Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield: Background Screening with Security Watchdog

The client

Organisations operating at global scale face increasing pressure to ensure workforce compliance, robust background screening and efficient onboarding. This case study explores how Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield partnered with Security Watchdog to modernise its background screening processes, integrate with existing HR systems and support international hiring while improving speed, efficiency and confidence in hiring decisions.

URW are Europe’s largest commercial real estate company, operating premium shopping centres in major metropolitan areas and thriving urban hubs globally. Their extensive portfolio includes 41 centres under the iconic Westfield brand. With 900 million customers every year, URW’s assets create lasting economic opportunity and social connection across the communities where they operate.

Faced with year-on-year price increases, a screening system that couldn’t integrate with workflows or operate beyond UK borders, and technology that had fallen behind modern standards, Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield (URW) recognised an opportunity to transform their entire approach to screening. This led to a partnership with Security Watchdog focused on modernising background screening, delivering the cost-effectiveness, flexibility, and modern capabilities needed to support URW’s expansion across markets.

Since April 2025, Security Watchdog has been supporting URW to streamline their screening operations, delivering genuine value and providing a foundation for growth. Security Watchdog’s combination of smart automation and specialist human oversight ensures a standardised background screening approach, maintains compliance, and gives URW confidence that all individuals joining the company meet the required standards.

The challenge

Background Screening at Scale in a Complex Organisation

• Financial pressures
  URW were facing year-on-year price increases, eroding their budget sustainability and leading to a financially unviable partnership with their previous provider.
• Operational inefficiency
  Because the former screening solution didn’t integrate with URW’s existing system, the technology was incompatible with daily working patterns. This meant manual workarounds were required, slowing team productivity.
• Geographic limitations
  UK-only functionality was restricting international operations. URW were forced to engage multiple suppliers to cover different markets, adding complexity and cost to manage fragmented solutions.
• Technology constraints
  Outdated systems were failing to meet evolving business requirements. With a lack of modern capabilities and features, the technology gap was widening as organisational needs advanced.
• Strategic misalignment
  URW’s previous solution no longer aligned with their growth trajectory. The inflexible system was unable to scale with expanding operations, causing barriers to cross-border business development.

Our solution

Smart Background Screening with Security Watchdog

Delivering Faster, Safer Hiring Decisions

Following a structured tender process, Matrix Security Watchdog was selected from a shortlist of three suppliers, having demonstrated the strongest capability for modernising background screening in line with URW’s growing needs:

• Modern, intuitive user experience
  Security Watchdog’s contemporary interface and accessible system has accelerated team adoption and reduced training time whilst offering an enhanced candidate experience.
• Easy integration
  Security Watchdog’s solution has embedded seamlessly with URW’s Workday iteration, eliminating workflow disruption and maintaining operational continuity.
• Cross-border and International capability
  A single solution now supports numerous markets, reducing the need for multiple suppliers and fragmented systems. This gives URW confidence to scale globally without technological barriers.
• Strategic alignment for growth
  The technology is built to evolve alongside business expansion, making Security Watchdog a partner that is positioned to enable long-term ambitions, as well as solve immediate challenges.

The results

Faster Hiring, Stronger Compliance and Workforce Confidence

• Enhanced efficiency
  The modern, intuitive interface has accelerated pre-employment screening workflows, enabling faster completion times and reducing the learning curve for new team members. By embedding directly into Workday, the solution has eliminated time-consuming manual data transfers between systems, freeing up valuable time and resources, enabling staff to focus on strategic priorities rather than administrative tasks.
• Improved candidate experience
  Candidates now navigate a smoother, more professional screening journey that reflects URW’s commitment to excellence. It strengthens their ability to attract and retain top talent in competitive markets.
• Operational excellence
  With Security Watchdog’s platform, screening has been transformed from a multi-system process into a seamless operation. Real-time data flows between the screening platform and Workday, eliminating manual intervention and the errors that often accompany it. Teams can now trust that data is current, complete, and consistently managed across the entire screening lifecycle.
• Cost optimisation
  By consolidating what would have required multiple suppliers into a single European-wide solution, the URW have eliminated supplier management complexity and reduced operational overhead. This has resulted in budget certainty that was previously lacking and a better ROI.
• Strategic enablement
  Security Watchdog’s solution has removed technology as a blocker to growth, enabling URW to expand with confidence, knowing their screening infrastructure can scale seamlessly without additional suppliers or systems.
• Risk mitigation
  Standardised processes ensure consistent compliance across all markets, while automated workflows reduced the potential for human error in data handling.

The outcome

The partnership between URW and Security Watchdog represents not just a solution for today, but a platform for ongoing evolution. As screening technology advances, URW is positioned to benefit from continuous feature enhancements, now compliance capabilities, and emerging best practices without the disruptive system changes that characterised their previous supplier.

Security Watchdog has brought stability to URW’s approach to modernising background screening. The platform has been embraced across URW teams, while seamless Workday HR system integration has eliminated friction and administrative burden from daily workflows. Not only have today’s challenges been solved, but URW now have a future-ready foundation that will evolve alongside the business, positioning screening as a competitive advantage rather than an operational necessity.

What URW think of us