It’s a no-brainer that having skilled and talented employees can exponentially grow your business, but how do you manage to find such people without investing a lot of time and energy?
Thanks to platforms like Sterling, they provide global background checks and identity services to make quick hiring decisions.
If you have been looking for such platforms yourself, then do not look further as we will give you a keen idea and overview of Sterling One for the same.
Summary
| Guide | Sterling |
|---|---|
| Features | Drug testing, and more |
| Rating | 4.5\5 |
| Navigation | Easy |
| Website | Click here |
What Is Sterling?
Sterling is a global background check and identity service that has been in the business for over 45 years now.
They are highly focused on their unparalleled client satisfaction by providing custom solutions related to your field.
Their cloud-based technology helps in faster turnaround and processing of reports.
You can get access to various essential reports like criminal reports, drug testing, workforce monitoring, etc.
Now you know who Sterling is, but the bigger question is should you consider them for your hiring purposes?
Let’s have a closer look at its features, services, and other things for this.
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Why Should You Choose Sterling?
Sterling offers a custom solution for various industries. This includes healthcare, construction, entertainment, transportation, and much more.
No matter which industry you are from, they can cater to your needs without any difficulty.
And not only this, they have a number of services to offer including, fingerprinting, Covid-19 testing, medical license monitoring, and so much more.
They also claim to have the fastest turn-around time in the industry. They even have excellent ratings online, making them reliable and trustworthy.
Features Of Sterling
Now let’s look at its features to know if it has something unique to offer.
I-9 and E-Verify
Sterling One offers I-9 and E-Verify for your applicant. Their forms validate each entry and take care none is skipped.
They offer line-by-line prompts so that the applicant does not get stuck anywhere.
They also have regulatory monitoring and automatic updates, ensuring that all the documents remain updated.
Drug And Health Screening
They offer pre and post-drug screening of your applicant, and the reports can be obtained digitally without any hassle.
Their automated technology helps to deliver easy-to-read reports.
SSN Trace
Social Security Number Trace, also known as Address history search, is a very important feature.
Using it, you can access ten years of address history, know names, maiden names, nicknames, etc.
This is very important because it is the foundation of criminal history research.
How Does Sterling Work?
Sterling helps businesses and companies know a potential candidate’s background, which helps them confidently hire candidates for their company.
Obviously, none of us wants to hire people with a criminal background or some other issues that we don’t want.
As such, Sterling helps provide us with information such as their employment history, drug, health screening, SSN trace, and more.
They collect this information from a couple of sources which may include the following:
- Federal, state, and local public records
- U.S. census data
- Public and private records
- Commercial business data
- Consumer reporting agencies
- Social media accounts
- FBI and local crime data
- Third-party vendors, and more.
What Can You Find Using Sterling?
Now let’s have a look at the various services it caters to:
Civil Court Records
Sterling’s Civil court records can allow you to access:
- Lawsuits
- Divorces
- Domestic disputes
- Paternity suits
- Civil judgements
- Breach of contracts
- Restraining orders
Global Checks
Using Sterling’s global check report you can access:
- Reference checks
- Education verifications
- Motor vehicles records & Driver abstracts
- Professional license verification, and more
Criminal background checks
- County court record search
- Global criminal search
- State search
- Federal court search
- Fraud abuse control information system
- Criminal activity monetoring
- OFAC
- Extended global sanctions search
- DOJ and NSOPW search
Social media searches
Motor vehicle records
Here are things that you can expect to find in Sterling’s motor vehicle records:
- Date of license issue and expiration
- Suspensions and revocations
- Current license status
- Violations and citations
- Restrictions
- License type
Verification
- Education verification
- Employment verification
- Department of transportation
- Credential verification
- Professional reference verification
- Fingerprinting
- Medical license monitoring
- Drug and health screening
- Drug testing
- DOT and non-DOT panels
- Certified MROs
- Certified laboratories
- Urine, Hair, Oral Fluid, Blood Sampling
- Physical exams
- Physical abilities tests
- Lift tests
- Non-DOT and DOT exams
- OSHA/EEOC/ADA compliant
- Clinical Services
- Titers and vaccinations
- TB testing
- Infectious disease testing
- Lab-based blood tests and more
- Alcohol Testing
- DOT evidential breath testing
- Certified breath alcohol breathalyzer testing
- Instant Testing
- Urine, oral fluid sampling
- On-site or clinic-based
- Integrated reporting options
- Variable panels
- Covid-19 Testing
- Additional on-site testing assistance
- Vaccine documentation
- Collection or validation
- PCR and antigen testing
- Observed testing
- Antibody testing
- Drug testing
Workforce monitoring
Credit reports
Liens, Judgements, and bankruptcies
Sterling Plans And Pricing
Sterling offers basically three plans along with some other add-on options.
