From 1 October 2022, changes to digital right to work checks come into effect. UK Employers will no longer be able to use the temporary Covid-adjusted right to work guidance. This means companies looking to onboard employees won’t be able to ask them to share a scanned copy or photo of their documents and then confirm their identity over a video call.
Instead, they will only be able to check an employee’s right to work status either:
- Digitally: A digital check, via the Home Office checking service or via a digital Identity Service Provider (IDSP), depending on the type of immigration status held. The IDSP can use IDVT (Identification Document Verification Technology) to conduct digital right to work checks on in-date UK and Irish Passports and Irish Passport Cards.
- Manually: An in-person manual check using original documents.
It is the legal responsibility of a UK business to check the eligibility of a candidate to work in the UK. But managing the evolving guidelines on how these checks need to be carried out can be tricky for employers to balance making compliance simple, while delivering a seamless experience when conducting digital right to work checks.
And of course if UK employers fail to observe the new guidelines, or if their policy is non-compliant, they can face severe penalties including jail time.
The good news is that it’s not too late to adopt a digital right to work checking process. With ID-Pal employers can go live in a day with a solution that also integrates seamlessly with existing processes.
Benefits of digital right to work checks
- Improved efficiency
Using an IDSP is far more efficient for businesses because it reduces the time spent on obtaining and checking identity documents, while also improving security when retaining these, compared to manual checks.
This new way of conducting digital right to work checks will allow businesses to transform business’ employee onboarding processes to help them keep pace with increasing digitalisation and meet the demands of our online world.
- Reduced fraud with built-in compliance
Digital right to work checks on employees can also help businesses reduce fraud risks by trusting technology providers to meet the standards introduced by the Department for the Digital, Culture, Media & Sport’s (DCMS) digital identity and attributes trust framework.
To ensure maximum protection for both the economy, companies and their employees, it is advised that businesses carry out these checks with an IDSP that can guarantee all scheme guidance and standards laid out in the trust framework are met. This reduces the risk of fraud, as well as ensuring the employer is carrying out checks while meeting regulatory standards.
- More secure for your business and your employees
When trying to process a large volume of documents manually, companies increase the risk of identity fraud and data breaches, while also processing them less efficiently. Using sophisticated technology to process these documents eliminates these challenges.
Furthermore, when hiring candidates overseas, it can be impossible to verify documentation in-person in a timely manner. By using remote technology, businesses don’t limit the pool of talent they can recruit from.
- Improved accuracy no matter where your candidate is based
Ideally identity verification solutions conducting digital right to work checks should be ISO 27001 certified and General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) compliant to provide multi-layered checks in real-time, alongside an address verification feature that checks a potential candidate’s identity against existing local bureaus and registers. This not only improves the accuracy and efficiency of the checks, but also better protects the user’s data.
This is the standard ID-Pal offers when performing biometric, liveness and database checks in our platform.
- Statutory excuse against civil penalties
Finally, IDSPs also grant a greater level of protection for businesses by providing a statutory excuse. That is, a protection that the employer can use as a defence against a civil penalty in the event of the necessary checks not being completed to the required standard
So, what should your business do ahead of the changes?
To make the most of the reduced operational costs and increased efficiency Identity Document Validation Technology (IDVT) offers, businesses should familiarise themselves with their current right to work policy now and make any changes required to begin carrying out the necessary checks digitally from day one.
Streamlining the process and eliminating the need for time-consuming manual checks will be transformative to businesses and prospective employees. It will increase efficiency, reduce costs, and automate compliance with the new legislation and data security rules. Companies are therefore highly recommended to seek compliant IDSPs to securely carry out right to work checks.
October 1st is here, and those firms left unprepared are more vulnerable to increased compliance and onboarding costs as well as missing the opportunity to onboard legitimate candidates quickly in a competitive market.
If you’re interested in finding out more about how ID-Pal is supporting businesses in complying with the updated digital Right to Work guidelines, or if you just want to discuss the changes to understand how your business will be affected, contact mark.ohara@id-pal.com or reach out to the team at info@id-pal.com for accurate advice on how to conduct digital right to work checks.
Or talk to the team about using ID-Pal for digital right to work checks this October 5-6 at the Recruitment Agency Expo in the NEC, Birmingham (Stand E12).
Contact us today for a live demo of how the ID-Pal service can be easily integrated with your business.
