Deanna Shimota (00:00:05) - Welcome to The HR Tech Spotlight podcast. I'm Deanna Shimota, CEO of GrowthMode 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 up and coming 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 show.
Deanna Shimota (00:00:46) - Hello. In this episode, we are shining a spotlight on KarmaCheck, a company that has reimagined background checks with a tech-first AI-driven approach that provides the fastest background check for employment needs. Employers and employees benefit from real-time, actionable notifications, so hiring decisions come sooner. The mobile-first background check platform is easy to access, reliable and compliant. Joining me to talk about KarmaCheck is co-founder and CEO Eric Ly.
Deanna Shimota (00:01:16) - Hi, Eric.
Eric Ly (00:01:17) - Hey there. Good to be here today.
Deanna Shimota (00:01:20) - Yeah. Thank you for joining me. So tell us about your background in the HR tech space.
Eric Ly (00:01:25) - I've worked on a number of companies in the tech space, HR, tech space. I'm originally a technologist and I had a. And then finally co-founding the company LinkedIn, which really got me into the people business. And so it's definitely a successful example of an HR tech company, among other things. And so that passion really continued. And so what we see here, what we're doing here at KarmaCheck is in many ways a continuation of the work that we did. Analytics are taking it further. Those are my qualifications in tech.
Deanna Shimota (00:02:04) - Those certainly are impressive qualifications. I'm sure most listeners have at least heard of LinkedIn. Right. It's a pretty big and deeply professional world. So let's talk about what KarmaCheck does and how it is different from other background screening companies that are out there.
Eric Ly (00:02:22) - We're really trying to take a new spin to background checks.
Eric Ly (00:02:25) - And what we realized was that many companies, maybe even all companies, use some form of background checks when they are onboarding new employees or as kind of a continuous monitoring for existing employees. And what we found was that behind the scenes, a lot of the activity that goes into have background checks are done or manual. And so employers are always looking for something that is going faster, even something that is cheaper to be able to do those background checks more effectively. And so what we're doing at KarmaCheck is to really take a lot of those behind-the-scenes manual processes, and whether it's through automations or even through the use of AI. More recently, to see if we could speed up and make those checks happen much faster and more consistently faster and deliver high-quality results, obviously just as good as anybody else's, but in a much faster way so that employers can, hire faster. And that hopefully impacts their top line as well as their bottom line. And that's how we'd like to be helpful.
Deanna Shimota (00:03:40) - I know I read that you are one of the co-founders of KarmaCheck.
Deanna Shimota (00:03:44) - Can you tell us the story behind founding the company, and how did you get to where you are today?
Eric Ly (00:03:51) - Sure. Several years ago, we were just really interested in bringing verification to all sorts of digital identities online. If you take a look at a site like LinkedIn, LinkedIn has a lot of profiles, resumes, basically about people, and all that information is entered in by the person themselves, which means that sometimes they can exaggerate the truth. They can maybe make claims that maybe aren't even true. And so I was really interested in that problem and really realized that the backbone tech space was the space that was really responsible for verifying these things. And so when we took a look at it, we said, hey, it looks like things have been done the same way for a long time. Can we do something new through the use of technology? If we're building a 21st-century version of this, how can we do it better at using technology? How can we? How can we do it better using data that allows maybe people to reuse information that has already been verified.
Eric Ly (00:04:56) - And so those are some of the ideas that we had to build a better background check company that would really suited to the kind of faster pace that companies are expected to execute and hire people in these days. And so that was really the genesis of.
Deanna Shimota (00:05:16) - Let's dig a little bit more into that Genesis. Let's talk about some of the big challenges or problems that you see facing HR departments when it comes to hiring and needing to verify backgrounds for employees.
Eric Ly (00:05:30) - That's a really great question. One of the things that we saw starting a few years ago was that hiring is becoming more decentralized and more distributed, and especially over the last few years, as Covid has created this world where more and more people are working remotely. We've heard stories about people interviewing for positions, and they never meet their hiring managers in person, and vice versa for the hiring managers who are shooting for candidates. And that's the world that we're in, where there's a lot more virtual interactions than some of us are even expected to hire people we've never met.
Eric Ly (00:06:10) - and yes, the background checks are there to help ensure that people are who they say they are. But in general, it just makes finding the right people and making sure that they're qualified and don't necessarily have a bad criminal background or whatnot. it makes it that much harder that people can take information about other identities from the dark web and use it as their own to submit that into a background check process, let's say. It just makes it much harder. And it really is becoming more of a, cat-and-mouse game where employers, in order to ensure the authenticity of the workers that they're bringing on board, that they have to try that much harder to make sure that the veracity of the identities that they have, that they're bringing on are really who they say they are. And so that, I think, is makes it more, more challenging for background check companies to be able to do their jobs and ultimately provide quality candidates that can be onboarded, but certainly also creates opportunities to help employers ensure that authenticity of their employees.
