User-friendly reference and background checks

Reference and background checking traditionally meant hassle for all involved. For candidates, it means asking past managers to give a reference for them. For referees, it means taking the time to write or speak about the candidate’s work. For recruiters, it can mean days of emailing, calling and chasing - taking up to 28 working days to finally get through to the right person and collect the information they need. It’s a process fraught with inefficiency and opacity.

Zinc was designed to solve these problems, a user-friendly reference and background-checking solution that makes the hiring process easier for everyone and drastically reduces companies’ time to hire. In order to achieve this, the user experience had to be seamless for all users involved: the hiring managers, candidates and referees. That’s where Zinc excels. 

Creating a user-friendly candidate experience

Zinc was built with candidates in mind, we wanted to build a service that transformed the user experience from slow and manual, to fast and seamless. With an intuitive app, it’s easy for candidates to use, and stops reference and background-checks from being a dreaded process for all. Zinc is mobile-optimised enabling candidates to complete their background checks on the go, without having to dedicate hours to complete all the information. 

Candidates have the right to ask to see their references, but they rarely do so. Zinc turns the traditional referencing model on its head, allowing candidates to view, own and reuse this data. Instead of recruiters saving references as PDFs on company hard drives, or in long email chains, with Zinc candidates control their references and permission for who views them in their own shareable profile. They can later reuse references with the click of a button.

We’re proud to promote transparency for candidates throughout the hiring process, something that too often is kept hidden. We keep candidates' identity data safe and only store the status and results of checks, not any identity information supplied from checks. Zinc is fully GDPR-compliant and we operate a transparent, secure system. 

Levelling the background checking experience for recruiters 

Referencing and background checks take on average 3 weeks to come back. Further delays are often caused by difficulties in getting hold of the right person or the time taken to receive references. Zinc transforms this time-consuming experience for hiring managers by sending out automatic reminders via email and text to candidates and referees when there is remaining information required. The referee is no longer bombarded with many questions over the phone or required to write pages about the candidates past experiences. They can simply answer the candidate questions in app and send them on their way. 

The global right–to-work feature by Zinc means that you can confirm a candidate's right-to-work for any country globally, directly from your ATS. This product simplifies document and identity verification, offering a seamless experience for employers and candidates, anywhere. We also have a global background-checking tool to help you navigate the complexity of international compliance with ease, using Zinc as your complete global solution.

Zinc was also the first to offer instant employment verification, a huge shift towards making background checks more user-friendly. Zinc was the first to integrate with HMRC to offer a solution that pulls data directly from the government database and enables recruiters to verify up to 5 years of employment history for UK candidates in a matter of minutes. Wave goodbye to messy PDFs and error-prone copying as this automation does the work for you. 

Seamless integrations for background checks 

Zinc works seamlessly with the software recruiters use daily so requesting a reference is merely a click away. Once the check package and reference questions have been decided on, the references and other background checks can be requested directly from the ATS dashboard.

There is no doubt that using a user-friendly reference and background-checking provider like Zinc can transform the hiring process. Utilising this software helps you create a seamless process for all parties involved and ensures your talented new hires are onboarded with ease. 

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