Note: In December 2021 SJV and Wholesale Screening merged to become InformData.
One-time-only pre-employment criminal background checks are becoming a commodity. As the number of background screening providers in the U.S. climbs toward 2,000, Consumer Reporting Agencies (CRAs) are watching their margins get squeezed tighter and tighter. Employers see little difference between screening reports and jump from CRA to CRA in search of the lowest price.
As a CRA, how do you break free of this cycle of churn and unpredictable month-to-month revenue? How do you transform your customer relationships from transactional to ongoing?
In our last article, we wrote that CRAs must find new ways to demonstrate value to their customers, not once, but continuously. We identified four largely untapped opportunities for growth in the 2020s. But we believe one opportunity stands head and shoulders above the rest because of its ability to shift the CRAs customer relationship from transactional to ongoing: Continuous Criminal Monitoring.
The benefits of Court Access Monitoring
For employers, Court Access Monitoring solves a problem. Specifically, how can they find out when their employees run afoul of the law after they’ve been hired? Over the next five years, 12% of the workforce is likely to be arrested.
As a CRA, Court Access Monitoring allows you to enter into profitable long-term contracts with your customers to monitor their employees throughout the tenure of their employment. You can charge using a subscription model, rather than transactional fees, creating a predictable stream of revenue.
Court Access Monitoring Explained
Court Access Monitoring alerts employers in real-time to criminal activity within their workforce population. It eliminates the need and uncertainty of spot checking employee status, filtering out false positive information and constantly monitoring reports.
How does Court Access Monitoring work?
A typical Court Access Monitoring workflow proceeds like this:
- An employer or CRA plugs a roster of employees into a population management platform.
- The Court Access Monitoring solution watches and analyzes thousands of data streams for criminal activity, such as incarcerations and bookings.
- If a criminal event is detected, the CRA or employer is alerted within minutes
How Is Court Access Monitoring Different From Other Forms of Background Screening?
Court Access Monitoring is the only form of criminal background screening that eliminates gaps between when an employee is convicted of a crime and when an employer discovers it. These screening gaps can be costly.
For example, suppose a professional truck driver is arrested and convicted for driving under the influence of alcohol (DUI). The driver’s license might be suspended, but if the employer is only screening periodically, the employer may not find out about the arrest until it’s too late.
If that driver were to get into an accident on the job (worst-case scenario, hurting someone), the employer could be subject to hefty fines and lawsuits. With Court Access Monitoring, the truck driver’s employer would learn about the charges against the driver within minutes of their being filed.
Where Does the Data Come From?
The source of real-time data used for Court Access Monitoring depends on the provider. Currently, there are only a few solutions in the marketplace that allow real-time monitoring of employees and contractors after they've been hired and throughout the tenure of their employment.
At InformData, we draw from the proprietary Appriss Insights national data feed. This data stream is nationwide, covering 45 states and more than 2,800 incarceration facilities.
We are capable of monitoring 85% of all incarcerations in the U.S. Our database has more than 160 million booking records and we are adding more than a million new records every month. This information is updated multiple times each hour so you and your customer know what’s going on in real-time.