Deanna Shimota (00:07:22) - Yeah, that is so interesting and certainly a real challenge because like you said, if you're not meeting these people face to face when you're hiring them, it does introduce another level of potential to be able to lie about who you are and what your credentials are. And it's so important for organizations to protect themselves, because we've all heard about the scams that can happen with hiring. And even just like you hire someone, you didn't know their background, or they tell you there's someone else and it creates this liability for the company.
Eric Ly (00:07:55) - Yeah, there's been a lot of talk also recently, as everybody knows about AI. And AI is a really powerful technology. It can be used for good and a lot of instances, but it can also be used for bad things as well. And as good as AI is, and helping people maybe strengthen their resumes, it can also be used as a way to create, invent, experience that maybe isn't there. And so we're definitely stepping into a world where these more powerful tools such as AI, again, it makes it harder to for employers to protect themselves.
Eric Ly (00:08:30) - Yeah, it's definitely an interesting time to go in and try to do background checks or verifications, I bet.
Deanna Shimota (00:08:39) - So what type of companies would you say are the perfect fit for KarmaCheck?
Eric Ly (00:08:44) - We really design our products for kind of the fast-paced employers, and a lot of those kinds of businesses are tend to be staffing businesses where, you know, just inherent to the nature of their business. They are bringing people on for temporary assignments. And each time there's a person who goes to a new assignment, maybe a few weeks or a few months, there's a background check that gets right and the ability of these staffing companies to place people quickly. and also, of course, have those background checks check out is, you know, very important to their business. And so we like to help them by providing technology that can really be through these background checks, make them go, very quickly. and also I would say, provide a great user experience for the candidates because the onboarding process, it's usually one of the first touchpoints that any candidate has with, their employer, whether it's corporation or staffing company.
Eric Ly (00:09:49) - And so we've heard a lot of employers want to make sure that those first touch points are pleasant, in a convenient one. And certainly I think background checks sometimes get it gets a bad rep for not being the most friendly thing to go through as part of an onboarding process.
Deanna Shimota (00:10:08) - So you've staked your claim on faster background checks. What can a company expect is the typical turnaround on background checks?
Eric Ly (00:10:17) - It turns out to be a very difficult to answer question because background checks. It's this really broad category of things that varies by industries. And so in certain industries. Background checks can be relatively simple for the candidate. And so in those instances we can pretty much deliver results immediately. but in other industries, like healthcare, for example, the process is quite extensive for background checks that involves things like drug tests and physicals and things like that. And the process is much more complicated. But we've been able to show that even in something like healthcare, we're able to speed things up quite dramatically and help get candidates into their jobs, into hospitals much faster than ever before.
Eric Ly (00:11:08) - That's a benefit as well.
Deanna Shimota (00:11:09) - And I can see where. Yeah, I understand that. I know there's a lot of factors, like you can't control how fast a university responds to verify education, right. And all those other factors that go into that. What impact have you seen organizations that work with KarmaCheck experience?
Eric Ly (00:11:27) - I think it really goes back to how competitive they are as an organization. Every company works in the market and they're competing with other companies in their industry. And what we have been able to help companies do is to basically become more competitive. We generally live in an era where talent is scarce, and so there are multiple companies that are competing against for that same candidate. And so to the to the extent that candidates want to get a job, to get to work fast, the company that can get through an onboarding process that often includes the background check helps them get through that faster, more conveniently, usually becomes more successful. And then not only to those candidates benefit, but obviously the employers themselves are able to be more productive from revenue and even operational efficiency standpoint because they don't need as many people, for example, to help coordinate background checks for their candidates.
Eric Ly (00:12:36) - So those are some of the things that we've seen that we're really excited about and excited to create, deliver this value into the marketplace.
Deanna Shimota (00:12:45) - And I imagine in a tough job market where there's not enough people to do certain types of jobs, it's really critical to be able to process those applications quickly and to be able to get workers in. Right. Because if you think of like fast food restaurants, for example, they have high turnover, they're constantly hiring, but they're competing against all the other restaurants across town. Right. And sometimes people go out and they just they don't care which place they work at. Right? They just know they need a job and they apply at all these different ones. And whoever gets them the job first is the winner, right? Speed absolutely matters in hiring for particular industries and particular roles.
