Finding the best background check for employers isn’t about signing a contract once and forgetting about it; it requires ongoing evaluation. For most HR leaders and volunteer coordinators, screening eventually becomes a habit rather than an intentional choice, making it easy to overlook creeping line-item fees and sluggish turnaround times over time. If you want to ensure your current provider still delivers optimal accuracy, speed, and value, this checklist will help you audit your workflow and confirm that staying with them is an informed strategic decision, not just routine inertia.
When you allow screening to become a habit, routine inertia adds up fast. The impact varies depending on the size and scope of your organization:
Mid-Market Corporate (15–50 screens/mo): Standard background check packages (e.g., County Criminal, National Database, Drug Screening) often suffer from “line-item creep.” Small, hidden access fees and markups compound quietly, wasting thousands in annual budget.
High-Volume & Enterprise (100+ screens/mo): For complex executive checks or high-volume hiring, slow turnaround times create bottlenecks. Every delayed report causes candidate drop-off and costs your recruiters valuable hours.
Nonprofits & Volunteer Organizations: Every single dollar is felt. Paying even 15% more than necessary for basic identity and security checks directly pulls funds away from your community mission.
It might be time to start looking at the best companies for background checks if you are experiencing any of the following:
Turnaround times have slowly increased over the last year.
Invoices contain unexplained line-item fees or varying surcharges.
Your recruiters spend too much time manually entering applicant data.
Candidates complain about a confusing or stressful background check experience.
Customer support relies on chatbots or offshore call centers instead of knowledgeable staff.
Your provider lacks native integration with your current Applicant Tracking System (ATS).
You haven’t had a strategic account review to discuss package optimization in over a year.
You lack confidence in how your vendor handles compliance disputes or adverse action.
If you’re ready to review your program, here is the framework to ensure you’re getting a solution that fits your specific needs.
In the rush to hire faster, some vendors rely solely on automated database scrapes. However, when evaluating providers, you need a highly accurate alternative to instant background checks. Instant checks can leave massive blind spots in your hiring process, missing recent county-level updates or returning mismatched records. Look for a vendor that balances technology with dedicated quality-assurance teams who review potentially incomplete records before they reach your desk.
The landscape of hiring laws changes constantly. When you audit a provider, review their capacity to support FCRA compliant pre-employment screening. Do they have clear processes for candidate disclosures, authorizations, and adverse action support?
Additionally, check their credentials. Partnering with a PBSA accredited background screening company (or one with PBSA FCRA-certified staff) is a strong trust signal that the vendor has invested heavily in information security, data standards, and legal compliance. (Note: A screening provider should offer expert guidance and access to compliance tools, but you should always consult your own legal counsel for final policy decisions).
Speed and accuracy shouldn’t be mutually exclusive. A common complaint among HR leaders is that their vendor’s turnaround times have grown sluggish. Audit how long your standard packages (e.g., County Criminal + SSN Trace) actually take to complete. The best employment screening solutions have streamlined relationships with county courthouses and data sources to return clean reports faster than industry averages.
If you are wondering how software automates pre-employment screening, the answer lies in ATS integrations. If your team is still manually typing candidate names and emails into a separate portal, you are wasting valuable time. Look for a provider that offers native integrations with major platforms (like Workday, Greenhouse, iCIMS, UKG, and Paycor). A seamless integration reduces manual handoffs, initiates the order instantly, and gives you a clear view of candidate status directly within your existing workflow.
What happens when a candidate disputes a record, or a drug screen requires a Medical Review Officer (MRO) escalation? Your audit should assess vendor responsiveness. If you cannot get a human on the phone to walk you through a complex report, you are taking on unnecessary stress.
When you request proposals from different vendors, ask these specific questions:
“Can you provide a side-by-side cost comparison based on my current monthly invoice?”
“What is your average turnaround time for the exact package I am currently using?”
“Are your service agents and leadership PBSA FCRA-certified?”
“How long does your standard onboarding process take if no custom ATS integration is required?”
We believe in radical transparency. If you aren’t sure if your current vendor is still the right fit, we invite you to do a simple, five-minute vendor audit.
Send us a redacted monthly invoice or a description of your standard screening packages and estimated volume.
In return, we will risk our time to build you an exact, apples-to-apples comparison proposal showing what that precise month would look like on our platform.
Two things will happen:
You validate your current provider: You discover you are getting a great deal, and staying becomes an informed choice, not a habit.
You uncover added value: You spot clear cost savings, better technology, or faster turnaround times.
If you choose to switch, our standard account setup takes less than an hour (if no custom integration is required), meaning you can start reaping those benefits immediately.
Need a second opinion on your current screening workflow? Talk with Swift Screenings about an employer-focused screening program.
