Last week, we shared  that this was on the way. Now it’s live.

Zinc now gives candidates clearer guidance through gaps in their timeline, so you get a fuller, more consistent view of their history upfront.

What's new

• Structured gap categories: Candidates can now explain gaps by selecting from education, seeking work, travelling, or other.
• Academic references for time in education: If a candidate was in education during the required period, we’ll automatically ask them to provide an academic reference. Referees will be asked to complete a academic reference.
• More context for other gaps: candidates are required to add a short explanation and have the option to upload supporting documents.
• Character references applied automatically
  If character references are included in your package, candidates will also be asked to provide a non-employment period. If you previously enabled “accept character references” for regulatory references, this will now apply automatically.

Why it matters

You’ll get a clearer picture of a candidate’s timeline up front, which can help reduce follow-up and make decisions faster.

Read more about it here and please do not hesitate to reach out with questions or feedback.

Planned Maintenance Notice – Temporary Service Disruption

We’d like to inform you of a scheduled maintenance window that will temporarily affect some of our checks.

On 5th April, between 09:00 and 17:00 Central European Time (CET), international criminal, education, and directorship checks will be unavailable due to essential system maintenance. All England & Wales checks will remain operational.

During this time:

• You will still be able to request checks as normal.
• Candidates will not be able to submit their information for these checks.

All other services will continue to operate as normal, and full functionality will resume immediately after the maintenance window.

We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause and appreciate your understanding as we carry out improvements to maintain the quality and reliability of our platform.

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to reply to this email.

Warm regards,

Zinc Product Team

Welcome to the March edition of our monthly product updates!

We hope you're getting ready for your Easter break. Just before you go, here’s a quick recap of what we worked hard to deliver last month 🙌

Customisable Digital Self Certification Forms

Self-certification forms are now fully customisable. Collect the information you need during pre-employment, including SM&CR details, Fitness and Propriety, or any other information you need to make onboarding smoother for candidates.

Learn more about customisable self-certifications here.

Coming up: Academic references and structured non-employment periods

Zinc will now guide candidates to explain any gaps in their timeline as they complete their reference check. They’ll choose from structured options: education, seeking work, travelling, or other.

If a candidate was in education during the required period, we'll ask them to submit an academic reference automatically.

Find out more about the upcoming release here.

Other improvements we made in March

• Following the release of free quarterly Update Service re-checks, we have made it easy to enrol existing employees in the automatic quarterly recheck cycle.
• Run credit checks for candidates based in the United States. This check uses data from Equifax and must be enabled by your Zinc account manager.
• We’ve made it easier for candidates to enter their country of employment and citizenship details. Clearer guidance reduces mistakes and helps prevent delays, keeping the journey quick and seamless.
• Set reference requirements by duration and quantity, not just one or the other. This gives you more control over what you need from candidates and cuts down on time spent going back and forth to collect your true requirements.
• CV Checks are now available through our SmartRecruiters integration.
• Our HRIS partners can now use the new GET /partner/v2/search endpoint enabling them to search candidates (by email or request ID) and retrieve complete background check results in a single call, without needing to trigger or manage checks.

Zinc Product Team 🌸

This is a pre-release notification that from Wednesday 8th of April, you’ll have a clearer way to understand candidate history through references, without extra follow-ups. Find detailed information about this release here. 

What you need to know

Zinc will now guide candidates to explain any gaps in their timeline as they complete their reference check.

They’ll choose from structured options: education, seeking work, travelling, or other.

If a candidate was in education during the required period, we'll ask them to submit an academic reference automatically.

You can view the questions they’ll be asked.

What’s new

Clearer gap explanations from candidates
Candidates will now select a category for any gaps in their timeline, making it easier to understand their history without chasing additional details.

Academic references, built for education periods
If a candidate was studying, they’ll submit a tailored academic reference instead of trying to fit this into an employment reference,  improving completion and relevance.

More context, where you need it
For other gaps, candidates can:

• Add a short explanation, and
• Upload supporting documents (optional)

If enabled in your package, candidates may also be asked to provide a character reference for these periods. If you previously enabled ‘accept character references’ for regulatory references, this will now be applied automatically.

The Impact

Providing you a clearer candidate story upfront means you have fewer follow-ups, but more intel to make faster decisions.

Please don't hesitate to reach out if you have any questions or feedback, have a lovely day!

Platform

Hello!

From 24 March 2026, new users will set up two-factor authentication (2FA) when creating a Zinc account. This adds an extra layer of security and helps keep your data and your candidates’ data safe.

What you need to know

• New users: Anyone signing up from 24 March must set up 2FA during registration
• Existing users: No change for now — we’ll share a rollout plan soon
• Login methods: 2FA applies to all standard logins (email and password, Google, LinkedIn)
• SSO users: No change if you use Okta, Google Workspace, or Azure AD

What’s new

We’ve designed 2FA to balance security with a smooth experience:

• Recruiters and customers: Choose an authenticator app or SMS
• Candidates: SMS
• Flexible recovery: Clear options if something goes wrong

Common issues, solved:

• Didn’t get a code? Use Resend
• Entered the wrong number? Select Edit and update it (check the country code)
• Lost access to your device? Contact Support — we’ll verify your details and help you regain access

You can find more detailed guidance in our new help centre articles below.

