The increasing risk of identity fraud has escalated the need for companies to perform identity verifications. According to recent government reports, losses in the finance industry alone due to identity fraud will surpass $8 billion in 2005. Again, this is just the financial institutions, not the entire world business community. The aggregate number across all industries has to be astronomical.

Identity verification is a necessary part of the recruiting and hiring process. Your company has a right to know who they are interviewing. If the candidate is an imposter, it's better to find out now than to find out a year from now when several thousand dollars are missing from one of the company accounts. Those who commit identity fraud are often patient and could strike against your business at any time. Do you really know the people who work for you?

Challenges of Identity Verification

Balancing a company's need for this information and a customer's need for fast, efficient service creates a challenge for hiring managers. The perception is that services like identity verification slow down the hiring process. This can be the case of the service is implemented at the end of the process. However, savvy hiring managers and recruiters will get permission at the beginning so a verification can be received during interviews, rather than after an offer is extended.

An executive at one of my former companies (a former Fortune 500 company at that), turned out to be someone completely different than he claimed to be. This did not come out until after his death. He had defrauded the company of millions of dollars, all of which was never recovered, underscoring the need to include identity verification in the screening process.