Background checks for staffing agencies, in about 15 minutes
Canadian criminal record checks come back in about 15 minutes. Reference checks are $9 per candidate whatever number of referees they list, and every one you run also tells you which referees are hiring. Pay per check, no subscription, no minimum.
Your client is waiting
A placement does not fail because a check came back badly. It fails because the check took 4 days, and on day 3 the candidate took another offer.
An agency lives on the gap between a client saying yes and a candidate starting. Everything in that gap is risk you carry and cannot bill for. The screening step is the part of it you can actually shorten.
A Canadian criminal record check on Credibled comes back in about 15 minutes. Cleared in the morning, starting the same week.
The checks agencies actually run, and how long they take
Most providers publish one number for criminal checks and nothing else. These are our real ranges, including the slow ones. Anything we cannot control reads "varies".
Fast
Automated, and does not wait on anyone| Check | Turnaround |
|---|---|
| Canadian criminal record check, standard | Under 4 hours, often about 15 minutes |
| Canadian criminal record check, enhanced | 24 to 48 hours, often about 15 minutes |
| Identity verification | Instant, and included with the criminal record check |
| Credit report | Instant |
| Public records check | Instant |
| SOQUIJ court record, Quebec | Under 24 hours |
| Social media check | 1 to 2 business days |
| Driver abstract, Canada | 1 to 3 business days |
| US criminal, base, single county, or unlimited | Under 72 hours |
Depends on who replies
A third party has to respond| Check | Turnaround | What we do about it |
|---|---|---|
| Reference check | Varies by referee | Requests reach candidates and referees instantly. Automated follow-ups over 10 days. |
| Employment verification | Varies by employer | Several attempts over 3 business days. |
| Education verification | Varies by institution | Usually a few business days. 3 to 5 attempts, and we report the findings either way. |
| Credential verification, Canada | Varies by credential and location | 3 to 5 attempts to obtain source data. |
Education verification, employment verification and US criminal court searches carry pass-through access fees, published at credibled.com/pass-through-access-fees. They appear on the invoice after the fact.
Candidates from anywhere
Agencies in industrial, logistics, healthcare and hospitality place newcomers constantly, and this is where most screening providers get thin.
With turnaround and pricing published for each one
Most providers will not tell you what a check in a given country costs or how long it takes until you ask a salesperson. We publish it by country, so your recruiter can quote the client before the candidate has finished the form.
International background checks, by countryIdentity verification that does not need a Canadian credit file
Verification that leans on credit history fails for someone who arrived 8 months ago, because there is no file to build questions from. Credibled verifies the document itself with a liveness check. A recently issued permanent resident card works the same way as an Ontario driver's licence.
A candidate you cannot verify is a candidate you cannot place.
Every reference you run tells you who is hiring, and who would move
Every agency in Canada has access to the same candidates. The same job boards, the same profiles with an open to work banner. You compete on speed and on fee for the people already looking.
The larger group is everyone else. Employed, not looking, would move for the right thing. There is no search filter for that.
When a referee finishes a reference, Credibled asks two optional questions. Are you currently hiring, and are you open to hearing about opportunities. The answers come to you by email.
REFERENCE COMPLETE
Candidates your competitors cannot see
Passive, not on a board, not sourced, not advertised for.
Clients who are hiring right now
A manager at a company you may never have called, who already knows your name because your process just worked for them.
The timing is the part that matters
A referee has just written about someone who recently left their team. The hiring question lands while they are thinking about a gap. The opportunities question lands while they are thinking about someone who moved on.
You are running these checks anyway.
How Smart Referrals workDesigned around a staffing desk, not adapted to one
Most screening platforms are built for a corporate HR team hiring 40 people a year, then sold to agencies filling 40 roles a month. The workflow shows it.
Credibled was designed around how a staffing desk actually works. None of what follows is a feature list somebody assembled from a competitor's website. Each one exists because it was a recurring problem for agencies we work with.
Meet the people behind Credibled
When the agency is not the one paying
Sometimes the client will not cover screening and neither will you. The usual answer is telling the candidate to get their own police check, which sends them to a station, costs them more, and takes weeks. Meanwhile your placement sits.
MyCheck is Credibled's personal criminal record check. A candidate completes it online, with no appointment and no station visit, and shares the result with you.
Agencies can set up a partnership so their candidates are directed to MyCheck instead. Three-way win, and it is the difference between a candidate starting next week and a candidate starting next month.
Two recruiters, one candidate, one charge
Recruiters at the same agency compete for the same placements, because that is how commission works. They also share the same ATS and the same candidate pool. At a larger agency that means two desks regularly work the same person without knowing it.
Nobody notices until the invoice.
Credibled catches it at the point of request. If anyone at your agency has already run a check on this candidate in the last 30 days, you see it before anything is ordered. This covers every check type on the platform, not one of them: criminal record checks, identity verification, reference checks, education and employment verification, credit, driving records, and the rest.
Then you choose. Cancel, or proceed anyway if the second check is intentional.
The part that matters more than the money
Duplicate screening costs you twice, and at a large agency sometimes more than twice. That is the obvious problem.
The less obvious one is what it does to the candidate. They get a second request from the same agency for the same job, then sometimes a third. Upload your ID again. Give us your referees again. Consent to a criminal record check again. They have already done all of it.
From where they are sitting, the agency cannot keep track of its own process, and is repeatedly asking for government ID, referee contact details and consent to search their record. Every one of those is a moment where a candidate decides you are not worth the effort.
In a market where candidates ghost for far less, it is worth avoiding.
It also ends the internal confusion. Two recruiters find out they are working the same candidate at the moment it happens, rather than in a margin review three weeks later.
Reference checks priced the way agencies use them
Not per referee.
If your candidate lists 2 referees you pay $9. If they list 5, you pay $9.
Reminders go out automatically every 24 hours for up to 10 days, so nobody on your team is chasing a referee by hand.
More on reference checksThe finished report arrives as a PDF in your inbox
Already in the format you send to your client. Forward it and you are done without opening the platform.
Loud failure beats silent failure
A reference request sent to a mistyped address does not fail loudly. It just never arrives. Your candidate says they gave you the referee, the referee says they were never contacted, and you find out on day 4 when nothing has come back.
Credibled tells you within minutes when a request is undeliverable, and tells you why. You get the reason and the type of error returned, so you know whether it is a typo in the domain, a mailbox that no longer exists, or a server rejecting the message. That is the difference between fixing it in 2 minutes and losing half a week.
References you can actually rely on
Agencies place people they have never met, on behalf of clients who hold them responsible.
Credibled flags a reference when the candidate and referee submitted from the same IP address, when a reference arrives from a personal email rather than a work domain, or when both submissions came from the same device. The alert does not block anything. It surfaces the issue, you decide, and your decision is logged.
If a placement goes wrong and a client asks how the candidate was screened, the record shows what you saw and what you did about it.
Volume that moves the way your business does
Agency volume is seasonal, and screening contracts usually are not.
Pay per check. No subscription, no minimum, no annual commitment. A quiet February costs you nothing. A busy September is not a renegotiation.
Sign up with a work email and run your first check the same day. No sales call required.
A named account manager, at any volume
Every account gets a named person, at 5 checks a month or 500. Not a shared inbox, not a ticket queue, not an agent who has to read the thread before answering.
When a result comes back Incomplete on a Friday afternoon and your client is expecting a start Monday, that is the difference between a phone call and a support ticket.
Questions staffing and recruitment agencies ask
Speed and turnaround
How long does a background check take?
Why is a check taking longer than expected?
Can I get a criminal record check the same day?
How long does an enhanced criminal record check take?
What the checks cover
What checks do staffing agencies usually run?
Does a criminal record check show employment history?
How far back does a check go?
Can a check show that someone was fired?
Can you run a Vulnerable Sector Check?
Can you screen candidates who worked outside Canada?
Reference checks
Do I pay per reference or per candidate?
How long does a reference check take?
Who actually completes the reference?
How do I know a reference is genuine?
Can I choose the questions?
Can I send the reference report straight to my client?
Cost and commitment
How much does a background check cost?
Is there a minimum volume or a contract?
What happens if two of my recruiters check the same candidate?
Does duplicate detection work across all check types?
What happens if a referee email address is wrong?
What if my client will not pay for screening?
Getting started and working with candidates
Can I start today without talking to sales?
Who can see our candidate and client data?
Do I get a dedicated contact?
Can I run checks from my ATS?
How often should a candidate be re-screened?
What does the candidate have to do?
Built by an agency, for agencies.
Create an account with a work email and run your first check today. Pay per check, no subscription.