Order Processing At ESS

Processing reports at ESS is a multi-task approach.  Let’s examine the case of a Comprehensive 2 Package.  Your report request form, employment application, resume, and signed release form are received on one of the fax machines at our Spokane, Washington facility.  The documents go to our order entry department where a tracking sheet is printed.  The assigned tracking number is the first 6 digits of the “reference #” you see near the top of the first page of your report.  (The last five digits are your client account number.)  The tracking sheet contains the applicant’s demographic information and your company’s particulars, including any special instructions or notes about handling your account. 

The tracking sheet is routed to the initial processing group where an identification report or credit report and a social security number trace are ordered through one of the major credit bureaus.  We are on-line to these bureaus so the data is available very quickly.  From this information we determine where to conduct the criminal history search and if there are any other names to be considered. 

The criminal search is forwarded to an agent in the field who visits the various courthouses in the county being searched.  Depending on the county, there can be numerous  courthouses.  Any felony or misdemeanor conviction information will be obtained.  When we do a statewide search, we generally communicate directly with the state’s central repository.

The motor vehicle records are also ordered shortly after the identification report or credit report and social security number trace data is obtained.   The tracking sheet is then forwarded to our report processing group.  These are the people who collate all the information on your applicants and are ultimately responsible for the content of the reports.  The initials of the processor working on your report follow the “End of Report” notation. 

The report processors verify the applicant’s education, usually with a phone call.  This is not necessarily a simple procedure.  Colleges can have multiple campuses.  If the applicant has not specified the one he or she attended, the date of graduation, and a former or maiden name, it can be a challenge tracking down the registrar office that has the information.  Occasionally, the institution will only verify by fax or by mail.  This is why a degree verification can sometimes take more than 72 hours.  Interestingly enough, high school verifications can be more difficult than college verifications.  High schools typically do not have very good record keeping practices and they can take a long time to round up a file. High schools also do not usually have the staffing that colleges have in their verifications departments.

Report processors verify the applicant’s employment and interview former supervisors and references.  This is perhaps the most time consuming and variable part of the entire report process.  We check employment for the past five years.  The reason we don’t go beyond five years is that it generally does not provide much information. Those companies often don’t have records going back that far; or their records have been archived and are not readily accessible; or the company has gone out of business or changed names.  In any event, the information available is very minimal or nonexistent and not worth the delay in completing your report.

If the applicant is currently employed, we do not contact that employer unless you or the applicant has specifically stated it is okay to do so.  We certainly don’t want to get anyone in trouble if the applicant’s employer is unaware of their job search. 

When we verify the facts about an individual’s employment we generally speak to the company’s human resources, personnel, staffing, or payroll department.  They are the best sources for information about specific dates of employment, title, salary, and eligibility for rehire.

If the applicant has provided the names of supervisors, we contact them to obtain information about performance, strengths and weaknesses, skills, and attitude.  This is where an employment application is very helpful because there are usually spaces for entering supervisor names; a resume doesn’t have this.  We will also contact up to three professional references as part of the Comprehensive Package.  Sometimes, these may be former supervisors, in which case we will enter the information in the employment section of the report.  We have different approaches depending on the type of reference being called.  Supervisors and peers are asked different questions than academic references or personal references.  Our report processors are very skilled at asking provocative and probing questions.  The amount of information gathered, however, depends a great deal on how cooperative and talkative the reference is as well as how much time they have to converse.  Sometimes, references are not even aware they have been cited by the applicant so they aren’t quick to return our phone messages.  Having your candidate notify their references of an impending call can expedite the completion of your report.

Approximately 72 hours after your order is entered into our tracking system, the assigned report processor sends the results of the background investigation on your applicant.  Any information still outstanding is noted on the report as pending.  We can either e-mail or fax your results.   If your report is to be faxed, we’ll always call you first unless you tell us it isn’t necessary.  Updates are forwarded to you as soon as the pending information becomes available. 

Please remember that holidays can cause a delay in reporting information because courts, motor vehicle departments, schools, and many companies are closed.