Super Bowl XLIX is just around the corner (Sunday… Patriots vs. Seahawks if you’ve been living on Mars) and it got us thinking about commercials.

The internet is already abuzz of this year’s Super Bowl ads.

Some are bound to be hits. Some have bit the dust in glorious fur flying fashion.

“You never get a second chance to make a first impression.”

Since running in those ads, this phrase has become iconic. It applies to nearly everything in our lives – physical appearance, real estate, email communication, product pitches – you name it, your first impression counts.

That’s why having a bad background screening process is such a downer. The candidate experience – from job posting to application to interview to paperwork to on-boarding – is all part of your company’s first impression. If it stinks, well, you’ll never get a second chance to make a first impression.

A poor candidate experience can hurt you in many ways:

  • Top talent will avoid you
  • Referrals will dry up
  • Reputation will plummet
  • Illegals maneuvers (especially when it comes to screening) will put you in court

So what can you do to ensure you’re making a quality first impression? Here are some tips.

Improve Communication – This starts with your job postings. Keep them fresh and informative. Be specific about your requirements and your corporate culture. Don’t let them run for longer than 12 to 15 weeks or people will begin to wonder why the same post has been up for so long – yucky job or yucky company?

When you do finally get some top talent on the line, communicate effectively and efficiently while being polite and courteous. This can be a difficult task for many overworked and stressed out HR departments. One of the best solutions to this problem is to locate an HR professional who excels at these communication tasks and make him/her the initial point of contact for all talent. That way you’re ensured your reputation will remain in tact.

Take the Mystery out of the Screening Process – Unfortunately, there is a lot of mis-information and skepticism about the background screening process. That’s why blogs like ActiveCare are so important – we value the opportunity we have to educate people about what the screening industry is really like and how we go above and beyond to protect our clients and the people’s whose information we gather. It’s crucial that companies embrace the background screening process and present it in a positive, transparent light for prospective employees. Often this means allowing the candidate to communicate directly with the employer and the screening provider during the process.

Find Better Solutions – One of the key ways to help build transparency in the screening process is to locate tools and solutions that guide and empower the candidate through the process, instead of making them feel like once they’ve agreed to a background check their fate is in someone else’s hands.

Active Screening has developed a dynamic applicant-facing solution called ACTivate that exceeds all of these needs. ACTivate is a centralized background screening solution that serves as a platform for running a variety of checks and storing them in a user-friendly yet secure location. It’s a one-stop-shop for your screening needs, and transparent enough to keep candidates’ pleased with their background check experience.

ACTivate is a single sign-on platform that can be customized to use all, or some, of these options:

Applicant Entry

Integrated payments

Clinical services

Compliance tools

E-Verify

Systems Integration

Please watch this video to learn more about ACTivate:

ACTivate is the ideal way to make a first impression that will have candidates remembering you for all the right reasons. You won’t even need a second chance.

PS – Go Pats!!!!

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