Sterling Check Reviews and Ratings

Rating: 6.5 out of 10

Score

6.5 out of 10

Community insights

TrustRadius Insights for Sterling Check are summaries of user sentiment data from TrustRadius reviews and, when necessary, third party data sources.

Business Problems Solved

Rover has found great success in using SterlingOne for a seamless transition of applicants throughout their hiring process. By integrating Sterling Talent Solutions with Oracle Taleo, they are able to automatically retrieve candidate information for background checks, saving time and effort. Users have praised SterlingOne for its user-friendly interface and comprehensive screening capabilities. It covers federal, state, and local criminal background checks for the past 7 years, as well as financial credit checks for finance team hires. This ensures that organizations can thoroughly screen applicants beyond just criminal records, including employment history and residency. Additionally, SterlingOne helps streamline the onboarding process by conducting background checks and drug screenings for consultants, while also providing an organized platform to track profiles and update information. These features have proven invaluable to Rover and other organizations in ensuring a thorough and efficient hiring process. Overall, SterlingOne's integrations and user-friendly approach have made it a trusted solution for applicant screening and onboarding across various industries.

Reviews

8 Reviews

Recent changes not for the better

Rating: 1 out of 10

Incentivized

October 17, 2023

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use SterlingOne (TalentWise) for all of our candidate background screenings prior to hire.

Pros

Quick criminal checks
Quick start of checks

Cons

In my opinion, Horrible new platform "Sterling check"
No designated account representative
In my experience, Poor troubleshooting support
Customer service often doesn't answer questions
Many back and forth needed to resolve issues
Recently changed platform and not offering the same services

Likelihood to Recommend

In my opinion, recent changes to the platform have led to poorer candidate and user experience. It seems to me that they are expecting the recruiters to do the leg work of collecting any missing information if a search wasn't launched. For me, bad customer experience overall where they rarely answer all of your questions.

Emily Fogel

Technical Recruiter in Human Resources at Stratolaunch (201-500 employees)

Vetted Review

2 years of experience

View profile

Great partner with fast results

Rating: 10 out of 10

Incentivized

January 12, 2023

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use Sterling to complete all our background checks. We also purchase oral swab drug tests for use in our distribution center. Sterling is a strong partner - very responsive and very helpful when we have issues, which isn't often.

Pros

Communication
Most of our background checks are back w/in 18 hours
Customer Support is very strong

Cons

A better integration with the ATS

Likelihood to Recommend

In our case, Sterling provides the service we need, and does it well. The only issue I have isn't even related to Sterling, but the court systems who limit the hours and time that runners can spend researching. In those instances, it can take months for results to come back, but that in no way reflects on Sterling. The most difficult part of that is deciding if we want to offer a contingent hire, who could be terminated when the results do come back. Otherwise, we run a very strong risk of losing them to competitors.

Jennifer Fry

Sr. Talent Acquisition Specialist in Human Resources at Crocs (5001-10,000 employees)

Vetted Review

2 years of experience

View profile

Quick and Easy Background checks

Rating: 10 out of 10

Incentivized

January 11, 2023

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use SterlingOne for background checks for all new hires. It is very user friendly and we cover all federal, state and local criminal background checks for the past 7 years. We also do financial credit checks for finance team hires.

Pros

Easy to input
Various background checks from credit to employer/education
Quick results

Cons

Flags where data was entered incorrectly (e.g. name data)
More international functionality for employment history and education
Quick status updates

Likelihood to Recommend

SterlingOne is the best and fastest at producing results. We've used HireRight, and others and none of them were able to provide results as quickly. SterlingOne also lets us review and resolve issues in the system itself so we can track and have an audit trail. This helps in keeping HR records all in 1 location.

Verified User

Vice-President in Human Resources (11-50 employees)

Vetted Review

22 years of experience

Quick & Efficient Onboarding with SterlingOne

Rating: 9 out of 10

Incentivized

January 10, 2023

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

My organization utilizes Sterling One to help us onboard consultants. We use it for background checks and drug screenings of various depths. It helps us stay organized to track their profiles and see if they've already done one for us in the past/see if it needs to get updated.

