Background Check

Companies are always looking for good people, even in a recession.

Just ask Brandon Phillips, president and CEO of Global HR Research in Bonita Springs. While he doesn't disclose sales, Phillips says his company has doubled revenues annually over the last three years.

Global HR, which provides background screening of job candidates for large corporations, has grown rapidly since Phillips started the company six years ago in a 185-square-foot office with an intern and three computers.

The company is now seeking 30,000 square feet of space in Lee County for room for 140 to 180 employees over the next three to five years. It has about 25 today. “We've got over 1,000 clients right now,” Phillips says.

For example, Global HR provides screening for companies such as Health Management Associates, a Naples-based operator of 70 hospitals, and Capital Bank, which acquired Naples-based TIB Bank and has 2,800 employees.

Global HR's business rose to prominence when Austin Shanfelter acquired a majority stake in the company and became chairman. Shanfelter, a Fort Myers resident, is the retired CEO of Miami-based contracting giant Mas Tec.

One of the advantages that Global HR has is that it can provide a range of services, while rivals only handle certain tasks and farm out the others. For example, Global HR can provide drug screening, psychological assessments and online job-application processes. “We process 750,000 background checks a year,” Phillips says.

Global HR also provides an employee-monitoring system. For example, in certain jurisdictions, an employer will be alerted of an employee's criminal act such as a DUI within 15 minutes of his arrest.

HRO Today, one of the leading industry publications, ranked Global HR as one of the leading background screening and assessment companies in the U.S. in the last two years. Phillips says that publicity helped the company land new clients as prospective companies request it to bid. “We added 38 new clients last month,” Phillips says.

For the drug tests, Phillips partnered with LabCorp and Quest. “We're processing about 100,000 drug tests a year,” he says.

While Global HR has focused mostly on large corporations, the company is partnering with HR Diagnostics to form a new company that will provide job-candidate background checks to small- to medium-sized businesses. HR Diagnostics is a German firm based in Stuttgart that designed the sophisticated software that Global HR uses to perform background checks.

HR Diagnostics is seeking ways to expand outside of Germany, in part because it has a lock on the market there. “Two-thirds of the German DAX companies use HR Diagnostics,” says Phillips. (The German DAX index is a leading stock benchmark like the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index in the U.S.)

When the new company launches in a few months, small businesses will be able to purchase credits using an online shopping cart to buy job-candidate assessments they can use as needed. These assessments will cost from $45 to $150 each, depending on volume, and the company will provide a guide to business owners about how to use the test results in the interview process.

To reach small and medium-sized businesses, Phillips says Global HR is partnering with industry trade groups such as the National Beer Wholesalers Association to offer the service to its members. Phillips says he's also planning to advertise using pay-per-click online marketing and design the website so it is listed first on search engines.

Although the main thrust of the company's employee growth will be in Lee County, Phillips says Global HR plans to open offices around the country to be closer to customers. The company currently has an office in Harrisburg, Pa., and plans to open another one this year in Minneapolis. “The goal is to have four or five by the next 18 months,” says Phillips.