2023 HireRight Review: Is It Right for Your Business?
Charlette has over 10 years of experience in accounting and finance and 2 years of partnering with HR leaders on freelance projects. She uses this extensive experience to answer your questions about payroll.
Genevieve has helped small business owners improve their HR processes from employee onboarding to payroll and benefits. She is one of Fit Small Business’s authority on anything HR.
This article is part of a larger series on Hiring.
HireRight provides tailored Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA)-compliant employment screening services, including criminal background screening, employment experience checks, identity verification, I-9 and E-Verify, drug testing, and health screening. With a broad range of screening services available to clients in over 200 countries, it’s a flexible option for HR managers in many industries.
It scored 3.18 out of 5 when we evaluated it against our best background check companies criteria. It did not make our guide because it doesn’t have transparent pricing or offer bulk background checks. We also found that they had some negative reviews on popular third-party review websites. Despite some of their low rankings, HireRight can be a good fit for organizations that have very industry-specific needs, like healthcare or transportation.
Overall Score:
3.86 / 5
Pros
- Global reach; employment screening services cover more than 200 countries and territories
- Robust ATS integration options
- Easy to use
Cons
- Customer support isn’t always helpful
- Release of results are sometimes delayed
- Pricing not transparent
HireRight Deciding Factors
Pricing | Custom-priced |
Standout Features |
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Ease of Use |
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Customer Support |
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Top HireRight Alternatives
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Best for: Businesses looking for a provider with transparent pricing | Best for: Businesses doing bulk hiring | Best for: Companies conducting individual background checks |
Per-report fees from: $29.95 | Per-report fees from: $29.99 | Per-report fees from: $25 |
Standout feature: Has customizable scoring models and color coding tools for faster applicant screening | Standout feature: Integrates with popular HRIS and ATS software | Standout feature: Offers instant criminal reports |
HireRight doesn’t indicate its pricing packages on its website. You need to contact sales for more information. Because of this factor, the provider got a 1.5 rating out of 5 in this criterion.
When hiring employees, you must ensure that you get the right person for the job. HireRight offers a suite of background check solutions, such as criminal background checks and drug tests, to help businesses during the hiring process. Overall, HireRight earned a 4.13 out of 5 rating in this area.
Background Check Services
Businesses usually include background screening as part of their applicant screening process. With HireRight, you can access more than 50 background check services covering 200+ countries and territories. Here are some of its services:
- Criminal background checks: These include searching through federal, county, and state criminal databases. HireRight also conducts sex offender registry searches and fingerprint-based criminal history checks, ideal for regulated job roles such as those in the education and financial services industry.
- Drug and health testing: HireRight partners with Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA)-certified laboratories and device manufacturers to offer a comprehensive selection of drug and health tests.
- Alcohol screening devices and evidentiary breath alcohol testing
- Laboratory-based oral fluid, urine, and hair drug testing
- Physical exams and wellness services that follow client-specific and Department of Transportation (DOT) exam protocols
- Point-of-collection (instant) drug testing devices
- Pre-employment medical assessment and questionnaires
- Education and employment verifications: You can check a candidate’s education history, such as the school’s name and degree earned. For employment verifications, HireRight will validate the candidate’s current and previous employment details, from job titles and salary information to dates of employment.
- Identity checks: You can verify whether the candidate’s government-issued identification number is valid. Moreover, HireRight can confirm a candidate’s identity by validating the information indicated on their passport.
- Professional license checks: Apart from checking the validity of a candidate’s professional licenses (such as driver’s and medical-related licenses), HireRight will search for any derogatory records and disciplinary actions.
- Professional reference checks: If you want to gain insight into a candidate’s character and work ethic, then you may want to consider getting this service. After a candidate has identified a person as a professional reference, HireRight will ask several standardized questions and document the responses. For reference, some questions include asking about the candidate’s strongest attributes, professional motivations, and interpersonal skills.