Eric Ly (00:13:24) - Yeah, you're right about that. And that fast food driver may be applying to Amazon as well to deliver packages. And whoever can accept them first as an employee, usually they'll be very happy to take up that opportunity.
Eric Ly (00:13:38) - And we've been working a lot in health care and we've seen that a lot in health care as well, because over the last few years, there has definitely been a shortage of nurses, and the typical kind of nurse that goes on these temporary assignments might be applying to 5 or 6 different places to get some jobs. And so they want to get to work as well. And whoever can get them placed and onboarded the fastest. The nurses really do like that. So there is a competition for talent out there for sure.
Deanna Shimota (00:14:12) - Eric, what is your future vision for KarmaCheck?
Eric Ly (00:14:15) - We really hope that we can come into a scenario where the background check process really becomes invisible. And today it's not invisible. It's a friction point that exists for both the candidate as well as the employer. And what we'd like to get to is some kind of idea around maybe like a credential wallet that the candidate can have with them, and they can keep all of their credentials with them ready to go. And so if they're interested in the job opportunity, they could present those to an employer and employee could accept those.
Eric Ly (00:14:51) - And so the whole process of having to run through a background check, hopefully it becomes a matter of this kind of invisible process of like just presenting your credentials, having those be as compliant as background check ever was. But that can happen in a much more immediate basis. And we really hope to take this process of a background check away and make it more invisible.
Deanna Shimota (00:15:20) - I love that. I could see where that would be beneficial, because it is a hassle for the candidate that wants the job, and for the employer to go through those background screenings and figure all those pieces out. And obviously, there's vendors like KarmaCheck that help streamline that process and make it easier. But for someone who has to go through background checks because let's say they're a temporary nurse and they move to different hospitals all the time, it's like, how many times do you have to verify the same information? Right? But you have to, because it's a requirement to make sure there's no issues in your background. So I think that's a great idea.
Eric Ly (00:16:00) - And these people are busy as well. It's not like people are just sitting around waiting to set up their applications. They're usually on a job and looking to transition to another one, and they work pretty long hours as well. So we have a lot of sympathies for folks like that to really reduce the, shall we say, administrative work that people have to go through and employers included, if they could, if we could lessen the burden on them on the administrative side of things, while providing the same data to them that they need, and that would be great as well.
Deanna Shimota (00:16:35) - What are some of the things that someone should think about as they're looking at options for background check service providers?
Eric Ly (00:16:45) - I think definitely one of them is this idea around speed, how to find that solution, that that goes fast. I think the candidate experience side of things is really valuable as well. And then one thing that we haven't talked about is really the ability of any solution to really integrate with, with other systems inside that HR tech stack.
Eric Ly (00:17:08) - We know that background checks often work with an ATS, or work within his system, and need to look at not only trading paper, but to see if there are true integration opportunities where the data can automatically flow in and out of ATS or his systems to background check platforms automatically back and forth.
Deanna Shimota (00:17:34) - What final thoughts do you want to leave our audience with?
Eric Ly (00:17:36) - Just that I think it really is an exciting time to be in HR tech. There's so much innovation happening and there are just new solutions coming out each and every day. A lot of them really propelled or even caused by the advent of AI. And so there's a lot of tools that are coming out that will help both the employer as well as the candidate to become more effective and productive. And those tools generally just help both sides, including organizations, to just be more efficient and also to be more personalized in a scalable way when talking to candidates and interacting with candidates. So I think it's a really exciting time that there's a lot of innovation happening, and definitely encourage the audience to look into new tools and see what they can do to update their toolkit to become an even more amazing company.
Deanna Shimota (00:18:31) - Speaking of looking at new tools, where can our listeners go to learn more about KarmaCheck?
Eric Ly (00:18:36) - We're at KarmaCheck.com, so that's hopefully easy enough, but all of our information is there, and feel free to contact us if you have a question or are interested in our platform.
Deanna Shimota (00:18:47) - Excellent. I will be sure to include the link in the show notes. Eric, thanks so much for joining me on the show today.
Eric Ly (00:18:54) - Thank you. Deanna. Great to be here.
Deanna Shimota (00:19:01) - Thanks for listening to this episode of the HR Tech Spotlight podcast, where we showcase.
Deanna Shimota (00:19:07) - Some of the best up-and-coming HR technology options in the market. If you are an HR tech company leader who would like to be. For a guest spot on this program. Please contact me via GrowthModeMarketing.Com. Reach out to me Deanna Shimota on LinkedIn. And if you found this show informative, subscribe to. And leave a review.
Deanna Shimota (00:19:31) - This is Deanna with GrowthMode Marketing signing off. Thanks for listening. We hope you'll tune in again next time.