4 Tips for a Smooth Transition When Changing Your Background Screening Provider

"Life's about changing, nothing ever stays the same." 

If you're unfamiliar with early 90's country music, the above Patty Loveless lyrics may not be familiar to you. For myself, these lyrics became a guiding principal that has served me well in my 20+ years working with clients to solve challenges with their background screening.  

That being said, change is almost always challenging. The simplest change to your candidate's experience might cause a flurry of phone calls and emails from your recruiters trying to help applicants understand and more importantly, complete, the process of background screening. If something as simple as that can cause a large impact in your organization, how can you even contemplate a bigger change like selecting a new background screening provider?  

Most often change is driven by a problem. Sometimes the problem is relatively small, such as the need to save a little money. Sometimes the problems are much larger, like poor Customer Service, lack of confidence in the quality of screening, or the desire to implement technology and automation that frees up time, creates better records, and tracking. If you are facing some of these problems and are ready to make a change, here are 4 tips to help make the change as easy and effectively as possible. 

Consider the Value of the Partnership

It's important that the background screening provider you select delivers accurate results, but what support does the provider offer for ensuring compliance with your requirements and legal requirements as they pertain to background screening? Cisive has been a leading screening provider in regulated industries since its creation (almost) 50 years ago. We provide turnkey integrations with many Applicant Tracking Systems, unparalleled Customer Support, and an onboarding process that works with customers to define "what good looks like" for your organization.  

Think Big

Document the process of your current screening programs from start to finish. Consider not only the Recruiter or Candidate experience for pre-employment, but also about screening you may need post hire, screening for rehire/promotions, contractor screening, vendor screening and also consider your information security and technology needs.  

Prepare for Discontent

Since most of us dislike change, do your best to ward off discontent. Consider inviting people from the different teams you outlined above to working sessions where you discuss the motivations for the change and ask for their input in defining "what good looks like." All of the team may not be invited to the decision-making process, but listening to concerns and sharing why the organization wants to change will help adoption down the road. Cisive will help by providing training resources when your organization is nearing go live.  

Have a Project Manager

This may sound intimidating, but I promise you, it's not. Dedicating a PM to this change will help ensure all the pieces and parts fall into place. At Cisive, our Onboarding Project Managers help make sure every part of your program is a success from the start, and a PM can do the same for your organization because it's not just about switching vendors. A PM will help you make sure the right parties are on the right calls, that all teams and departments impacted by your new partnership with Cisive are prepared and have a voice in the change.  

This list is not exhaustive, but with these 4 tips I can assure you that every organization will handle changing background screening partners with grace and come out as rockstars!