As a leading molding and millwork manufacturer and supplier, the safety and the integrity of Woodgrain Millwork’s workforce is tantamount to their ongoing operations. Woodgrain Millwork’s main challenge is hiring, training, and retaining qualified individuals that are capable of working in often harsh manufacturing environments, while valuing and demonstrating safety, integrity, and respect for people in their work. High turnover rates (~40% per year) contribute to this challenge. To address this challenge, Woodgrain Millwork centralized their background screening policies with GoodHire, which improved workplace safety and hiring practices, and aligned their incoming employees with the values of the company and their local community.

Woodgrain Millwork identified the need for background screening after several safety and poor hiring decisions were determined to have been avoidable if they had performed appropriate background screens. Woodgrain Millwork has a team of 33 human resource professionals assisting with hiring across multiple locations.

Need to Centralize Background Screening Policy
The Woodgrain Millwork team had already begun to explore utilizing background screens, but usage was inconsistent and results were varied. The team agreed that they needed to formalize on a centralized background screening policy but also wanted to maintain local control and flexibility over how the screening platform was utilized. Some of the hiring professionals preferred to enter information for candidates, whereas others were focused on ensuring that candidates had easy mobile access to the screening process and results.

Background Screening & Providing Fair Chances
Woodgrain Millwork is also very sensitive to how they are perceived as an employer within their local communities and seeks to provide second chances to those seeking employment. The hiring teams wanted to be able to address the specific details of a candidate’s past to enable them to offer employment to as many candidates that aligned with the company values as possible. As a result, it was critical to Woodgrain Millwork to implement a screening policy that enables them to address these nuances.

Woodgrain Millwork chose GoodHire because they determined it to be the simplest, yet most comprehensive platform for them to centrally manage their background screening policies while also providing for the flexibility of their local human resources professionals and automated compliance with all local laws.

“Integrating the GoodHire platform into our hiring practices has led to a material reduction in workplace safety issues and a more highly qualified workforce that aligns with the values of the company,” says Chad P. Smith, VP of HR at Woodgrain Millwork.

The GoodHire Difference
According to Chad, GoodHire’s charter to provide the highest level of support for candidate communications and the nuances of second-chance hiring are truly differentiating. “GoodHire’s out-of-the box support for candidate communications, including the ability for candidates to provide additional context within the screening process, supports Woodgrain Millwork’s position of extending second chances to potential employees.”

Fast & Simple Implementation Supported By GoodHire’s 100% US-based Support Team
Woodgrain Millwork was able to quickly implement their desired screening policies according to industry best practices. GoodHire’s US-based customer success team helped Woodgrain Millwork with defining central HR policies and best practices for screening that are aligned with and support their key company values of safety, integrity, and respect for people.

“GoodHire’s team was instrumental in assisting us with centralizing our background screening policies, providing expert advice and best practices that have been invaluable to our team,” says Chad.

The GoodHire platform required minimal training and reference to user manuals, driving quick adoption and enabling their team of human resource professionals to utilize background screens effectively across 100% of candidates within only a matter of weeks. Centralizing their background screening policies with GoodHire has further enabled the team to streamline their hiring practices while helping to ensure they are in compliance with all laws and bringing consistency to their distributed operations.