Redefining Background Screening with Turn Technologies' Rahier Rahman
[Music] welcome to the hrtech spotlight podcast I'm Dean shimoda CEO of growth mode marketing the HR technology Market is crowded and we know it can be hard to find the best software solutions for your business in the sea of sameness on this podcast we shine a spotlight on some of the best upand cominging technology options out there check it out if you are interested in learning about new innovative solutions available in the market and if you are with an HR tech company and interested in being considered for a guest spot stay tuned for details at the end of the [Music] show Good Day in this episode we are shining a spotlight on turn an award-winning background screening platform designed to help high volume employer screen workers joining me today to talk about turn is founder and CEO of the company rahir Raman R here how are you I am good thank you for having me yes it is a pleasure to have you on the show the first question I have for you tell us about your background in the hrtech space yes uh thank you I've been in hrtech for almost a decade now and prior to that I spent some time in fintech so been in technology broadly for about 15 years all focused on one particular segment which are immigrant blue color workers um so I think I've been able to understand kind of that journey of those Workforce from the early days of the you know 2010 all the way to today where it is and and being able to understand and see that change both on the worker side as well as the employers has been fascinating so I know turn does background screening tell us a little bit more about what your platform does yeah you know it was is really born out of an observation I had during my time in the fintech space when we had created Financial products for the hourly workers and high volume workers and uh we started seeing you know more and more employers having a need for this Workforce and you know I started doing a lot of research and found you know that the you know the major Trends in our in our society today are really leading us towards an interesting point in time where our convenience culture is highly dependent on this Workforce and the growing need of employers in a widening ARR of Industries are needing this Workforce and so we really came out of the the birth origin story of saying how can we make it better faster and cheaper for employers that need this Workforce to be able to to you know screen and and and hire these workers more efficiently so that to me was really kind of the the Genesis the origin point and we built turn in a way to make sure that we could create a product that was fast faster cheaper and better for uh employers who are looking for you know this type of worker what would you say is a big challenge or problem that you're seeing facing HR departments today that turn can help with yeah I mean I think for us you know as employers have started to scale and need workers across the country one of the biggest areas was how do you maintain trust and safety on disperate groups of people that you're hiring all over the country and you need to hire them fast and that became something that's more and more challenging and I think you know it's obviously a multi-headed issue uh that was facing HR departments and we tried to tackle it from a couple different Vantage points one you know maintaining trust and safety even that has evolved over the last five six five to seven years that we've been operating as a company and you know it's been interesting to see that evolution in the beginning it was a lot of how do you maintain trust and safety standards how do you make sure the people you are screening are able to pass the you know the litmus test and be able to come and work for your company and today it's evolved into you know now that you have these National workforces that are all over the country and operating for your product or Services how do you ensure that they stay compliant and so I think the evolution that we have seen has gone from from screening as a point in time to continuous monitoring and how do you move to an environment today where you are continually looking at your Workforce to make sure that they stay compliant with the standards that you set up and that's been a shift that we have seen and what would you say you know I know going into the market there's a lot of background Solutions out there what makes turn unique or what's your unique point of view in the market that can help prospects and and companies out there looking for a solution understand why pick turn over someone else yeah it's a very valid question there are you know multitude of background screening companies out there I would say you know when I think about the key differentiators for us I think we are not something for everybody right we have a very specific focus our focus and our technology is really geared towards what we call high volume employers that is employers that are hiring over a thousand people a year on average so if you are doing that if you're that type of employer there are a couple of things that really matter to you one cost matters a lot because every background check is multiplied by a thousand plus right so you're scaling this thing so any you know cost improvements have real impact second thing that's really important when you're a high volume employer is speed to hire right oftentimes when you're hiring this Workforce that worker may be applying to three to five different jobs across right different different employers and the the faster a background check can come back accurate and clear the faster that person can select that job so speed matters a lot in our space and then third I think it's really important part is accuracy right uh to what extent you know the reports we generate are highly accurate which provides you know less disputes by workers and ideally allows an employer to make a decision faster and a worker to make a decision faster so those things matter a lot when you're high volume employer if you just hiring five people a year the things that we bring to the table don't really matter because cost is less relevant because you can pay a little bit more and it doesn't have to be the fastest because you're not hiring that many people and you could take a week and that' be okay and uh you know if there's any dispute or accuracy issues you have time to manage it through because the hiring process is a multi-week process so for us when we look at other providers I think there's a lot of good providers out there in our space but not all of them and I think very few are geared towards high volume hiring and we built our company from day one based on that to all of the technology all of the automations all of the processes that we created all reinforce speed and low cost and I I think that has resonated very very well with the employers we've worked with and the prospects that we talk to speaking of the employers and Prospects that you work with what type of companies would you say are the perfect fit for your solution yeah given that high volume employment is is our poor sector I think naturally industries that have come to us or healthc care you know there's healthc care providers across the country that need whether it's nursing platforms caregiving child care Etc all gravitate towards that National Workforce High Volume hiring and other natural areas Logistics uh you know we've become more