eVerifile
Mitigating Contractor and Workforce Risks

Over the last decade, the utilities sector has grown by leaps and bounds, outperforming most other sectors. To support the increased pace, utilities are turning to contracted employees to meet the growing demand for skilled labor. While the use of contracting companies may seem like a one-stop solution for workforce requirements, it is not without its downsides. There are common challenges of training and testing the contracted employees on safety and security practices while also having the means of tracking site and system access activity. Additionally, the utility company also has to ensure that the contracting firm and its employees are genuine; the employer, therefore, needs to verify vendor credentials and perform background screening. All these requirements are met by one firm—eVerifile, a utility management solution provider, and its CEO, Brian Hullinger, explains to CIO Applications how they counter the credentialing and compliance challenges in the utilities industry by securing the contractor verification holistically using their solutions.

What are the challenges in the utility sector? How do eVerifile’s solutions help clients perform better against those tides?

In today’s marketspace, several utilities solution providers are offering background screening for contracted employees. However, the lack of consistency and a low degree of standardization makes their work less reliable, since the contractor firm handles most of the credentialing at one shot, rather than making it an ongoing process. In parallel, employers are also witnessing a steady growth in fraud, where the person attending the interview is not the same as the person employed. This challenge is jarring when the contracted employees work for their employers at off-shore locations or in virtual capacities.

We, at eVerifile, provide a registration portal and database after performing a background screen and criminal check and thereby allowing clients to track the contracting company and its employees. Also, we make it possible for the utilities to engage with their contractors via our mobile application that gives the firms insight about their location credential status (i.e., have they trained and tested on the appropriate worksite safety practices for a particular location). We are not only safeguarding the company’s resources by hiring the appropriate people but also providing an onboarding experience that enhances the safety and security for all those involved—the contractors, employees, customers, and the environment in which they work.

This offering proves to be critical in the utilities sector, owing to the level of damages that can be caused by one person’s negligence. As a means to reduce the fraud among contractors working remotely, our technology allows employers to validate credentials through a live identification test, using a video screen where the employee’s face is matched with a government-issued ID.

What approach does eVerifile take to help a client mitigate its shortcomings?

When a client approaches eVerifile, our team takes a research-oriented approach to understand their safety protocols, standards for background screening, previous issues, and internal shortcomings that they want to solve. Based on this assessment, we gain a ground-level understanding of the client’s existing program and their immediate challenges that need attention. In addition, we also look at the overall safety and security initiative of our clients to ensure a safe working environment for their contracted employees, while helping our client stay compliant with regulations set by North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC). To support better operational safety and security, we work closely with our clients’ legal, risk and compliance departments to ensure that the operations are compliant with federal and state regulations.

Can you share a case study to illustrate how your solutions help your clients overcome challenges while recruiting contract employees?

Similar to the challenges that Utility companies face with large numbers of contracted workers, we manage a large contractor program servicing the Rail Road industry. eVerifile tracks over 150,000 contract personnel across the country to ensure that each individual is properly screened and tested prior to obtaining permission for worksite and systems access. This assists the contractors’ employers with remaining compliant with regulations from the Department of Transportation and Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) pertaining to critical infrastructure protection and worksite safety. In addition to the ongoing training and screening benefits, the client now has a single database to track thousands of contract personnel and a tool to instantly confirm an individual’s credentials during site and safety audits. In the event of an injuries claim, eVerifile’s solution also provides an auditable record of the information confirming the individual was trained and tested.

How has the journey been so far for eVerifile? What are the plans on the roadmap?

Over the years, the firm has focused on the utilities and transportation sector, with an annual growth rate of 25 percent. With a surge in demand for contracted labor, the need for a more robust means of vetting, training and engaging contractors is expected to see rising demand in those industries. eVerifile’s success can be credited to our ability to provide an end-to-end solution while registering contracting companies, employees and verifying them.

As we step into the future, eVerifile aims to enhance the use of the mobile application with the use of geofencing, which will help track a mobile device and badge and support virtual check-in for personnel.