Copyable APAC Background Screening RFP Template

The sections below can be copied into a procurement document and adapted to your organisation.

1. RFP overview

Issuing organisation: [Organisation name] RFP reference: [Reference number] Issue date: [Date] Deadline for clarification questions: [Date and time zone] Proposal deadline: [Date and time zone] Expected selection date: [Date] Target implementation date: [Date] Initial contract term: [Term] Optional extensions: [Details] Procurement contact: [Name or role and contact details]

1.1 Purpose

[Organisation name] invites qualified providers to submit a proposal for employment background-screening services across selected Asia-Pacific jurisdictions. The selected provider is expected to deliver accurate, timely, secure and candidate-appropriate screening services while supporting our internal policies and applicable legal and regulatory requirements.

1.2 Objectives

Our objectives are to:

• establish a consistent screening programme across APAC while accommodating local requirements;
• improve visibility over case status, turnaround time and exceptions;
• provide a clear and respectful candidate experience;
• protect personal data throughout the screening lifecycle;
• integrate screening with our recruitment processes and systems where required;
• obtain transparent and comparable pricing; and
• maintain appropriate governance, quality assurance and escalation arrangements.

1.3 Instructions to respondents

Respondents must:

• answer every requirement using the response format specified;
• distinguish currently available, available through a disclosed subcontractor, requiring development, and not available;
• identify all assumptions, dependencies, exclusions and country-specific limitations;
• avoid describing roadmap capabilities as currently operational;
• provide supporting evidence where requested; and
• keep pricing valid for at least [90/120/180] days.

Use the following response codes:

2. Organisation and programme profile

2.1 Hiring footprint and estimated volume

Volumes are estimates and do not represent a guaranteed commitment unless expressly stated in the final contract.

2.2 Role-based screening packages

Respondents should price and describe the following proposed packages. The final scope remains subject to applicable law, role relevance and [Organisation name]’s approved screening policy.

3. Vendor profile and experience

Provide:

• legal name, registered address, ownership structure and year established;
• APAC office locations and the services performed in each location;
• number of employees supporting background-screening operations in APAC;
• countries in which the respondent has its own operational capability;
• experience supporting regional or multinational screening programmes of comparable scale;
• experience in our industry and any relevant regulated sectors;
• three client references, subject to client permission;
• audited or otherwise supportable evidence of financial stability where requested;
• relevant licences, accreditations and certifications; and
• details of any material regulatory enforcement, security incident or litigation relevant to the proposed service during the past [three/five] years, together with remediation taken.

4. Country and service coverage

Complete one row for every proposed check in every required jurisdiction. Do not respond with a single list of countries. The response should address, where applicable:

• identity verification;
• employment verification;
• education verification;
• professional qualification and licence verification;
• criminal-record or police-certificate checks;
• civil litigation searches;
• bankruptcy and insolvency searches;
• credit checks;
• sanctions and watchlist screening;
• politically exposed person screening;
• regulatory and enforcement searches;
• directorship and company-interest searches;
• adverse-media screening;
• social-media screening;
• employment references;
• right-to-work or work-authorisation checks; and
• recurring or post-hire monitoring.

For every check, explain precisely what is searched and what is not. Where a database is used, identify the database owner, coverage, refresh frequency and material limitations. Where direct verification is used, identify the usual source—for example, the employer, institution, issuing authority or authorised repository.

5. Verification methodology and report quality

Describe:

• the standard verification workflow for each check type;
• how candidate identity is matched to the source record;
• the identifiers used and how partial or conflicting matches are handled;
• the number and cadence of verification attempts;
• when alternative sources or candidate documents may be used;
• how the report distinguishes verified facts, source statements, database matches, vendor analysis and inconclusive results;
• how discrepancies are classified;
• whether and how candidates can supply clarification or supporting evidence;
• the quality-control steps completed before a report is released;
• how translations and transliterations are managed;
• how common names, former names and local naming conventions are handled; and
• how source evidence and audit trails are retained.
• Respondents must not treat “no result found” as equivalent to “no record exists” unless the underlying source and methodology support that conclusion.