and more accustomed to having everything we want delivered right whether it's our food or a car or or products and that requires a complex Logistics industry behind it and that Logistics industry demands workers whether it's uh warehouse workers delivery workers Fleet drivers Etc so all of those companies are natural fits for us another one that's I think often under overlooked I should say is Hospitality um you know Hospitality you know post pandemic has come back pretty strong and more and more you know the the need for having workers is is growing our Workforce fundamentally is shrinking in some extent we have an aging population that's aging out we have young people who don't want to do the certain types of jobs that others did 203 30 years ago and so you're it's almost putting more pressure on the high volume workers the you know the Immigrant blue color workers to do more jobs than they were doing before and uh so those sectors I think you know Health Care Logistics Hospitality are natural areas where people gravitate to us well and you know just thinking about when you said speed is one of the areas where you really focus you know I can tell you as a small employer goes back checks sometimes they take days and it's like I need to hire this candidate in this market before they get away I can imagine in the case where you know a company is hiring a lot of Frontline workers or you know really do have those High hiring volumes that you're right they are hiring individuals that often go out and apply to several jobs and a lot of times they take the first one that they're offered and if you're not the first to the table you're missing an opportunity to hire some candidates that you would normally be very happy to welcome on your team so I can see where the speed is a big differentiator for you compared to some of the other options that are out there what impact have you seen organizations that work with turn experience I mean I would say one of the fastest things you know lowcost savings are are very important I kind of look at uh the workforce in three buckets right there is worker acquisition there is a worker engagement and worker retention uh and I think you know as a as a as a as a product that focuses on the acquisition side you know we're probably the second most costly part of the acquisition of a worker the first part probably is the marketing span that goes into identifying and sourcing those candidates second being the background check that's you know relatively expensive so what I would often tell our employers is on day one without even seeing anything about who you're using if you're not using us I could probably save you 50% of the money you're spending right now background checks and what I would encourage employers to do we've always done is put that money towards worker engagement and retention efforts right create bonuses for workers create engagement targets and that way you're you know you're reallocating the money you're spending in a more efficient manner and I think that's something that's been you know very well received has been very beneficial we save all of our employers right off the bat quite substantial amounts again as I mentioned because it's high volume it's very easy to quantify the second thing that I've heard a lot from from employers is the the positive feedback from the workers themselves because we have multilingual support our systems are more accurate we have a less than 1% dispute rate you know our industry has about an average s to eight% dispute rate so we are quite substantially better than our industry right now in that area so the accuracy and the improvements that we have done have really resulted in you know a better experience for the workers as well and so I think that translates to our employers because it's often the HR teams or as they call today a lot of them have people operations teams that are dealing with acquiring the worker getting them through the funnel making sure the background check is is is done properly if they're approved getting them on Bo it as fast as possible so the people operations teams are really enjoying that the experience is also better for the worker I'd say those two are probably among the the most uh relevant things we hear as the CEO and founder of the company what is your future vision for turn yeah it's a great question you know I think we are still in the early Innings of what we can do for the hourly worker and the high volume employers you know I in Vision a world where uh not too distant future we have the capacity to create some background check portability where you can take your background check and use it once it's done you can use it for multiple employers right imagine if you know the same way you and I will use our credit report as a means to Access Financial Service products Automotive Products Etc imagine if you're that same you know element in the in the high volume employment space is your background check right that is the last gating item before you can work for an employer imagine if that component was more portable and your ability to kind of freely move between hundreds of employers that could I think create better worker productivity and better worker fluidity you know the ability to move around I think that could unlock a lot of really exciting opportunities for both employers and yeah that's a really interesting concept and I've never thought about a background check as comparing it to like your credit score even though when you step back it's like yeah it kind of is similar you know it's it's a history of you that someone else is assessing and to be able to access that as the consumer more easily you know for some people that probably would save them a lot of headaches because they wouldn't have to go through the process every single time you know they're looking at a new opportunity exactly R what do you feel are the biggest hesitations that you see companies have when they're looking at a solution like turn yeah I think you know we've designed our platform to be very dynamic in terms of it is what you wanted to be so it's a very allart right so yes there are ability to create packages yes their ability to to have a lot of different services but really when I think about it you know with with large scale employers we're entering an interesting era where budgets are very tight right and I think often what we want to do and we work with employers is understand what is the budget you're working with how can we make sure we optimize that budget so you have the best coverage best Services right it's if you want a barebones product you know you can select very little things and that's the background check that you will get you can also add more functionality and features you know as as a example you could do a basic check on a single person which is again a snapshot in time you could add Federal checks you could add county level checks you could add a motor vehicle record check right you can create more Dynamic uh background check but those things tend to cost more money and in in an environment where we're seeing more cost cutting you know we want to make sure we work with employers and we do work very closely with HR teams and people operations is to understand those trade-offs what are you what are you missing if you're getting if you're downgrading or changing Services um and I think that tends to have real real world applications right I give you good examples