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By Tim Metzner, Coterie Insurance Co-Founder, Chief Strategy & Growth Officer
Vetting your workforce is complicated–but it doesn’t have to be. We spoke with industry expert Tony Hayden from our partner HOMEE about how he has created a fully vetted and verified insured marketplace–without overly slowing down their contractor onboarding process.
What’s the main case for doing screening and vetting? It all comes down to trust, safety, and accountability. Keep in mind, the process is put in place to establish consistency and reliability–which reduce risk, and keep all parties (consumers, providers, and the marketplace company) protected.
Remember, also, that the workforce vetting process is up to you–so keep track of your own company goals and make a plan that works for your unique situation. A great place to start is by defining your main goals so that you can stick to your guidelines.
Read on to see how Tony and his team at HOMEE think about the vetting process, and be sure to check out our webinar recording to learn more.
1) Multi-phased Vetting
Phase 1: Trust
Knock Out questions
Qualifying questions and internal scoring
First, you need to determine the basic requirements of the provider. What is needed to do the job? For example, HOMEE’s Knock Out questions are things like having a smartphone, access to a truck/van, and owning their own tools. If an individual passes these, you might consider a more robust set of questions along with an internal scoring system to rank each potential provider in a consistent way.
Phase 2: Verify Phase A
Ranking and phone interview
Combining both human vetting and technology-powered vetting ensures we’re as thorough as possible. At HOMEE, once a candidate enters Phase 2, a team member references their internal ranking number and has a phone call with them. This further solidifies the provider with a direct human connection where each party can ask questions. It also gives us an opportunity to not just rank them on hard skills, but also soft skills like communication, customer service, etc.
Phase 3: Verify Phase B
Identity verification
Criminal background check
Trade license verification
Insurance verification
After identity verification, background checks, and trade license verifications, it’s important to make sure workers have the appropriate insurance protection. Oftentimes, solo contractors don’t spend a lot of time thinking about insurance. Making it as easy as possible to understand what is required or recommended, and having a simple, fast policy purchase experience ensures the safety of all parties. Coterie works with HOMEE to do both insurance verification as a service (for those already insured) and, for those not insured, offers an integrated short-duration insurance option so a provider can simply add insurance to the job they are about to take.
2) Progressive Onboarding
Registration
Background check
Functional app training
Job preparedness
Once a candidate enters into the registration process, there might be nuances to your business that require training. For example, HOMEE’s app offers functionality videos, which pros can watch and earn badges. It’s basically education on-demand to prepare their providers for their first jobs.
3) Continuous Monitoring
Continuous background check and monitoring
Star review process
Inactivity
Annual certificate of insurance (COI) verification
Continuous monitoring is the last step of the vetting and screening phase–but it’s a last step with no end. To keep your information up to date, you can implement ongoing background checks on a regular cadence, apply a star review policy with a threshold, or monitor for inactivity for those that may have stopped work. It is also important to make sure those insurance policies don’t lapse so that the provider is always covered. Keep in mind, it’s important that both consumers and providers are protected–in addition to mitigating our own risk.
Curious to learn more about vetting and screening your workforce? Watch the recorded webinar:
About Coterie
Coterie is on a mission to make business insurance easy. By integrating insurance into the tools they already use, Coterie protects businesses with just a click. Its API-based approach to business insurance allows for data-driven automation that provides accurate coverage without the hassle. Coterie is based in Cincinnati, Ohio, and is available in most of the U.S. Learn more about integrating Coterie with your platform: coterieinsurance.com.