Corporate Knowledge for Government Decisionmakers

The U.S. government's screening and vetting process seeks to ensure that those with access to classified or otherwise sensitive information, material, people, or property can be trusted. The authors of this report leverage interviews with human resources and security personnel in several corporate sectors (technology, pharmaceuticals, finance, and gaming) to derive insights for the U.S. government regarding potentially effective ways to screen and vet personnel and monitor personnel over time to decrease risk to U.S. national security and public trust. Corporations in the sample exhibited considerable diversity in screening, vetting, and monitoring practices, much of which was industry-specific and some of which was related to corporate size and stage of growth. For example, smaller and newer corporations preferred less-structured, more-flexible and informal screening and vetting processes, with any malfeasance handled on a case-by-case basis. Larger organizations in established, highly regulated industries, such as finance and pharmaceuticals, tended to have more-structured processes, owing to the constant need to follow federal and state regulations. Overall, few corporations in the sample used artificial intelligence and machine learning automated-analysis approaches for prehire screening, vetting, or employee monitoring, and those that did indicated that extensive human management of these systems was necessary. Creative solutions to employee monitoring included the development of human intelligence networks and intelligence fusion capabilities.