Zellis partners with social media background checking specialist Neotas

4 May 2022, LONDON – Zellis, the UK and Ireland’s leading provider of payroll and HR solutions, today announces a partnership with the social media and internet background checking specialist, Neotas. The partnership will allow Zellis’ customers to quickly screen candidates’ social media and online presence, whilst eliminating unconscious bias in the process by using a trusted third-party application. 

Research shows that 70% of UK employers routinely perform social media checks on job applicants. If employers perform these checks in-house, they could leave themselves open to claims of discriminatory or unconscious bias. Using an accredited provider like Neotas ensures that the checks are GDPR compliant, that protected characteristics remain protected, and that only data associated to role-related risks are reviewed.  

Neotas have developed an advanced AI-powered platform that rapidly analyses data from over 300 social media platforms in 190 languages. The checks highlight clear risk indicators in a range of categories, including abusive or discriminatory language, violence, or undisclosed criminal behaviour. The technology also highlights positive indicators such as charitable work and/or volunteering, to give recruiters a holistic view of the applicant.  

Ian Howard, Co-Founder of Neotas, said: “The wrong hire can prove damaging to an organisation’s company culture and reputation, as well as being a costly mistake. By partnering with Zellis, we are excited to work with a very well-established firm that recognises the power of social media searches in preventing the hiring of damaging or dangerous individuals. Our checks are powered by leading-edge technology, making them highly accurate and cost effective. Through this partnership, we are now able to help new clients mitigate risk more effectively; helping us in our mission to make social media background searches more widely used and not just a ‘nice to have’.”  

John Petter, CEO, Zellis, adds “The popularity of social media background checks has risen exponentially over the past few years; it’s vital that these checks are being conducted accurately and without bias. Our partnership with Neotas is just one more way Zellis is continuing to provide its customers with the technologies they need to meet the evolving needs of modern business. We’re thrilled to be partnering with Neotas, and to introduce our customers to a faster, more efficient feature for their background checks.”  

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About Zellis  

Zellis is the largest provider of payroll and HR software, and Managed Services, to UK and Ireland-based companies with over 1,000 employees. With over 50 years’ experience and over 2,500 employees, we count a third of the FTSE 100 as customers and pay over five million employees a year. We are also the people behind ResourceLink, now part of Zellis HCM Cloud, which won the Chartered Institute of Payroll Professional’s (CIPP) Payroll Software of the Year Award for 2020 and 2021.   

About Neotas 

Neotas is an enhanced due diligence company that has built a suite of products specifically designed for use in background screening, including social media checks, adverse Internet checks, and more. Their GDPR compliant social media checks are supercharged by leading edge technology, providing hiring managers and recruitment personnel with hyper accurate results at speed. Neotas help companies paint a complete picture of the people they’re hiring, to help protect their reputation, mitigate risk and avoid the cost of a bad hire.