The 2026 Background Screening Buyer Report

In May of 2026, Bchex surveyed over 150 US companies. The survey was fielded to understand how HR and hiring leaders relate to their safety and background screening providers — what they say they expect, what they actually pay for, and what keeps those relationships in place when they aren't working.
What we found is this - 3 in 5 US companies are unhappy with their current screening vendor. AND - most of them feel stuck in that relationship.
Most of the time dissatisfaction would lead to churn and new contracts - but when it comes to background screening, dissatisfaction actually produces tenure.
Long relationships in background screening, on the whole, are not evidence of earned trust - They are evidence of structure.
Cost, transition effort, internal approval, and mostly the quiet fear that a new provider won't deliver either - all lead to this: Only five percent of HR leaders told us nothing is stopping them from switching. The other ninety-five percent… feel stuck.
That is the contradiction the report takes apart. How a category can look stable from the outside — tenured customers, low churn, predictable retention — while the buyers inside it describe relationships they would not have chosen again.
The 2026 Background Screening Buyer Report unpacks why.
What HR leaders actually decide on when they do choose a provider — and why, surprisingly, PRICE actually ranks seventh out of eight..
What sales teams promised companies versus what got delivered, and how often that gap follows the buyer into the next evaluation.
The full report is available now at no cost.
Download The 2026 Background Screening Buyer Report now.