HR-XML's background check ("screening") specifications are an interesting case study in standards adoption. The screening schemas are the largest and arguably the most complex within HR-XML's 2.* series of releases, but they also are among the most widely adopted. Why? This has a lot to do with market need and timing. You can trace the development of HR-XML’s Background Check specification back to discussions that began in 2001. It was a good bet that such integration would take off. Integration provided employers with time savings, policy compliance control, and convenience. For screening service providers, integration meant new distribution channels for their services. For the applicant tracking systems (ATSs) in the middle, integration capabilities became a competitive differentiator, and later as the market matured, a required capability. In 2001, you could see that demand for integrated screening services would take off (even before the tragic events of 9/11). However, consider that when we began to develop the screening standards, there was not yet a lot of industry experience to inform design decisions.

Over the years, integration patterns within the screening industry have emerged. Within the forthcoming 3.0 library, we've taken into account some of the common usage patterns. The 3.0 library also offers a much more flexible, configurable component library for "what comes next."

If you take a look at the Version 3.0 screening drafts, you can see that we reference three basic implementation patterns: