OTTAWA — Canada Post has jumped on board with one of the country's leading pre-employment screeners to speed up the process of getting a stamp of approval from police before hopeful prospects take a new job.

A new partnership between Canada Post and BackCheck makes it easier and faster for job hunters to receive background checks.

Applicants through BackCheck will be able to receive ID verification at participating post office outlets instead of arranging a meeting at another — possibly more inconvenient — location in order to expedite the process. ID verification is one step needed to complete a criminal record check, which is required by many employers when hiring new staff.

To use the service, applicants must register with BackCheck through the company's website (www.mybackcheck.com) and then print material from the site to take to the post office for verification.

A Canada Post employee can then verify the applicant's signature and complete the application to BackCheck, which then completes the background checks and screening through police sources for more than 5,000 companies around the world.

The service, which is free to applicants, is available in about 5,000 Canada Post locations, said John Reis, the Crown corporation's director of retail business.

He said it makes sense to have the service available through postal outlets because of the broad reach it has in every province and territory because of new point-of-sale terminals installed at most of its outlets in recent years.

"(It's available) from rural to urban (areas), but it probably wouldn't be offered in remote areas . . . where we don't have high-speed connectivity to our (transaction devices)," Reis said.

"They go to the BackCheck site, they print the forms off and come in and we finish the process. We scan the ID . . . and forward that back to BackCheck who then in turn move that over to (police). We use a secure email link and we only send it back to (BackCheck)."

The arrangement between the two groups started last summer during testing in a "soft launch," but Reis said "the business has been building ever since. We're starting to get more critical mass now. It's been good."