6. Legal, privacy and candidate rights

The respondent must describe its role and responsibilities under the data-protection framework applicable to each service and jurisdiction. The response must include:

• the legal entities processing or accessing candidate data;
• the purposes and categories of personal data processed;
• the proposed allocation of controller, joint-controller, processor or analogous responsibilities;
• the required candidate notices, consent or authorisation process;
• procedures for checks involving sensitive or specially regulated information;
• data-minimisation controls;
• data-access, correction, withdrawal, complaint and deletion workflows;
• restrictions on secondary use, sale, analytics and model training;
• retention periods by data category and jurisdiction;
• deletion methods and deletion certification;
• cross-border transfer locations and transfer mechanisms;
• government or law-enforcement request handling;
• privacy impact assessment support;
• breach-notification obligations and proposed contractual timescales; and
• a process for monitoring and communicating changes in relevant laws, sources or service availability.

The vendor must identify any jurisdiction in which a requested check is prohibited, restricted, dependent on the role, available only to the candidate, or subject to additional notice, consent, documentation or localisation requirements.

7. Information security

Provide the following information and supporting evidence: State whether candidate data is used to train any artificial-intelligence or machine-learning model. If AI is used in search, matching, translation, summarisation, classification or decision support, describe:

• the purpose of the system;
• the data inputs and outputs;
• the role of human review;
• testing for accuracy, bias and false matches;
• explainability and audit logging;
• whether client or candidate data is retained by the AI provider; and
• how [Organisation name] can disable the feature.

No automated tool should make the employer’s final hiring decision.

8. Subcontractors and supply chain

List every material subcontractor, affiliate, data provider and local screening partner expected to access data or perform a material part of the service. Describe:

• the criteria used to approve and monitor third parties;
• contractual privacy, security, confidentiality and deletion requirements;
• audit and assurance arrangements;
• controls over further subcontracting;
• the advance-notification or approval process for changes; and
• responsibility for third-party performance, errors and incidents.

9. Candidate experience and accessibility

Describe the candidate journey from invitation to completion, including:

• supported portal and support languages;
• mobile and desktop experience;
• accessibility conformance;
• estimated form-completion time;
• document-upload requirements;
• identity-verification and anti-fraud measures;
• save-and-resume capability;
• candidate status updates and reminders;
• support channels, locations and operating hours;
• expected response times;
• process for candidates without standard documents or digital access;
• dispute, correction and escalation process; and
• candidate satisfaction measurement.

Include screenshots or a sandbox demonstration that does not expose real candidate data.

10. Service levels and turnaround time

Provide country-and-check-specific turnaround times rather than one global average. For this RFP: Turnaround time (TAT) means the elapsed business time from receipt of all required, valid information and authorisation to delivery of the relevant completed result. Pending means a check remains open because the authoritative source, candidate or other necessary party has not yet provided required information. Unable to verify means the defined process has been completed but the available evidence is insufficient to verify the claim. Complete the table below: Also provide proposed service levels for: Explain measurement rules, exclusions, reporting frequency, root-cause review and proposed service credits or remediation for repeated failure.

11. Technology, integration and administration

Describe:

• recruiter and administrator portal capabilities;
• role-based permissions and single sign-on options;
• ATS and HRIS integrations currently supported;
• REST API, webhook and batch-file capabilities;
• integration documentation, authentication and versioning;
• sandbox and user-acceptance-testing environments;
• standard and custom implementation timescales;
• case status and result codes;
• configurable screening packages and approval workflows;
• bulk ordering and multi-entity administration;
• data export and contract-exit capabilities;
• audit logs;
• planned maintenance and release management; and
• support for data residency or regional hosting requirements.
• Identify all integration, configuration, professional-service and recurring support fees separately.

