The Importance of Due Diligence and Identity Verification When Hiring

Hiring new staff is complicated, but it can ensure you find the right people for your posts and business. It’s even more important to vet candidates to avoid scams and legal problems. When hiring and onboarding talent, you have to be smart, use due diligence, and use the most efficient tools possible for identity verification and the overall reliability of candidates.

As the work landscape shifts towards remote and hybrid employment, a sense of security is invaluable for employers. Let’s break down why due diligence and identity verification are especially vital.

Complex Workplaces Need Remote Workers

More and more companies want to establish themselves in several locations or have an international reach. For such plans to work, they need many reliable and flexible employees, a demand that remote employment can quickly satisfy.

Looking at 2022 statistics Intuition gathered, workers themselves—62% in one survey—now expect remote and hybrid options in workplaces. At the same time, 48% of employees already work remotely instead of 30% before the pandemic.

The move also benefits workers and employers. 83% of employees feel more productive when working from home, while 77% see remote employment as a way to cut operating costs.

There are challenges, however. A 2020 survey by Workable found that 37.4% of employers considered remote onboarding or training difficult. The three aspects of the hiring process that worried them the most were candidate engagement (51.7%), onboarding (49.7%), and evaluation (42.4%).

Challenging or not, businesses have had to hire people remotely. The trend continues today and is unlikely to change, especially as remote talent proves itself repeatedly.

Digital technologies and processes have also evolved to make remote hiring and onboarding smoother and safer. That said, caution is still a must.

Verifying Candidates Counters Different Risks

There are many red flags to look for when protecting your business from unsuitable or even fraudulent candidates.

You could spot some of them in face-to-face interviews, but remote talent acquisition complicates things as you must do all the talking and assessing digitally.

On the other hand, identity verification using high-end technology can be more efficient. You can find answers to almost any question about candidates, a significant advantage when dealing with suspicious ones.

Here are some common risks of remote hiring and onboarding that intelligent tools and methods can counter.

Firstly, is the candidate who they say they are? They could be using stolen information—a picture, email, phone number, or bank details—to pose as someone else. Their goal could be to use your online systems to steal money and data or spread malware.

Alternatively, candidates could lie about their work or education history. Embellishing your background in a CV is nothing new. However, it becomes a problem if a new employee fails to meet expectations or damages their employer’s reputation, all because they weren’t properly vetted.

Due diligence and an exemplary verification process that makes the most of big data are essential to your security and peace of mind.

Identity Verification Is Helpful and Often Mandatory

Depending on your business type and location, you may not have a choice but to incorporate ID verification. Banks, financial institutions, payment gateways, and online stores, for example, need such measures to protect themselves from fraud.

It’s an intelligent investment anyway. You won’t have to wonder anymore whether a customer or job applicant is legit because, as SEON explains, your identity verification and validation system could check them out using different methods, such as:

• Document and video verification, where they submit images or videos of their ID.
• Two-factor authentication and one-time passwords, both of which rely on having more than one linked device.
• Biometrics usually involves your fingerprint, face, or voice recognition.
• Digital footprint analysis, which gathers data about someone’s online activity, is a method that can be easily scaled up without any friction and is challenging to fake.

It’s safe to say that identity verification tools are beyond helpful. They automate much of the authentication process and leave you with a clearer idea of the strangers you’re dealing with.

And when hiring new staff, you can’t be too careful about confirming that candidates are precisely who and what they claim to be.

Identity Verification Techniques Reveal Interesting Details

Considering the typical identity theft today, using authentication tools is wise for any business or project. Define Financial reveals that 2020 saw 1.4 million reported cases, one-third involving victims who had been targeted before.

Additionally, fraudsters used stolen details to grab $200 to $500 billion from state and federal governments in 2021. One more incentive is to boost your company’s security with ID verification tools, whether it’s for customers or potential employees.

But the perks of these tools aren’t just about validating a candidate’s claims. They can go deeper and show you information to support your due diligence.

For example, data enrichment modules can search public sources for insights, from candidates’ social media posts and professional publications to red flags like offensive language or invalid past employment.

Whatever the software compiles, you can explore to learn more about a candidate and decide whether they fit the job. Ultimately, you can feel confident in your hiring people and not worry about letting criminals through the door.

Don’t Neglect Identity Verification Tools When Hiring and Onboarding

No matter how detail-oriented you are, you can’t manually validate hundreds or thousands of job applicants. Fatigue or a moment’s lapse in judgment can make you miss red flags here and there.

That’s where identity verification software and techniques come in handy to help with the authentication process. The technology can handle things like submitting proof of ID, biometric scans, and information gathering.

Your eyes and mind can focus on tailoring this system to your company’s needs, planning the hiring and onboarding process, and combing applications full of details provided by the candidates and your data enrichment tools.