SkillSurvey in Wayne, PA now offers SkillySurvey Reference (formerly Pre-Hire 360), an online reference solution that features a configurable workflow that allows organizations to tailor reference checking according to their preferences and for various workforce segments.
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SterlingOne (TalentWise)
Score 7.6 out of 10
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Sterling Talent Solutions in New York offers a suite of recruiting services and products, including criminal background checks and other verification and employee auditing tools. The flagship offering SterlingOne (formerly TalentWise) and that company's offerings were merged into Sterling's in early 2016.
SkillSurvey really is great for reference checks and how to communicate with the contacts provided. It's a great way to easy view the reports, ensure that someone is not filling out their own reference information, and being able to contact passive candidates that have interest in your organization. The templates are easy to generate once you use them a couple times.
SterlingOne has had my background check in progress for nearly a month. I spoke with them 5 days ago about the issue and discovered there was a criminal record flag in Connecticut. I have never been to Connecticut. They said this can often happen if an individual has the same name, birthday, or last four digits of SSN. This is clearly a flaw in their system if someone with the same name or birthday can appear on the same background check. I feel bad for any John Smith who applies for a job with a company that uses SterlingOne, they'll never get past the screening. Not only is this a flawed system, but when I spoke with customer service about this, they guaranteed they would expedite this within 24-48 hours. It has now been 5 days and when I called back, they said they would expedite this as if I had never called in the first place. I have been through numerous background checks for work in my life, I have done live scans and had my fingerprints taken, and have been approved to work with children with special needs (which requires a very rigorous screening) and I have never experienced such a disjointed and unprofessional process.
It is very easy to use, so we don't have to spend time training others how to process reference checks.
SkillSurvey seems to gather many more responses than other vendors used. This is great because it stops us from having to physically call additional references.
We're able to gather leads from the references who complete the link and opt to be contacted by a recruiter. In the HR/recruitment world, this is seen as free leads!
The initiation of a background check is very simple by only needing the name and email of the new candidate and submitting that as the new ticket.
Sterling communicates with the new candidate to keep the background check moving which saves us time by not needing to keep a close eye on the process of the background check.
Sterling communicates with the employer to let them know if additional charges are needed to run the background check and we can either approve or deny the charge.
The majority of the customer facing operations are based in India. This has perpetuated communication issues on my behalf as well as on the behalf of candidates who are going through the background check process. I often get complaints from candidates that they are concerned about supplying information to individuals in other countries which is understandable in light of the scams that exist today. I believe it also impacts the ability to get employment verifications completed in a timely manner.
Employment verifications are slow and often we cancel them and complete the verification on our own. As mentioned, I think part of this issue is that when they reach out for verifications, previous employees are hesitant to call back. When Sterling is not able to get a verification, they then ask for tax documents which is invasive and unnecessary. When this happens, I am typically able to make a phone call myself and accomplish in 10 minutes what they could not in 5 days. Prior to Sterling purchasing Talentwise, my initial provider, this was never an issue.
Sterling provides rapid drug screening service, which we take advantage of and appreciate. However, often candidates show up at a lab to complete testing and the facility does not offer rapid testing. Sterling could do a much better job of sending candidates to a facility that can provide the service.
There is a severe lack of personalized customer service. I have no relationship with my dedicated "business relationship executive team" in India. They are simply individuals who I don't know by name that pick up the phone, practically read from a script when I call with a problem, and put me on hold for 5 minutes at a time trying to find an answer to something they don't know. Again, this is something I significantly miss about Talentwise.
Sterling Talent is an excellent company for performing the background checks for our new hires. However, the delay in processing times can be improved.
Also, there should be automation from legacy systems to pick up the candidate details as much as possible instead of asking for more details from the candidate via email.
SterlingOne is easier to use and faster in response than HireRight. HireRight is also not great for international (non-US) candidates as the employment history and especially education results take a long while.
