25th July 2022 : SP Index sees significant growth as more and more organisations add Social Media Checks to their staff background checking process.

 SP Index, founded in 2010 is the UK market leading specialist in pre-employment background Social Media Checks, providing essential information to employers, to help them complete the picture of how suitable a new hire might be for their organisation. Household names across all business sectors are now carrying out these checks to ensure that they manage reputational risk, including potential damage to their brand as well as the potential costs in having to re-hire staff which might have proved unsuitable.

With major brands and government departments now adopting the checks from SP Index, and with the general onboarding of new clients tripling over the last 12 months, the company has been compelled to significantly increase their own workforce to cope with demand. Additional growth has come from the company itself and their partners in the vetting industry widening their reach to EMEA and APAC. Martin Hardy FCMA, founder and Executive Director commented:

“It’s been a challenge to meet such intense growth, but nevertheless we’ve continued to meet all our published turnaround levels of 1–2 business days. It’s an exciting development within the background checking industry and we predict further rapid growth for the years ahead as we support employers to rationalise the available online intelligence in a compliant, fair and proportionate way which helps build up trust with candidates from the outset.”

Since its inception more than 10 years ago, SP Index has had to successfully fight against opinion, particularly regarding the compliance, legality, and admissibility of these checks. Over time, attitudes have changed, and these considerations have now, largely, been answered with the help of significant support from institutions such as the Department for Education (DfE) who in their latest guidance say that schools and college should “consider” the use of “online checks” as part of their recruitment procedures. Elsewhere the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) is currently working on guidance which will include reference to Social Media checks. Added to the sheer volume of checks carried out every day on behalf of huge multinationals, and smaller niche organisations, the case is now clear.

SP Index prides itself in producing objective, fair and compliant reports for its clients, based on careful and methodical research of publicly available information. They rely heavily on technology to support the process, but there’s no substitute for human involvement:

“Our online research specialists are the core of our business, without their outstanding skills and understanding of the online space, backed by our advanced proprietary software and systems, we wouldn’t be able to create the meticulous client reports that we do. We give our customers exactly the information that they need; no more and no less. We keep our clients safe!” continues Martin Hardy.

SP Index continually develops its offering, ensuring it has a product to match every requirement. The future looks bright in this niche area of employment vetting as the market demand continues to grow rapidly and as more and more employers turn to this vital check. As the online landscape is continually evolving, so SP Index changes, develops and enhances its checks, to ensure that they stay relevant and include all the latest apps in their searches.