We recently sat down with Adrianne Babbit, Director of Verifications at ESS, and asked her to share a little about her department’s role within the company.
Q: What is your Verifications team responsible for?
A: Essentially what we do is verify a client’s candidates’ resume information as a portion of their background check– past employment (start date, end date and title), education verification (degree, major and date of graduation or dates of enrollment if they haven’t graduated), personal and professional references, professional license searches (verify licenses for plumbers, nursing, medical, electrician), etc. We call applicants’ past employers, educational institutions and we do have to reach out to applicants from time-to-time if we need further information.
Q: Who makes up the Verifications team at ESS?
A: We are one of the largest departments at ESS with about 17 employees. We’re split up into “pods” that focus on specific types of verifications. There’s a group that only does employment verifications, a group that only does employment verifications for premier clients, a group that only does the educational and license verifications, and then there’s a group that only does reference verifications, nurse aide registry services and DOT searches (which are employment verifications for DOT regulated truck drivers).
Q: How does the Verifications Department at ESS differ from competitors?
A: At ESS we keep an internal database of companies that we have verified with in the past and that helps make the process more efficient. Additionally, most of our competitors only work on employment verifications for three business days, but our policy is to work on them for five business days. This policy really aims to serve our clients, because it makes the process tremendously more efficient and a lot faster. I think it really sets us apart because in the end, our biggest goal is to get applicants not only completed, but completed as “verified”.
Q: How has ESS changed since you’ve been with the company?
A: I started with ESS in 2007 and during that time, ESS has grown tremendously. When I first started, there were only about 20 employees total, and now we have over 100. That’s a huge change! Additionally, there have been a lot of technology and system updates: monitors, headsets, E-fax, and a lot more regulations have come into play. I believe that technology will continue to improve our processes for our clients.
