The Customer

Red Badge Group is a proud New Zealand-owned business that has reimagined what security can mean since its founding in 1997. With a presence in eight major centres, the group offers four distinct services – Security Guarding, Alarm Monitoring, Patrol Response, and Event Security Services – all dedicated to delivering a world-class, locally responsive service. At the heart of their operation is a commitment to real people and genuine community impact, ensuring that every customer engagement is underpinned by expertise and a vibrant team culture.

The Challenge: Snail-paced paper checks for fluctuating hiring needs

As Red Badge Group evolved from a primarily event-focused security provider into a multifaceted security service leader, its recruitment processes had to switch pace. The company faced several challenges:

1. Manual, time-consuming processes: Traditional, paper-based recruitment – from reference checks to Ministry of Justice (MOJ) verifications – was labour intensive, causing delays of up to six weeks that affected time-to-hire and candidate experience.
2. High-volume, complex hiring: With over 500 full-time frontline staff, 50–60 managers, and around 2,500 casuals, managing recruitment for a diverse and fluctuating workforce required agility, reliability and speed.
3. Compliance in a dynamic industry: Security guards are considered vulnerable workers, meaning that any transition to a new client needs to be handled with care to ensure job security and regulatory compliance.

The Solution: Modernising the recruitment process so it’s fast, nimble and rock-solid

After recognising these challenges, Red Badge Group transformed its recruitment strategy by integrating Checkmate into its hiring processes. Key elements included:

• Automated reference and MOJ checks: Checkmate streamlined and standardised the collection of candidate information. This automation reduced manual follow-ups and ensured that critical compliance checks were completed swiftly and accurately.
• ATS integration: By embedding Checkmate into their Applicant Tracking System, the team could manage high volumes – upwards of 1,000 hires per year – with enhanced efficiency.
• Customised and flexible workflows: Checkmate’s flexibility allowed the recruitment team to tailor processes to both full-time and casual hires, combating rising rates of absenteeism in the casual workforce, while ensuring that every candidate’s journey was seamless and reflective of Red Badge’s high standards.

The Results: More time. More growth. Better hires.

The integration of Checkmate has helped Red Badge Group redefine its recruitment operations. The time saved from endless follow ups and manual processing has allowed the team to focus more on strategic hiring. Background checks are faster, more valuable and consistent as the automated process is adapted for varying hiring needs, whether that’s scaling up and down as the business grows, or improving the quality of information collected. 

The rapid turnaround on security vetting, particularly for new government and health sector contracts, has even provided a valuable commercial selling point for this innovative business.

“As security providers, we have an obligation to ensure that our people on the frontline have the tools, resources, and training to keep themselves and our customers' sites safe. Checkmate’s flexibility has helped us enhance compliance and improve the quality of information we collect and therefore, the quality of our hires.” Hayleigh Evett,  Head of People & Culture

The Future with Checkmate

Looking ahead, Red Badge Group is well-positioned to continue its growth trajectory, confident that its recruitment processes are as robust and forward-thinking as its service offerings. With Checkmate’s ongoing support, the company can further innovate its hiring strategy, ensuring that every new team member contributes to its vision of 'Redefining security services in Aotearoa by consistently delivering reliability and service excellence'.

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