Pros

Quicky & Timely background checks
Drug Screenings that are accurate and secure
Profile creation allows for organized candidate tracking

Cons

Drug Screenings often take a long time and get backed up

Likelihood to Recommend

It is well suited to onboard (background check, drug screen, etc.) a large quantity of people. It is helpful when these people need to be tracked due to the ability to create a profile or them. It is also helpful when you have multiple types of background checks/ drug screens because you can choose from different packages or create a one-off screening.

Verified User

Employee in Sales (501-1000 employees)

Vetted Review

3 years of experience

Worst background check experience of my life. Would not recommend.

Rating: 1 out of 10

November 26, 2021

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Rover uses SterlingOne for background checks of pet sitters.

Pros

none

Cons

Customer service
Accountability to clients
Meeting deadlines
Attention to detail

Likelihood to Recommend

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.

David Winston

Pet sitter in Customer Service at Rover (1-10 employees)

Vetted Review

1 year of experience

View profile

Sterling Solution does the job

Rating: 9 out of 10

Incentivized

May 6, 2020

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

With every new hire, we run their background check through Sterling Talent Solutions no matter what department they will be in. The initiation is easy and Sterling takes it from there to run the background check and communicate with the new candidate.

Pros

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.

Cons

We have had to reach out multiple times to decrease the maximum we are willing to spend if past employers are using a third party to run the background check and it cost an additional amount to run the background. We have had to communicate back a forth multiple times to lower it to a more reasonable price.

Likelihood to Recommend

Sterling does do a great job of running and completing the background checks. The only downfall would be the additional charge limit that has been complicated to figure out with Sterling.

Verified User

Administrative Assistant in Human Resources (51-200 employees)

Vetted Review

2 years of experience

Sterling Talent Solutions Background Check Review

Rating: 6 out of 10

Incentivized

February 8, 2020

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Sterling Talent Solutions is used by our company to perform the background check for the candidates. It is automatically integrated into the Oracle Taleo application to get the candidate information automatically after the offer is given to the candidate.

Pros

Background checks
It provides us the safer hiring decisions with comprehensive background and identity checks.

Cons

Delay in response
Time taken to perform the background checks.

Likelihood to Recommend

<ul><li>Well suited:</li><li> Where the organization has a larger number of hires expected, and the background needs to be thoroughly checked.</li><li>They perform the educational background check for other countries as well.</li><li>Well suited when Comprehensive drug screening, background checks, criminal checks are required.</li><li>Less Suited:</li><li>When the hire or recruiting cap is very low for a company.</li></ul><div>

</div>

Lavanya Reddy

Advisor in Human Resources at TransUnion (1001-5000 employees)

Vetted Review

2 years of experience

View profile

Sterling isn't so sterling! Lots of room for significant improvement

Rating: 1 out of 10

Incentivized

March 26, 2018

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Sterling is currently used as our background check provider and also facilitates our onboarding paperwork. The system is integrated with our ATS so we are able to transition applicants from the candidate stage, to the background stage and then the onboarding stage relatively seamlessly. There are just four users, all within the HR function.

Pros

Criminal County and Federal searches are typically completed in a timely manner
The user interface is straightforward and easy to navigate
The ability to have new hires complete onboarding paperwork is excellent

Cons

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.

Likelihood to Recommend

If a company is seeking a quick criminal background check or only does occasional searches, Sterling is fine. If a company has a need for more frequent, in depth checks, Sterling will disappoint. Background check companies exist to take the onus off employers who have many other focuses. I spend way too much time solving problems that occur because Sterling is not getting the job done. We are in the process of seeking a new provider.

Rebecca Boschert

National Sales Recruiter in Human Resources at Wurth USA (501-1000 employees)

Vetted Review

3 years of experience

View profile

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Reviews and Ratings

Sterling isn't so sterling! Lots of room for significant improvement

Rating: 1 out of 10

Incentivized

March 26, 2018

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Pros

Criminal County and Federal searches are typically completed in a timely manner
The user interface is straightforward and easy to navigate
The ability to have new hires complete onboarding paperwork is excellent

Cons

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.

Likelihood to Recommend

Rebecca Boschert

National Sales Recruiter in Human Resources at Wurth USA (501-1000 employees)

Vetted Review

3 years of experience

View profile