The Power of Identity Verification Solutions in Ensuring Risk-Free Recruitment Operations

Over the recent years, the employment industry has undergone significant changes, from mass offboarding to a rush in hiring candidates as fast as possible, with many recruiters facing problems filling open positions. After the global pandemic and digital shift, remote hiring may have gained traction at large, but nearly 70% of the recruiters expect the remote hiring process will continue in upcoming years and will more likely become the new norm – thanks to its cost and time-saving perks. In addition to the perks virtual hiring brings, businesses need to break down geographic barriers to tap candidates or diverse pools across different time zones, which may become risky and challenging.

Apart from this, recruitment fraud is wreaking havoc on the global talent acquisition industry, resulting in a $2 billion loss annually. Amidst the uncertain economic condition, scammers are taking full advantage of manipulating job seekers and online portals, ultimately defrauding individuals during inflation and rising expenses. That’s where identity verification solutions come in. By having strong IDV checks, businesses can onboard legitimate candidates, fight fraud, and weed out the tricksters.

Recruitment Scam – An Alarming Situation for Individuals and Businesses

Since the coronavirus outbreak and the consequences it brought on the world, there has been an array of debate about whether the pandemic will force a large number of people to leave their jobs in a trend referred to as the “Great Resignation.” Despite the outcome of this debate, there has been an uptick in the number of candidates recruited in the UK, triggered by the shift from onsite to an online or hybrid model.

Whilst companies and recruitment agencies are trying hard to attract the right, legitimate candidates, people are now exploring jobs that offer flexible work styles.

However, remote working excites people at large, but businesses should not lose sight of the fact that on both sides of the newly emerged recruitment process, criminals are looking for more sophisticated ways to defraud victims.

What is Recruitment Fraud?

For individuals, it may involve being victimised by a fake talent acquisition agency, either by phone call, email, or over social media platforms with bogus job openings to gain their personally identifiable information, aiming to ask them for ransom money.

For businesses, it is also about the same cause – money. In such cases it may involve scammers spoofing or imitating companies to post fake job openings to trick out victims, making them provide their information. In addition to this, such fraud also includes jobseekers misrepresenting their records and qualifications to get the job illicitly. There are thousands of cases in which illegitimate candidates are given jobs, which is only discovered once they have already fleeced the business out of millions.

There are heaps of helpful resources and tech-driven solutions to help businesses as well as individuals determine the recruitment fraud instances whilst avoiding them before they happen. 

Pre-Hiring Candidate IDV Check: Ensuring Unbreakable Foundation

Remote or virtual working models have provided employers and candidates with multiple competitive advantages alike, with that flexibility comes the threat of document forgery, identity theft, fake job openings, financial losses, and reputational damages.

Employee identity verification helps businesses to determine true identities, addresses, personally identifiable information, and risks associated with them before onboarding them. Using automated identity verification solutions, companies can easily onboard candidates globally in real-time by screening their identities against financial crime databases, sanction lists, and adverse media resources.

Authenticating individuals’ identities forms the pillar of any compliance requirements, as it paves the way for additional scrutiny, including verifying educational background, documents, employment experience, reference checks, and more. Employee ID verification processes are systematically designed to back talent acquisition agencies in undertaking a legally sound onboarding decision by determining the risk level associated with the candidates whilst ensuring data privacy remains intact.

Here are some types of verification businesses may carry out for secure onboarding:

• Document Authentication

ID document verification involves validating candidates’ government-issued identity documents against the information provided during employment form filling. Documents include ID cards, passports,  or other legal documents provided by the government, along with secondary documents as proof of identity if required. By rigidly examining the documents, businesses can ensure credible, legitimate employee onboarding.

• Address Verification

Under this, candidates’ address information is verified. This procedure involves cross-referencing the provided data with that of official identity documents or secondary documents, including property ownership papers or utility bills. Address verification is vital for businesses to ensure transparent and risk-free onboarding and communication whilst confirming the authenticity of employees’ residency or business location by overcoming the risk of gaining misleading or forged information.

• Employment Verification

Candidate verification helps businesses confirm an individual’s employment history and the authenticity of the information provided to the previous employers. This verification procedure involves contacting candidates’ previous job places to verify the dates of employment, responsibilities, and roles. This holds great significance as it is essential for companies to hire legitimate and skillful resources. Other than this, employment verification also assists businesses in preventing fraud and illicit candidate hiring.

• Candidate Background Check

When hiring remote employees from different regions, there is a high risk of onboarding fraudsters. To overcome such instances, the business should conduct a criminal background check. This procedure usually involves a candidate’s identity screening against crime databases, aiming to assess the risk associated with them.

• Education Verification

This type of verification involves evaluating employees; educational qualifications, including degrees, certifications, and diplomas. During the education validation procedure, businesses confirm the authenticity of educational institutions, date of enrolment, degree earned, and activities they took part in. This ensures the candidate is a legitimate and authentic degree holder, making companies confident in hiring decisions.

Ongoing Identity Verification: Sustaining Trust and Vigilance

Candidate identity verification is not restricted till the hiring process. It’s a long-term, ongoing procedure, a social responsibility to maintain the data and security integrity of employees’ identities within a business. The fact that identities can be changed over time or can get compromised, ongoing monitoring is critical in ensuring sustained growth and risk-free operations.

As a part of ongoing identity verification and monitoring protocols, businesses must periodically re-verify candidates’ personally identifiable information, such as address, contact details, and identity card numbers. This proactive, fraud preventive strategy will surely help companies stay ahead of the criminals seeking to defraud business.

Key Considerations Before Initiating Employee Identity Verification

‍here are some critical points your business must consider before verifying customers’ identities for hiring purposes:

• Legal Requirements: Before gathering documents or verifying candidates’ identities, ensure your business onboarding operations align with the KYC compliance and AML screening regulations or other state and international employment legislation.

• Types of IDs: Shortlist the document types your business will require for completing the identity verification procedure, which usually includes ID cards, passports and driver’s license.

• Data Security: Your company must ensure that your procedures and policies align with GDPR and take data privacy concerns seriously. Besides this, businesses must have robust security protocols to secure candidates’ sensitive information from data breaches or compromises.
• Consent: Businesses must inform their potential employees regarding the identity verification protocols before starting the process. A consent should be signed by the candidates for transparent hiring operations.

Candidate Identity Verification with Shufti

AI Technology is strengthening its position across multiple industries, and the recruitment industry is one of the transforming sectors. Where the technology is used to streamline operations, the same tools are being employed to defraud businesses and individuals. However, with the surging employment fraud and fake jobs, FinTech companies have come up with Identity Verification solutions – fool-proof, automated and compliant!

At Shufti, the company is committed to helping recruiters meet digitisation, fight fraud, and ensure secure operations – all whilst ensuring a state-of-the-art onboarding experience.  Our KYC and AML solutions are tailored to the recruitment industry and aligned with GDPR laws and regulations. Using our solutions, businesses can easily onboard candidates across 240+ countries and territories within seconds. With the support of 10,000+ identity documents in over 150+ languages, companies can verify candidates with 99% accuracy.

Here is what Shufti can offer your business:

1. A new standard in global identity verification – automatic verification of anyone, using any document, in any region, and on any set-up.
2. World-class AI and machine learning technology drive 99% accuracy in a couple of seconds.
3. A versatile suite of AI-powered products for businesses has every identity verification, and compliance must be covered. 
4. Scalable, state-of-the-art KYC Verification, KYB, KYI, AML, and OCR solutions, fast and flexible to fit your business requirements. 

‍Want to learn more about Shufti’s IDV solutions?