Equifax (NYSE: EFX) announced an exclusive integration with National Student Clearinghouse® (Clearinghouse) as part of its strategic expansion of pre-employment verification offerings. The education dataset further enhances the verifications data hub being created by Equifax Workforce Solutions to help serve the fast-growing employee onboarding space. Talent Report™ Education will be available to background screeners and employer clients later this year. The report will offer for each candidate, via a single inquiry, all available postsecondary degree information from participating Clearinghouse institutions.
Talent Report Education is a significant step forward for industries where education requirements are necessary. With reliable access to 94 percent of degrees conferred by U.S. four-year colleges in the Clearinghouse database, background screeners and employers will have a new single-input solution to help quickly source candidate information and speed the hiring process. By jointly creating an exclusive, ordering experience, Equifax and the Clearinghouse have dramatically reduced the need to tap separate sources or provide multiple inputs to quickly access pre-employment verifications from The Work NumberⓇ database and the education data that can help employers make more informed hiring decisions.
“Talent Report Education is a major step forward in our commitment to help facilitate faster, more-informed hiring decisions for talent acquisition professionals,” said Joe Muchnick, Senior Vice President at Equifax Workforce Solutions. “We’ve seen increased demand for a more holistic view of the candidate and additional candidate data. This collaborative effort with the Clearinghouse to help streamline access to education data for our Talent Report products will give background screeners and employers greater visibility into a candidate’s history than ever before.”
Pre-employment screening has become a standard practice over the past several years, with a 2020 survey released by HR Research Institute and the Professional Background Screening Association reporting that more than 90 percent of employers are conducting at least one type of employment background screening. Education screening is also on the rise. The same survey showed that the number of hiring managers completing education verifications for all candidates nearly doubled to 40% from 2019 to 2020.
“The teams at the Clearinghouse are committed to serving employers and other verifiers with access to the trusted data source for accurate degree data they depend on,” said Larry Hatch, Vice President, Business Solutions, National Student Clearinghouse.
For background screeners looking for additional efficiency, the Equifax Talent Report Express will feature the same simple, single-input functionality and deliver a bundled solution that includes all available Clearinghouse postsecondary degree information, employment history and identity validation from Equifax Workforce Solutions.
More information on Pre-Employment Verifications from Equifax Workforce Solutions is available here.
ABOUT EQUIFAX INC.
At Equifax (NYSE: EFX), we believe knowledge drives progress. As a global data, analytics, and technology company, we play an essential role in the global economy by helping financial institutions, companies, employers, and government agencies make critical decisions with greater confidence. Our unique blend of differentiated data, analytics, and cloud technology drives insights to power decisions to move people forward. Headquartered in Atlanta and supported by more than 12,000 employees worldwide, Equifax operates or has investments in 24 countries in North America, Central and South America, Europe, and the Asia Pacific region. For more information, visit Equifax.com.
ABOUT NATIONAL STUDENT CLEARINGHOUSE
The National Student Clearinghouse, a nonprofit formed in 1993, is the trusted source for and leading provider of higher education verifications and electronic education record exchanges. Access to our verified 1st party data falls under the same data access provisions and conditions for background screeners. Besides working with nearly 3,600 postsecondary institutions, the Clearinghouse also provides thousands of high schools and districts with continuing collegiate enrollment, progression, and completion statistics on their alumni. For more details, visit studentclearinghouse.org.
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