Right to Work checks are an accepted part of hiring new staff. And most recruiters know their obligation to check the right of all new employees to work in the UK. Precisely how they choose to do this varies by company. Increasingly, employers are opting to introduce technology, either to support physical document checks in-house or remotely through an Identity Service Provider (IDSP). Where there is demand, either due to volume, urgency or just wanting to ensure high levels of compliance, many choose to work with services from IDSPs who use IDVT.
Of course, there’s a slight difference in the legal requirements of recruitment companies and agencies to perform RtW checks. When it comes to agency workers, where the worker is employed by the agency throughout their contract, the agency – not the employer – has the legal responsibility to make relevant checks on their work status. Recruitment companies who source and put forward candidates to fill permanent roles might not be legally required to perform the checks, but many choose to for a number of reasons, including to protect their reputation and to offer a ‘stand-out’ service.
In whichever scenario, recruitment consultants and agencies find themselves needing to carry out RtW checks which ensure they are compliant and up to speed with the latest guidance. Recruitment companies have enough to do to source candidates in a difficult market, without becoming immigration or legal experts. Performing RtW checks manually is time-consuming and, in the fast moving-world of recruitment, potentially deal-breaking.
Among the many drivers influencing core decisions for recruiters, two stand out: time and money. In this business, any delay in getting an offer out can cost you a candidate, while any delay in getting a candidate in front of the employer can cost you the opportunity. The faster you can carry out fully-compliant RtW checks the better. That said, when margins are tight, any RtW solution needs to be cost-effective. The balance between performing compliant RtW checks quickly, while keeping down costs is a constant.
To deal with the need for speed, thousands of Recruiters are turning to certified IDSPs to ensure the candidate meets Home Office Right to Work criteria ahead of an interview. Since April 2022, RtW guidance has allowed employers to make digital checks using identity validation technology through an IDSP for eligible candidates and there is an ever-growing list of providers to choose from on the Government website.
Digital checks pre-empt the need to meet applicants face-to-face, which saves recruiters both time and money arranging physical meetings, especially as many recruiters now operate remotely.
For Dario Longhitano, talent and resourcing manager at Elite Associates’ temporary division, this is a major benefit; “Considering that our team does not work from the office every day, it is less complicated to arrange digital checks than schedule appointments for manual checks.” Elite Associates is among the 700+ recruitment companies that use TrustID’s range of Right to Work services and technology to perform its RtW checks.
This sentiment was echoed by Nicola Concannon, Regional Contractor Services Manager for UK, Europe and Africa at NES Fircroft who told me that, for her “it is economically much easier to use this service than send people all over the country to verify ID.”
Replacing laborious manual processes with technology is an accepted solution in many areas of business. When it comes to processes that carry intrinsic risks, like identity checking, automation can remove potentially costly human error. Employing IDVT from an IDSP may involve an additional cost, but there are savings to be had by selecting the right partner. Some companies offering these services are like TrustID and charge per check, with a low minimum requirement. So, a recruiter only pays for the RtW checks that it needs to perform.
Recruitment companies only need to carry out a cost-comparison between performing a check and not, to understand that it’s a small price to pay. In general, a ‘pay-per-check’ cost comes in at around the same as the coffee you might have bought the candidate at a face-to-face meeting. Losing out on an opportunity or candidate, or the potential cost to the recruiter’s brand value of backtracking on a candidate, is far higher than the cost of performing a digital check.
Laura Totton, Director and principal of the specialist social worker recruitment team at Totalcare recruitment told me; “The cost of (TrustID’s) services is satisfactory as we can now be fully assured that our candidates are receiving the appropriate level of checks from a government-accredited service which offers greater reassurance to our clients in the health sector.”
Another area of concern for some is complexity of the process and systems, which is completely understandable. Technology can introduce layers of unnecessary and bewildering complexity if it isn’t built with the end-user in mind. A successful digital RtW solution has to be easy to use in order to be adopted by people who aren’t technical experts. Jack Player, Director of Workforce at 18 Week Support explains that they were looking for “a solution that enables an efficient employee experience through onboarding”. Having adopted IDVT from TrustID, he commented that it is “really simple and easy to use and allows our onboarding team to work with speed”.
So, what does a recruitment agency get in return for investing in relatively low cost, easy to use, Government-certified RtW technology? Recruitment companies who use our service at told us that their top five benefits of using IDVT over traditional manual verification methods are:
1) Efficient, on-going compliance from anywhere.
With digital validation, candidates don’t need an appointment to perform a physical document check as they can upload their documents via a one-time access email from anywhere.
2) Flexibility to meet seasonal demands.
With a pay-per-check pricing model and no set-up or user licence fees, recruiters can scale up for a big contract and scale back down when things are quieter.
3) Reduced administration.
For each applicant, IDVT creates a pdf. RtW report which the recruiter downloads and stores in their own system. This avoids photocopying and filing images of identity documents as information can easily be accessed to support future audits.
4) A professional and transparent check.
IDVT provides a highly professional way to show compliance to both applicants and clients, as one recruiter told us, “ID checks set the tone for the professional way that we work”.
5) An easier way to stay on top of compliance.
Keeping up with legislation changes can be challenging, especially when it comes to recruiting people with different documents from across the world. IDSPs will update their service as guidance changes, to keep checks compliant.
All in all, our recruitment customers are telling us that using an IDSP for document validation and Right to Work checks gives them greater peace of mind, that the technology involved is simple to grasp and doesn’t cost the earth.
The recruiters we spoke to for this article were unanimous in the advice we asked them to give to anyone thinking of finding out more: “Be diligent, consider your processes and do your research!”
It is summed up by Laura at Totalcare Recruitment; “Have a read of the TrustID website, watch the demos and ask questions. The service has been very helpful and efficient for our agency and has been welcomed by the clients that we work with as it provides a layer of reassurance that candidates are legitimately working in the UK.”
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