How Contingent Job Offers Reduce Hiring Risks and Delays

Maybe more than ever before, employers are leveraging contingent offers to fill roles quickly. Contingent job offers allow employers to offer employment to a candidate with certain future conditions. Without the lag time of certain traditional pre-hire processes, seats get filled with the understanding that employees must still follow through with those steps. In the meantime, employers can begin to train and onboard new staff.

In a more traditional hiring process, employers may require candidates to complete a background check before their start date. You may agree with other employers that have been hiring in jurisdictions marred by industry-wide delays; something needs to change. While Verified Credentials and our industry monitor these changes and advocate for access to information for employment purposes, hiring process shifts may be needed to keep your talent pipeline moving. Get to know more about what has been changing and how other employers are planning ahead.

Jurisdiction-related delays or limitations may be here to stay.

In an effort to protect consumers, new laws relating to public record access have emerged across the United States. Unfortunately, many of these laws have impacted the screening process for employers. Certain jurisdictions have implemented stricter laws on how much screening companies can access. With some limitations in place, areas have seen results slow down significantly, and in some cases, certain records may be unavailable altogether. These are the top areas we are watching:

• California – After a court decision related to public record access in 2022, there have been dramatic impacts on what personally identifiable information (PII) is allowed when searching court electronic indexes. Limited PII makes it difficult for reporting agencies to confirm if a record belongs to the individual in question.
• Michigan – The Michigan Clean Slate Law has been around since 2021. Automatic expungements under the law started in 2023 and have resulted in significant delays across Michigan courts.

Clean Slate acts continue to pop up with court access issues that are slow to resolve in favor of employer access to public records. While the screening industry continues to work on solutions to access court records in these jurisdictions, these circumstances highlight how regulations can impact report results from certain jurisdictions.

Are conditional job offers feasible?

While it’s possible to have a candidate start before receiving background check results, it involves risk. Consider the nature of the role, the level of trust required, and any legal or compliance implications. Some employers may make offers contingent on the background check results, except where regulations or risk factors require a completed check before the official start date.

Ban the box compliance may also have some employers making job offers before a background check, moving into onboarding checklists before background check results are received. Would you consider taking it one step further? Allowing those who accept the job offer to start with conditions of satisfactory background check results is a path some employers have considered. Court delays during early pandemic days upset many hiring practices, and legislative and court-driven delays keep this top of mind as a concern for talent acquisition teams.

Develop a strategy for continent job offers.

Making a job offer contingent on a background check report is a common practice, and it allows employers to secure qualified candidates while ensuring due diligence. If your hiring process is slowed down by unavoidable background check delays, it could be a good time to shift your process. Onboarding a candidate who is eager to get started before their background check could remove the risk of losing the candidate altogether. Moving forward with a job offer with the contingency of final background check results.

Altering your hiring process can help you get candidates started faster while maintaining a level of risk that fits your company policies. Verified Credentials can help with unlimited packages for screening on different timelines. Contact us to learn how you can arrange your screening program for flexibility when potential delays exist.