Hiring a candidate that isn’t who they say they are is a waste of time, but employee background verification can help minimize the risks.

If you are an employer, you can protect your company by doing background verification on your candidates and being thorough in your interviewing and research.

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced companies today to align with a shifting hiring environment. One of these shifts is the new prevalence of remote work. Employers are left with no choice but to rely on technology to keep up with workplace trends.

Digital recruitment is like a double-edged sword, though. Technology makes the hiring process more objective and cost-effective. However, digital recruitment also comes with many disadvantages where employees can engage in fraudulent behavior to get a job.

Today background verification plays a crucial role in hiring, and it is important to understand the importance of verification in this field. Even though remote work opens up new opportunities for employers and employees, it also comes with many challenges.

Steps To Verify A Candidate’s Background:

Here are some steps you can take to ensure that your candidate is a real person and that they are who they say they are.

1. Use open-ended follow-up questions

To confirm that your candidate is being truthful about their background, ask open-ended questions about things they mention on their resume. Asking what they learned at a particular organization or what kind of projects they worked on in a particular position are good ways to start.

If your interview process included multiple stages, you can ask candidates for more information on something they said in a previous interview. If they can’t remember a project they claimed to have worked on, take it as a sign that they may have lied about some aspect of their experience.

2. Focus On Assessments

Employers need to buckle up and get creative and detailed in different assessments to evaluate candidates’ skills. It will help in verifying the candidate’s skill set. For example, when hiring a remote marketing manager, you can ask the applicant to analyze data and record the presentation findings. If a candidate does well on the assessment, you can invite them on a one-to-one interview.

3. Consider Using E-signatures

Companies can also allow candidates to send e-signatures with their applications. You can work with your company’s legal department or lawyer to format your online application to have a line prompting candidates to e-sign and state that the information in their application is correct.

If the signed statement is legally binding, your company has the option to pursue legal action if you hire a candidate who you find has lied significantly about their experience.

Common Recruitment Frauds

The candidates might hide their actual identity and pretend to be a different person. They might hide information associated with their actual identity.

A candidate might also hide past incidents from hiring managers, like prior convictions or firings.

Alternately, a candidate might lie about their past experience, claiming that they have a degree or have done a job that they have not actually done.

How To Verify A Candidate’s Background

There are different ways to perform pre-employment background verification. Many companies will offer a candidate a position on the condition that they pass a background check. Background checks are done through outside companies. The outside company uses a candidate’s fingerprints and SSN to confirm they are who they say they are and check their criminal background.

Background checks aren’t required for all industries. Many organizations that aren’t required to do background checks don’t do them because it costs the organization money and can delay onboarding by weeks. If your organization does background checks, all incoming employees have to do it. You can’t pick and choose who does it because that can be seen as a method of discrimination.

If you choose not to do a background check, know that many local court records are accessible online. County and city courts are a good place to start searching but know that documents can be hard to understand and there might be many people with your candidate’s name.

Asking candidates for references is standard for most positions. References are usually people the candidate has worked with before, either as an employee, supervisor, or team member. Talking to those references can give you a good idea of what kind of employee the candidate will be. What kind of a worker were they? What experience do they have? Did they let their references know your organization would be calling?

Almost all details of an individual’s life are available on social media now, so checking the applicant’s social media account can give you a good idea of what kind of person the candidate is. Facebook, Twitter and Instagram are usually best for personal information. Depending on their career, the candidate might also have a LinkedIn profile or a professional Twitter account.

Remote hiring is here to stay, and employers will even use it after the pandemic concerns have subsided. Employers have different options for taking steps to ensure that the candidates they interview are the ones they claim to be.