Pre-employment screening is an essential component of hiring processes in almost every industry. Until a few years ago, organizations were relying mostly on the information provided by other parties, be it job applicants, vendors, or customers. However, due to a recent increase in the number of fraud cases and irregularities, it has become necessary for organizations to obtain unbiased information from the trusted sources and mitigate any potential risk.
cFIRST, based in Cincinnati, Ohio and Bangalore, India, provides cost-effective and customized background check solutions through an industry leading, easy-to-use webbased system. It is a trusted source of background check information for organizations ranging from small, local business owners to global Fortune 500 companies.
cFIRST’s team of licensed professionals deliver world-class customer service and hard-to-match turnaround time. Unlike other providers, it uses databases updated by independent third-party investigators for more accurate and up-to-date information. cFIRST started as a small company of 20 people in a garage in Bangalore, which now has become a 350+ strong professional organization with 2000+ clients from across the world, ranging from Fortune 500 companies to cutting-edge start-ups. Something that is ingrained in the existence of cFIRST or to call its mission and vision is that it wants to help businesses across sectors/industries to take better informed hiring decisions – everyday.
“We have a competent team of industry experts enabled by a strong technology-driven background check platform”
The Profound Spearhead
The person leading cFirst to the mountain top of success is Viral Vora, the company’s CEO. He was on the other side of table hiring IT professionals in IT services business and was working both in USA and India. Mr. Viral had personally witnessed the problems organizations go through in terms reputation loss, project cost overrun, and other losses when they unfortunately end up hiring dubious candidates. This is where he made a decision to get into technology enabled background screening enable genuine hiring.
Delivering Exclusive Services
cFIRST is the preferred background verification partner for businesses globally to manage diverse requirements across industries. The platform, enabled by AI and assisted by its experts, helps companies to source, screen, assess, interview, select, and on-board the best talent. Its combination of cutting-edge technology and passionately committed people helps the customers to hire the right talent and build safer teams. The company’s technology and services teams obsess about automation and removing roadblocks in the hiring life cycle.
Overcoming Tremendous Roadblocks
For cFIRST, the initial days were tough just as it is for any other business. The company wanted to do things the right way and ensure that it has both technology and process framework to support its clients in this extremely critical function. cFIRST took some time to win the trust of renowned names such as IBM and Capgemini. It considers itself the TCS and Infosys of the background screening vertical.
The company is challenging the global giants of this industry by setting up global operations and investing in cutting edge technology platform development. Currently, cFIRST is the only Indian background screening company to have global footprint that can cater to clients in India, in the USA, and 175+ other countries.
Why cFIRST?
cFIRST offers superior and transparent technology to the clients with additional facilities such as the following:
- Online checks ordering for both recruiters and employees
- Online system for live tracking of check status
- Online repository of all past checks done
It provides the clients with comprehensive and customized background screening solutions, which have been mentioned below:
- Complete bouquet of background screenings services and solutions
- Customized solutions for different geographies and industries
- Customized solutions as per company requirements
- Personalized client support experience
cFIRST is renowned for its best-in-class services, which are as follows:
- Excellent turnaround times
- Convenient data entry/report retrieval process
- Dedicated drug testing and compliance teams
The company has some of the world’s largest IT companies as a part of its clientele. It has been awarded by one of the world’s largest companies as their ‘Trusted Verification Partner’. cFIRST has verification partners in 175+ countries across the globe.
Embracing Technology for Achieving Excellence
cFIRST believes in using cutting-edge technology to deliver excellent customer experiences. With the advancement of technology and innovations, it has widened its offerings in other segments of hiring. Team cFIRST calls itself the Digital Talent Acquisition Ecosystem. Its products COGBEE and CAYPRO have helped in automated video interview process and automated tracking system that focus on easing the hiring process by creating the candidates’ database from various job portals across world-wide web respectively. These products have reimagined the vision of the company and have outshined themselves through their performances as cFIRST strives to continuously keep growing its business.
Smooth Integrations
cFIRST streamlines the process of recruiting, tracking, and monitoring the employee screening programs. It provides employers and candidates with further options for a unified or smooth experience. The company’s implementation experts have partnered with the industry’s foremost HR services and ATS providers to make its clients’ workflow systematic and successful.
With the integration, cFIRST offers a unique solution to attract the best talent, engaging the candidates with simple technology and long-term relationships with its clients. The company is also ready to integrate its clients’ ATS/HRMS with ease. It has very welldefined and secured APIs to complete an integration. Comprehensive integrations provide a variety of facilities, which have been described below:
- Monitor and review of the entire application and the screening process
- Streamlined and integrated solution to eliminate manual process and save time
- Global reach in over 100 countries to support applicants and clients for screening with multiple language options
- Single sign-in for hassle free checks
- ATS reduces duplicate entry, avoids potential errors, and saves time
- Real time status updates on screening information to help the hiring process speed up
- Compliance made easy, the ATS provides customers with information on changing regulations
- Integration provides smooth candidate experience being mobile enabled with easy access with secured prepopulated data
Accreditations and Major Achievements
Throughout its illustrious journey of delivering excellent services to its clients, the company has made many prominent accomplishments. cFIRST has clientele of more than 2000 organizations worldwide. Since inception, it has successful conducted more than 5 million background checks. It is an ISO 27001:2013 certified company and is also NABPS, NASSCOM NSR empanelled. Furthermore, cFIRST has received accreditations from ACBCB, IAF, and QIC.
Tackling the Covid-19 Crisis with Competence
As the COVID-19 came along, the challenges that the human resource department of cFIRST faced started to pile up. Continuing the business was essential and so was crisis management; hence, the only possible solution for the company was to seek technical support to enable employees to work-from-home while also managing client needs. cFIRST had launched Project SamRaksha (‘Safe Together’) for all of its employees and their immediate family. This project comprised of four key initiatives:
Health Insurance: Coverage for all employees and their immediate family members.
Tele Medicine: Video-consultation with an approved doctor who offered basic consultation, advice on identifying or evaluating symptoms, first aid / basic medication, and so on.
Vaccination: The company plans to tie-up with a lab to have a vaccination drive at its offices where they can get the vaccination for free. If that is not feasible at certain locations, it will extend support to get appointments and reimburse the cost of the vaccine.
Testing: cFIRST has partnered with labs to offer RT-PCR test if recommend by a doctor. While the company did its very best to ensure the wellness and betterment of the employees, it ensured that its client’s needs were also met. It offered online support, extended work hours, and phone support. Moreover, interim update and timely communication were the key components in keeping its clients happy.
Marching towards a Bright Future
Team cFIRST is very optimistic about the future. The company now possesses a mobile and API first strategy; it is investing heavily in capability building across the globe. It anticipates a CAGR of 40%+ at least for the next three to five years for its business.