in in Industries where people are interacting more closely with you either they're entering your home to clean your home or your driving people around you know if there there's a I think a greater need for trust and safety in those environments and if employers miss out on some of that stuff I think it creates you know unnecessary risk both for your service providers as well as the consumers who are using those services so we're in this interesting ERA with you know a different economic environment where people are weighing those trade-offs and as right they should and I think you know it's interesting to see we've never seen insurance companies get more involved than we've seen today and insurance companies are getting more and more involved because they underwrite a lot of the risk of these massive workforces and massive fleets around around around the country so it's I think insurance companies in many ways are are Paving the way for innovation in in HR because the insurance companies are saying hey we want more continuous monitoring more review of active workers in real time which has resulted in you know us developing technology which catered to those those requests and now those services are available and you can monitor driver fleets in real time you can monitor workers for criminal activity in real time and to me for services that have that high touch I think this is fantastic and this didn't exist a few years ago right so it's it's great to see the evolution of the industry sometimes coming from within and sometimes coming from the influence of adjacent Industries so you you've maybe answered this a bit already but I'm curious what thing things would you recommend someone that's looking at purchasing or bringing in a technology like turn take into consideration as they evaluate their options yeah I think you know probably the most important thing that we work with you know HR teams on is first understanding what are your needs right what type of Workforce do you have what type of products do you need and then based on that you know I'm a big proponent of and you know forward-looking Tech right you know so I think evaluating a company's API documentation which often outlines the types of services they provide their slas their turnaround times all of those things are are often things you can glean from that data I think understanding that will give you a good sense of how well the company's technology has been built and then you know understanding the products and the pricing and you know the trade-offs there I think if an HR team is able to do that then they can have a very good understanding of what type of product am I going to choose and who would be the best provider for that and then I think you know ultimately after that I'm a big believer in show beats tell so test it out right run a test go run 10 people and through competing Technologies and see how they do I've always been a big fan of that in in my career and and we've built a team that always welcomes the ability to test and we do that with a lot of our big customers I love that because I think one of the challenges with hrtech when you're looking at different types of Technology you don't have the option to really test it out it's like all or nothing when you make that purchase right and and with background screenings it totally makes sense you know to be able to test it out on a small scale before you dive head first and say okay this is where I'm sending all of my background screening needs moving forward because this is the right partner for me yeah we do we do pilots and tests it's all free uh all the time so we always welcome that from any high volume employers you know come test it out we'll do a pilot for you we'll show you in a market or or a batch and we'll let you see how it all works and I think that tends to be the best experience because then you can actually you know what you're getting into and you know we work we have a very white glove approach we work very closely with HR teams and people operations folks because we know we look at we don't consider ourselves a vendor we consider ourselves a partner and we interact with our top customers on a weekly basis sometimes two three times a week and you know we we work with them to understand their needs and their needs are constantly you know evolving in this environment you know new products are being developed new requirements are being uh you know dropped to the teams saying from insurance carriers want XY or Z now or management wants to evolve and wants to do ab or C and so there it's a constantly fluid thing where we work very closely with our our partners what final thoughts do you want to leave our audience with that's a good question what final thoughts uh let me think I would say you know this is a really exciting time to to utilize background check technology and even in our five to seven years that we've been doing it we've seen this change right and I think it's it's in a point in time now where HR teams are able to really look at the background check Service as a mechanism to drisk their exposure of their business which you know was always something that was that existed for the for the service but today can do it in a way that really couldn't even you know 24 36 months ago and the ability I think the probably the most exciting thing I am is it's moved background checks from a preh hire require to now something that can also be a post higher continuous monitoring environment and that just creates a I think in my opinion a much more drisk environment where you can monitor your most active workers you can monitor your top providers and you can create a sense of you know stability in calm that there's no weird exposures lurking you know in behind the corner and I think that's that's really exciting when you manage some workforces that are tens of thousands of people you know if I think about where where that was if I was an HR folk folks you know three four years ago I would always be worried that wow you know I have 20 30,000 people Nationwide providing services and how comfortable am I right and I think today that's the box you can check in a way that I think is really really exciting excellent so where can our listeners go to learn more about turn yeah I would invite you to come to our website it's very easy turn. a so tn. and if you have any questions please feel free to reach out to us or our team you can chat us that's probably one of the easiest send an email we're highly responsive we love to support our our industry and we love to support the HR Tech Community at large so please reach out if there's anything we can do to help we're always available thanks so much ra here I appreciate you coming out and sharing your insights on turn that does it for this episode of the HR Tech Spotlight thanks for listening and be sure to tune in again next time thanks for listening to this episode of the HR Tech Spotlight podcast where we showcase some of the best upand cominging HR technology options in the market if you are an HR tech company leader who would like to be considered for a guest spot on this program please contact me via growth mod marketing.com or reach out to me DI shimoda on LinkedIn and if you found this show informative subscribe connect with us on social media and leave a review this is Deanna with growth mode marketing signing off thanks for listening we hope you'll tune in again next time [Music]
2024-04-22 22:09
