HR TECH OUTLOOK8 MAY 2019In MyOpinionStaying Ahead of the Evolving Changes in the Pre-employment Screening SpaceKellen Baker, Director of Recruiting Strategy, Ratner CompaniesByWhat are the trends you've witnessed happening within the Pre-employment screening space?One trend that I have witnessed is Assessment taking place even at the leader level with the assistance of various organizations and technologies. At Ratner, we are leveraging AI to better assess an applicant's skill and competencies and build an accurate profile for them. Arming hiring managers and recruiters with information that will help them assess applicants even before for the first conversation takes place is one of the many benefits of using AI. We currently have assessments for leaders, mid-level manager, and executive that are useful to gauge one's individual and cultural state. What we are looking at now is technology to put in place for the frontline employees. We have a large set of individuals at the company, and those associates currently go through a behavioral and technical interview, but we don't really have assessments. We would love to be able to do better at seeing who is going to be a good fit for a particular position in order to increase the organization's overall efficiency. This trend impacts the entire HR landscape greatly.Another noticeable trend is of cities and states placing more ordinances to protect a candidate's privacy, which is making it increasingly difficult for employers to perform accurate background checks. This evolving trend has pushed organizations to look for solutions that would help them make a proper assessment and stay ahead of the changes in compliances or ordinances. A facet this trend greatly affects is the compensation structure for recruiters, who need to be able to command the price they deserve."Employers have shown increasing interest in screening candidates' online presence. In 2019, more background-check providers will offer online and social media searches as part of their suite of products, but employers must ensure that these searches protect candidate privacy and don't run afoul of the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) or standards set by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC)." How is this particular trend impacting the pre-employment screening space?I don't think online screening is crucially beneficial as you find a lot of unnecessary information on social sites which might be hard to segregate. From a compliance and regulations perspective, there are various privacy laws that we have seen in Europe and as well as in the U.S., which is why I personally don't feel it is in our best interest to use it as a pre-screening qualification. Recruiters should tread that path carefully.Nowadays most social media platforms encourage flamboyancy over accuracy. It is kind of like the 80s and 90s of HR where people were asked to provide reference to companies for more information as part of the evaluation process. However, rarely were all the references vetted or they were false positives, making the sources unreliable. Kellen Baker
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