E-Verify & Electronic Form I-9 Solution
This solution, which complies with US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) requirements, is designed to help you streamline employment eligibility verification processes for new hires. It lets you create, download, store, print, and electronically sign digital Form 1-9s. This tool also includes duplicate document detection, form annotations and notes, customizable email alerts, and an audit trail indicating when a form has been modified and by whom.
HireRight earned a 4.38 out of 5 rating in this category because it helps businesses mitigate risks by ensuring that your HR team is compliant with FCRA and similar laws. It didn’t get a perfect score because you must pay extra for this service.
Some of the features included in the compliance service include:
- Applying adjudication guidelines to your screening results
- Providing pre-screening disclosures to applicants and asking their consent before answering the background check forms
- Streamlining the pre-adverse and adverse notification process
Its robust reporting capability is the primary reason HireRight got a perfect score in this criterion. It offers self-service management reports that are readily available online and allow users to track the turnaround time, cost, prevalent adverse records, and more. The reports are also customizable and can be downloaded.
- Candidate assistance
- Customer portal
- Resource Library
- Phone, live chat, and email support
- List of offices in different locations
HireRight scored 4.25 out of 5 in this criterion because it is easy for both clients and candidates to access their respective portals. It also provides a resource library for candidates and clients to learn more about background screening. However, it did not get a perfect score because it does not support bulk background checks.
This provider makes accessing their separate portals easy for clients and candidates. It provides a resource library for candidates and clients to learn more about background screening. Should users have immediate concerns, they can contact HireRight via phone or email. Users also love its live chat function, which helps them when they need immediate assistance and eradicates their need to make a call. HireRight also lists its office locations all over the world.
Many reviewers love HireRight’s user-friendly platform, which helps them quickly navigate the features. Some also commented that the reports look neat and organized, and others like the dedicated customer support.
However, users noted some delays with the live chat response. Others also called out the slow turnaround times of some criminal background checks. The negative feedback and the small number of reviews on popular third-party websites greatly impacted HireRight’s score in this criterion, which is why it only scored 3.38 out of 5.
At the time of writing, HireRight received the following scores on popular review websites:
- G2: 3.4 out of 5 stars based on 115+ reviews
- TrustRadius: 7.8 out of 10 ratings based on 75+ reviews
- Capterra: 4.3 out of 5 stars based on 10+ reviews
How We Evaluated HireRight
We looked at HireRight’s general background check functionality, reporting capabilities, and compliance features. If it offered special screenings like drug testing and international checks it received a higher score. We also considered popularity, ease of use, and pricing in the evaluation process.
Click through each tab to look at the details of our evaluation:
10%
Pricing
25%
Background Check Functionality
20%
Compliance Features
15%
Reporting
10%
Popularity
20%
Ease of Use
10% of Overall Score
Providers with straightforward and transparent pricing received a higher score in this criterion. Those that did not require a set-up fee also received additional points.
25% of Overall Score
The best background check services offer international, national, and local searches. Providers with county-level and niche background checks like professional and educational verifications received a higher score.
20% of Overall Score
We looked at several compliance features, such as pre-adverse and adverse action notices and dispute documents in this criterion. We also considered whether these forms are available online or can be downloaded. Providers that have these features scored higher.
15% of Overall Score
Aside from compliance and background check features, we considered whether both applicants and employers could access the reports. We also checked if the reports are compliant with the FRCA.
10% of Overall Score
For this criterion, we looked at the real-world users on popular third-party review websites like Capterra and G2. Those that received a 4+ star rating and have more than 100 reviews received a higher rating.
20% of Overall Score
Background check services with automated workflows, status tracking, and a mobile version received extra scores. We also considered those that offer bulk screenings.
*Percentages of overall score
Bottom Line
HireRight is a background screening service for companies of all sizes. It helps businesses manage pre-employment screening, identity verification, drug testing, and education verification. Hiring professionals using top HR and payroll software will love HireRight’s seamless integration capability.
