Background screening gives clients confidence in their hiring decisions by delivering the clearest, most complete picture possible. At UBS, we’ve built our reputation on going deeper than standard searches, combining cutting-edge technology with investigative curiosity and the speed today’s hiring timelines demand.
Why We Do This Work
At its core, background screening helps people land the right role. Every search we conduct provides clarity and facts. The goal: give clients the information they need to make confident decisions, fast.
The UBS Difference
UBS explores peripheral jurisdictions because revealing records show up in unexpected places. A candidate might have traveled somewhere for work, spent time in a vacation spot, or briefly lived in a place that never made it onto their resume. Those details matter.
Our suite of national criminal search products supports this expanded approach:
- USA CriminalSearch™ goes beyond traditional county searches by tapping into multi-state and departmental records. It uncovers convictions in places not directly tied to a candidate’s address history.
- USA CriminalSearch Plus™ layers in sex offender and national security/terrorism databases. It aggregates over 240 million records from more than 320 data sources, creating one of the most comprehensive multi-source criminal databases available to employers today.
- USA OffenderSearch™ checks sex offender registries across all 50 states and retains prior registration data (unless legally required to purge), giving clients a more continuous view over time.
Deep county and court research combined with these national products delivers both microscope precision and wide-angle coverage.
Getting It Right Every Time
Accuracy drives everything at UBS. Every record goes through rigorous quality assurance. Identity matching gets extra scrutiny, especially for common names. We reverify vendors, court documents, and clerk communications whenever needed.
Compliance is built into every step of our process. We align with federal and state regulations, including FCRA, and we stay on top of evolving rules around fair chance hiring (ban-the-box), record sealing, and expungements. UBS only reports pending cases when those matters are currently active at the court. We also monitor state initiatives like Clean Slate programs that automatically seal certain convictions under defined conditions.
Speed Meets Human Judgment
Speed matters. UBS integrates with ATS and HRIS systems, maintains HR-XML certification, and offers a client portal that tracks the real-time status of pending and completed searches. Automated scrapers, data feeds, and next-generation systems help us handle volume and deliver results quickly.
A seasoned investigator remains essential when records conflict, names match imperfectly, or context matters. Someone needs to reconcile anomalies, interpret ambiguous findings, and make the pieces fit.
The Puzzle-Solving Instinct
Here’s what makes our team special: they genuinely want to solve the puzzle. They need all the pieces to fit. Does this make sense? Did we check everywhere? What are we missing?
Call it nosiness, call it tenacity. Our investigators have this endearing quality where accepting “no results” feels personally unsatisfying. They’ll check the outlier county, trace an alias used just once, ask “why” when something seems off.
We hire for this trait specifically. Our team comes from diverse backgrounds: law enforcement, corrections, retail, military. They all share that puzzle-solving instinct, that need to make sure everything adds up. In a field where hidden records can be decisive, this quality becomes invaluable.
What We’re Seeing in the Industry
Rising Demand
Record requests are climbing, driven by remote work, multi-state mobility, and tighter compliance scrutiny. We’re investing in automation and machine learning pilots to meet volume pressures while maintaining quality.
Every Alias Matters
A single missed alias or minor name variant can hide a disqualifying record. UBS builds in alias and address tracing with tools like SSNsight™ to catch edge cases.
Going Global
Combining county, state, national, and international checks provides comprehensive coverage. UBS supports searches in over 200 countries for clients with diverse geographies.
Navigating Obstacles
Courts face staffing challenges. Some jurisdictions have started redacting public indices (like removing birth dates in certain counties). Privacy initiatives create friction and delay. We monitor these conditions closely and offer alternative search workflows when direct access gets suppressed.
The Bottom Line
UBS’s leadership in public records and background screening comes down to three things: thoroughness, speed, and that puzzle-solving instinct. By combining hyperlocal court-level depth with broad multi-jurisdictional national products delivered through integrated systems, we provide insights clients can trust when they need them.
Hidden records make all the difference. Having a team that genuinely needs to make sure all the pieces fit makes UBS different.
Ready to see how our national criminal products and investigative approach can strengthen your screening program? Contact us to learn more about USA CriminalSearch™, USA CriminalSearch Plus™, and our full suite of background screening solutions.
