As businesses continue to grow and evolve, it’s becoming increasingly important for companies to properly screen new employees. This helps to ensure that the company is hiring the best possible candidates, and can also help to protect the company and its employees from potential liabilities. One crucial aspect of this screening process is identity verification.
Protecting Your Company Through Identity Verification
One of the main reasons why identity verification is important in new employee screening is that it helps to protect the company itself. By verifying the identity of a new hire, a company can ensure that the person does not have a criminal record or other red flags that could potentially harm the business. This can help to prevent the company from being held liable for the actions of its employees, and can also help to prevent damage to the company’s reputation.
Furthermore, verifying the identity of a new hire can also help to prevent issues related to workplace safety. By ensuring that a new employee is who they claim to be, a company can take steps to ensure that the person has the necessary training and qualifications to perform their job safely. This is especially important in industries where safety is a major concern, such as construction or healthcare.
Ensuring the Authenticity of New Hires
Another important reason why identity verification is important in new employee screening is that it ensures the authenticity of the person being hired. In today’s world, identity theft and other forms of fraud are unfortunately common, and verifying a person’s identity can help prevent these types of issues. By taking the time to properly verify the identity of new hires, companies can help to protect themselves and their employees from potential fraud.
Automating identity verification of new hires
Verifying the identity of a person can be a cumbersome and expensive process. Common pitfalls include:
- Manual processes to request personal documents.
- Identity requests are structured within Word or PDF document formats.
- Personal documents are sent insecurely over email.
- Personal documents are stored in a shared drive, creating a data breach risk.
- Documents are reviewed manually.
- The status and detail of identity requests are typed manually in a standalone system.
A more effective process can be achieved as follows:
- Automatically trigger an identity request at a fixed point in the hiring process.
- Send the candidate the request from an existing system, such as HRM (HR Management) or ATS (Applicant Tracking System).
- The candidate takes a selfie and picture of their government-issued identity document.
- The documents are automatically checked they match.
- Additional checks (such as Police, Visa, and Rights to Work) may be triggered using the full legal name that is automatically extracted from the identity document.
- The outcome (not the original documents) is stored back in the existing HRM or ATS for audit purposes.
Such a system is fully automated, secure, cost-effective, and scales as required.
Conclusion: The Benefits of Verifying the Identity of New Hires
In conclusion, identity verification is an important part of the new employee screening process. It helps to protect the company, its employees, and its customers by ensuring that the person being hired is who they claim to be. By taking the time to properly verify the identity of new hires, companies can help to prevent fraud, protect their own interests, and ensure a safe and secure workplace.
To learn more about how IdentityCheck can provision this process automatically, create a free account here.