Learn more

Warm regards,

Self-certification forms are now fully customisable. Collect the information you need during pre-employment, including SM&CR details, Fitness and Propriety, or any other information you need to make onboarding smoother for candidates.

Whats new

• When you add a self-certification check to a package, you can now choose Create your own form in the package editor.
• Start from a pre-built template or create your own form.
• Choose from these question types: yes/no, multiple choice, free text, and scale(1-5).
• Set which response will mark the check as clear.
• Review candidate’s answers in the candidate report, just as you do today.

What you need to know

• If you’re using SMCR self-certification form previously, we’ll automatically move you to a customisable questionnaire with the same question set.
• There’s nothing you need to do. You can jump in and tailor the questions whenever you like.
• If you want to utilise one of the new templates, you can simply edit your package and update your questions to the latest version.

You can now run credit checks for candidates based in the United States. This check uses data from Equifax and must be enabled by your Zinc account manager.

What you need to know

• This feature is opt-in. Nothing will change unless you ask your account manager to enable it.

• Before enabling the check, we’ll confirm that:

  • You’re hiring candidates with a current address in the U.S.
  • You have a legitimate business reason for running credit checks (for example, financial responsibility roles or due diligence requirements)

If either of these conditions isn’t met, the check won’t be enabled.

What’s new

Once enabled, the US credit check includes data from the Equifax Credit Bureau, with nationwide record verification for citizens and lawfully residing foreign nationals aged 17/18+ with credit activity.

Results may include:

• Insolvency and bankruptcy records - provides a comprehensive view of financial distress, including insolvency filings, bankruptcy registers, debt-related legal actions, and relevant court or official gazette records. (coverage up to 10 years, depending on bankruptcy type)
• Bad payment history – Provides a comprehensive consumer credit assessment, identifying adverse payment behaviour across banks, utilities, telecoms, landlords, collection agencies, retailers, and credit card providers, where legally permissible. Results include current financial status, payment defaults, credit accounts, loans and credit cards. (coverage up to 7 years)

The check leaves a soft footprint, meaning it does not affect the candidate’s credit score or creditworthiness.

We’ve made it easier for candidates to enter their country of employment and citizenship details. Clearer guidance reduces mistakes and helps prevent delays, keeping the journey quick and seamless.

What's new

• There’s now clearer guidance on what we mean by citizenship, so candidates can make the right selection.
• Candidates now see a short summary of their right to work details before they continue, so they can spot and fix errors early, without delaying the check

You can now set reference requirements by duration and quantity, not just one or the other. This gives you more control over what you need from candidates and cuts down on time spent going back and forth to collect your true requirements.

What’s new

Until now, reference checks supported either:

• A number of references (for example, three references), or
• A time period (for example, five years of references)

These options were mutually exclusive. You can now choose what works best for your hiring needs with combined AND logic. Even if one reference covers the full five years, candidates will still need to add another reference.

This flexibility is available across all reference types and is configured directly in the package builder.

How this impacts candidates

Candidates are guided clearly through what’s required:

• If the quantity isn’t met → they’ll be prompted to add character references (if enabled).
• If the duration isn’t met → they’ll be prompted to add gap verification.
• If neither is met → they’ll be prompted to add both until all requirements are fulfilled.

This helps candidates understand what’s missing, while reducing manual follow-ups from recruiters.

Wanting to set up a combined criteria? Find out more here

We’ve been listening, and January reflects that. Welcome to the January edition of our monthly product updates, a quick way to keep you in the loop on what we’ve been working on for the last month. Here’s what’s new:

Automated update service rechecks - Truly free

When you head to the Insights tab, you’ll land on Analytics, where you’ll see a snapshot of your key product performance metrics.

Overview

The Overview dashboard gives you a high-level view of activity across your account:

• Requests over time helps you spot hiring peaks and troughs, making it easier to plan capacity.

• Packages used shows how different packages are being used, so you can see which locations are hiring most, or which role types are driving demand.

Package performance

The Package Performance section helps you dig a little deeper:

• The map view shows where checks are being carried out, often reflecting where candidates have previously lived or worked.
• Completion rates highlight the percentage of requests that have been completed. If this looks lower than expected, it may be due to a recent surge in requests, or checks that weren’t cancelled for candidates who didn’t proceed.

Engagement

The Engagement dashboard focuses on the candidate journey:

• Time to start shows how quickly candidates begin their checks after receiving an invitation. If this is longer than expected, it can help to set clear expectations during the recruitment process — for example, asking candidates to start within two days.
• Candidate Experience Score reflects how candidates felt about completing their checks. If anything looks concerning, we’d always love to hear your candidates’ feedback so we can continue improving the experience.

There’s even more to explore across the Analytics dashboards, but these core metrics can already help you build scalable, global background checking processes — while delivering a great experience for your candidates. 🙌

As always, if you’d like help interpreting your data or digging deeper, your Zinc team is here to help.