders didn't need to conduct employment background checks when each launched the companies that would eventually merge to become Frito-Lay in 1961. Charles Doolin was Frito's sole employee when he began selling corn chips from the back of his Model T Ford in 1932. The same year, Herman W. Lay began his potato chip business in much the same fashion. Fast-forward a few decades and it's a different story. FritoLay, now part of giant PepsiCo, employs 48,000 people worldwide. Hiring employees requires extensive background checks as part of the employment process. In addition to maintaining compliance with employment regulations, the company also seeks to deliver an accurate and swift process for job candidates and its own internal talent acquisition needs. "We want to present a clear message to job applicants that we are an employer of choice with a strong employee [10] HRO TODAY MAGAZINE | NOVEMBER 2013 value proposition," says Lauren McEntire, senior manager of organization and management development at Plano, Texas-based Frito-Lay NA, a division of PepsiCo. "Being upto-date with hiring technology systems and processes, in the context of the candidate experience, is an important part of this goal." It is also important to Frito-Lay that job candidates experience a straightforward process when providing information necessary to do a background check. To do this successfully, there are many technology elements at play behind the scenes. By integrating Frito-Lay's applicant tracking system (ATS) with the background screening technology, the candidate's perception is one of a "polished, seamless process to share his or her employment information," McEntire says. "It is important to us that candidates can provide authorizations and disclosures for background screening in a simple, secure way that is also seamless, so they have no concerns about what they're