Let’s have a look at the various plans and reports it offers:
| Plans | Price | Includes |
|---|---|---|
| Basic | $29.95/ check | Sex offender search, Social Security number trace, single-county criminal search, Instant criminal check with verification. |
| Preferred Plan | $59.95/ check | Seven-year county criminal record search, Sex offender search, Instant criminal check with verification, Social Security number trace, Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC) terrorist watchlist search, federal criminal district search. |
| Pro Plan | $79.95/ check | Social Security number trace, Department of Justice sex offender search, multistate instant criminal check with verification, seven-year federal criminal district search, OFAC terrorist watchlist search, seven-year county criminal record search, locator select with verification. |
These are the basic plans that you can choose. There are some add-ons too that Sterling offers. This includes the following:
- Driver’s record check – $9.95 each
- Education or employment verification – $19.95 each
Sterling Pros And Cons
Industries Sterling Caters to
- Education
- Construction
- Franchise
- Entertainment
- Government
- Retail
- Technology
- Transportation and more
How To Get Started?
To get started on Sterling follow these simple steps:
1) Go to Sterling’s website, scroll down and click on “Get started with Sterling now.”
2) Now enter your first name, last name, and business id, and click on sign in.
3) Your account will be created, and now you will be able to use Sterling.
How To Unsubscribe or Cancel Sterling?
If you want to unsubscribe or cancel Sterling, then you can do so in two ways:
You can either get in touch with their customer service by calling this number-800-899-2272 and request a cancellation.
Or you can fill out this form on their website and then wait to hear back from them.
Is Sterling Safe To Use?
Sterling might collect your information such as your name, email address, last name, payment details, and other external details such as your IP address, browsing information, etc., just like many other similar platforms.
They use this information to send any updates notifications to you or help you as and when any query arises.
They follow the policies as per the law, and if you want to know about it in detail, you can go to their website and read their privacy policy for a better picture.
Does Sterling Notify the Person?
Sterling is a background check platform and not a people search tool. This means before running a background check on Sterling, you are required to take the candidate’s consent.
Since you cannot do a background check on Sterling without the candidate’s consent, the question of notifying the person does not arise.
In fact, once you do a background check on a candidate using Sterling, it will send a notification to the candidate informing them about the status of their background check.
Is Sterling Anonymous?
No, Sterling is not an anonymous platform. As we mentioned before, Sterling is an employment background check tool.
As per the FCRA rules, before conducting this kind of background check, you must get the candidate’s permission.
Not adhering to this can get you in serious legal trouble. If you want to run a normal background check on people, then you should use people search sites instead, as they are anonymous.
Is Sterling Trustworthy & Reliable?
If you are not familiar with Sterling, then you might be wondering if you can rely on it to hire candidates.
Well, as per the many positive online reviews, we can say that Sterling is a trustworthy and reliable platform. You can use it to scan the background of a person and confidently hire the right candidates for your organization.
How To Get In Touch With Sterling?
Whether you are a client, a potential client, or a candidate, you can reach out to them as per your needs.
Sterling has a lot of contact numbers and email IDs specific to a region.
You can go to this page and contact them as per your location.
Also Read: Spokeo | A Complete Overview
USW Sterling Ratings
| Type | Rating |
| Customer Service | 3/5 |
| Responsive | 3.2/5 |
| Affordable | 4.5/5 |
| Ease of use | 4.7/5 |
| Features & Services | 4.5/5 |
See What Customers Are Saying About Sterling?
Like – Sterling Talent is human resources solution that makes hiring much effective and recruitment of employees much simpler. It offers many benefits and helps in drug testing of candidates with any serious health issue. Employee forms and on-boarding services are also provided by it. You can do workforce monitoring in a more efficient manner. It provides the functionality of batch processing .The customer is really satisfied with company’s services and support provided is above reproach. The self service portal allows you to download the reports. You can make schedules of drug tests and medical appointments. Also the status of applicants can be tracked very easily. The reminders and alerts are there to notify you every single detail through emails and also it makes use of dashboards.