12. Reporting and programme governance

The proposed service should support operational and management reporting, including:

• order volume by country, business unit and package;
• completion and pending status;
• TAT by country and check type;
• SLA attainment;
• discrepancy and unable-to-verify rates;
• candidate support activity;
• complaints, corrections and confirmed errors;
• source and institutional delays;
• invoices and spend; and
• security, privacy and service incidents.

Describe the proposed governance model, including implementation governance, named service roles, escalation contacts, monthly operational reviews, quarterly business reviews, improvement plans and executive sponsorship.

13. Implementation and transition

Submit an implementation plan covering:

• discovery and requirements validation;
• screening-policy and package configuration;
• privacy and security review;
• contracting and subprocessor approval;
• integration design and testing;
• data migration, if any;
• administrator and recruiter training;
• candidate communication;
• pilot scope and acceptance criteria;
• cutover and hypercare;
• incumbent-vendor transition;
• open-case handling;
• rollback and contingency planning; and
• contract-exit assistance.

Provide a RACI matrix, resource assumptions, dependencies, major risks and an indicative timeline.

14. Pricing schedule

Prices must be submitted in [currency/currencies] and show taxes separately.

14.1 Transaction pricing

14.2 Non-transaction charges

Disclose:

• currency-conversion method and frequency;
• indexation or annual price-review mechanism;
• minimum charges and unused-volume treatment;
• duplicate-order, recheck and cancellation rules;
• source, institution, court, authority, translation, notarisation and courier fees;
• expedited-service charges;
• invoice format and billing frequency; and
• assumptions that could change the quoted price.

15. Contractual requirements

Identify any exception to the proposed contractual requirements, including:

• confidentiality;
• data-processing terms;
• security schedule;
• audit and assurance rights;
• subprocessor controls;
• incident and breach notification;
• compliance with applicable laws;
• warranties and service commitments;
• indemnities, liability and insurance;
• business continuity;
• record retention and deletion;
• intellectual property;
• change control;
• termination assistance;
• data return and secure deletion; and
• governing law and dispute resolution.

Respondents should submit proposed contractual amendments with their proposal rather than deferring all exceptions until final negotiations.

16. Demonstration scenarios

Shortlisted respondents may be asked to demonstrate the following using fictional data:

• a recruiter initiates a multi-country screening package;
• a candidate completes the process on a mobile device;
• an education institution does not respond within the expected time;
• a possible sanctions or adverse-media match requires human review;
• a candidate disputes an item and supplies new evidence;
• a client administrator reviews TAT and SLA performance;
• an urgent privacy or security incident is escalated; and
• case data is exported at contract end.

17. Proposal declaration

The respondent confirms that:

• the information in its proposal is accurate and not misleading;
• stated capabilities are available as of the proposal date unless clearly identified otherwise;
• all material subcontracting and assumptions have been disclosed;
• pricing is complete based on the stated assumptions; and
• the signatory is authorised to submit the proposal.

Recommended RFP Evaluation Scorecard

How eeCheck Can Support an APAC RFP

eeCheck provides employment background-screening services across Asia-Pacific, including multi-country programme support, country-specific verification workflows, candidate and client support, reporting and integration options. Organisations preparing an RFP may use this template to structure their requirements and invite eeCheck to respond using the same country-by-check, service-level, security and pricing matrices used for other bidders. You may also review eeCheck’s background screening provider considerations in Asia and Asia background screening executive briefing. Planning an APAC background-screening procurement? Contact eeCheck to discuss your hiring footprint, screening policy, expected volumes and implementation requirements.

About This Guide

Primary Reference Points

• Singapore Personal Data Protection Commission — PDPA Overview
• Singapore PDPC — Advisory Guidelines on the PDPA for Selected Topics
• Hong Kong PCPD — Guidance Notes for Human Resource Practitioners
• Hong Kong PCPD — Personal Data (Privacy) Ordinance
• Australia OAIC — Employee Records Exemption