While ongoing, challenges due to COVID-19, natural disasters, and workplace staffing issues make this a difficult time for many companies to perform at full capacity, we wanted to provide a quick update regarding A-Check efforts to further improve client support and background screen turnaround time.

As we slowly transition out of the pandemic, our valued clients have continued to hire, and as your screening partner, A-Check has remained committed to ensuring your needs are met. Our primary goal is to serve you to the best of our ability, and we humbly acknowledge that A-Check has experienced delays in processing time. That said, we are working daily to overcome these issues, and we truly appreciate the continued trust you have put in our partnership now and in the future.

Drug Testing

A-Check is working closely with our nationwide laboratory partners to further improve client support:

• Additional software technology has enhanced our connection with labs, and is now greatly accelerating the turnaround and file closure time for “negative” drug testing results.
• Lab updates within applicant files on A-Check Direct (ACD) now provide far greater transparency to both A-Check and clients—including collection status, specimen in transit, specimen in process, and more.
• And coming soon—A-Check is implementing the ability within ACD for clients to self-schedule applicant drug testing (and appointment extensions) within seconds.

While our partner laboratories and specimen collection centers are operational, delays can occur in large part due to a significant increase in both new testing requests (as a result of new hiring) and applicant appointment rescheduling. And, due to high volume, labs are experiencing temporary processing delays of up to a week or more when performing follow-up specimen testing. For negative testing results, normal turnaround time remains 24-48 hours.

To combat these issues, labs are currently hiring and training lab employees for additional processing shifts. Likewise, investments in testing technology is allowing for increased specimen processing volume and should help improve overall turnaround time.

Verification

Due to ongoing, global school and company closures, A-Check continues to experience a heavy backlog of verification requests.

Please keep in mind that while we may be emerging slowly from the pandemic, the impact is still very real. Schools are not fully re-opened, and as a result, third party online services for education are delayed because they are dependent on school support.

Many employers are still remote, understaffed, or even worse, have sadly closed forever. In many cases, verification now often includes reaching out for documentation or additional research.

Criminal Records

A-Check is working with a number of partner vendors to further streamline our processing and client support:

• We are further automating database searches to not only accommodate the current increase in client requests, but also significantly reduce turnaround and file closure time for record searches.
• We are updating vendor integrations to take advantage of process efficiencies and advancements in data security.

Please keep in mind, A-Check Global continues to focus on and participate in continued efforts surrounding new Michigan and California legislation removing the date of birth (DOB) from public facing court records. This legislation has already begun to hinder the background screening industry’s ability to serve, and we predict that it will be some time yet before viable solutions are in place.

In spite of research challenges we face in Michigan and counties within California, we will continue to serve our valued clients to the best of our ability.

A-Check and Labor Shortages

Hiring and retaining top talent is always a priority at A-Check. While our goal is to implement technology and process efficiency to meet your needs, it’s equally important that we are here to answer your calls with personal service.

• We are expanding our recruiter footprint beyond California to other U.S. states for administration, infrastructure, and client support positions.
• Our recruiters are connecting with organizations like military groups and others to attract top talent. We are also working to promote A-Check to those who are skilled but underemployed in our communities.
• Attractive referral programs (friends and family) are available to our employees.
• Our staffing efforts are concentrated on employee engagement, efficiencies in onboarding, and increased mentoring during the first 90 days to improve overall employee retention.
• And last but not least, we are focused on enhancing process automation and further integrating with our many data providers.

That said, even with delays we might experience, A-Check is here to help your business succeed. Please don’t hesitate to reach out if you have any questions.