Dislike – Above all mentioned advantages, the stumbling blocks gathered by Sterling talent solution includes its time consuming trait as it takes a lot of time to carry out the process. And company takes much time to give response as well. The billing process is also overwhelming thus needs more improvement to stand out. The updated versions are not up-to mark and have the same problems as with previous ones.
By Bruce M.
Comparison
If you are still unsure about Sterling, then have a look at its alternatives below:
| Comparison | Sterling | Trusted Employees |
|---|---|---|
| Established | 1977 | 1994 |
| Features | I-9 and E-Verify, SSN Trace, and more | Analytics & Reporting Insights, Fingerprinting & Remote Services, and more |
| Price | $29.95/ check | $29.95 Per 1 screening |
| Rating | 4.5/5 | 4/5 |
| BBB rating | Not accredited | A+ |
| Turn-around time | Slow | Fast |
| Tenant background check | Not available | Not available |
Our Experience
I used sterling to get a background report on one of our new candidates, and I love how efficiently I was able to get information on him.
Sterling made the hiring decision very easy for us. I can’t stop recommending it to those who want hassle-free hiring services.
How We Review Background Check Companies?
We consider the following factors to review background check companies:
- Pricing and plans
- Customer reviews
- Ease of use
- Types of checks available
- Accuracy of information
- Features and services
- Information provided
Sterling Alternatives
For some reason, in case you do not like sterling, then you can check out these alternatives instead:
InfoMart
If you are looking for a trustworthy platform to screen candidates for a job or even tenants, then InfoMart is a good choice for that. InfoMart offer background check service for a variety of industries, including hospitality, manufacturing, education, entertainment, and more.
And offer features like Electronic I-9 Form Filing, Random Drug Testing, MVR Recertifications, and more.
This is how Info mart’s pricing looks like:
- Simple Plan: $28.95 per check
- Popular Plan: $53.95 per check
- Classic Plan: $78.95 per check
IntelliCorp
Just like InfoMart, IntelliCorp also offers pre-employment and tenant background checks.
Using IntelliCorp, you can find accurate information on the candidate’s education, criminal, drug, social media reports, and more.
IntelliCorp might be better suited for mid-size to large organizations, however, and their pricing is also a bit more expensive, starting at $58.95.
Accurate
Lastly, we have Accurate for you, which differentiates itself by offering unique features like optimized search, 24/7 live chat, real-time status reports, etc.
Accurate might be a bit complicated to use for small businesses, but its pricing is not that much as compared to, say, IntelliCorp.
This is what the pricing of Accurate looks like:
- Basic: $29.95 per report
- Standard: $59.95 per report
- Premium: $74.95 per report
Final Verdict
Sterling is one of the best employee screening platforms to choose from.
You can go with them and choose their unparalleled services, given that they do need to work on their customer service and turnaround time.
But overall reports and accuracy they provide are unmatched.
We hope you found this article useful.
FAQ’s
Is Sterling Legit?
Yes, they have 45 years of experience and are completely reliable and legit.
Does Screening An Applicant Require Their Permission?
Yes, in order for you to screen an employee, you will need to their approval as per the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions (FACT).
How much does Sterling cost per check?
Sterling costs $29.95 per check.
Does Sterling offer a drug screening service?
Yes, Sterling offers a drug screening service too.
Does Sterling offer custom reports?
Yes, Sterling offers custom reports.
Does Sterling have a free trial?
No, Sterling does not have a free trial.
Does Sterling cost money?
Yes, Sterling costs money, and its most basic plan starts at $29.95/ check.
Shefali Jain is a Content Writer & Editor at USWorkforce.org
After completing her graduation in hospitality, Shefali decided to follow her passion and started writing. Shefali has been writing for two years now and contributes to our website as a skilled editor and content writer with strong research skills. Writing product and service reviews, biographies, and book reviews are some of her key areas, among many others in which she specializes. In her time at the organization, she has written and edited content on a range of topics, including employment law, human resources, and business management.
ARTICLE SOURCES
The US Workforce has a policy of producing high-quality content that follows industry standards by using primary sources, such as white papers and government data, alongside original reporting from reputable publishers. We also follow an editorial style where appropriate information about the topic can be found with due credit given when applicable.