Imagine a company expanding its remote workforce, only to find that a new hire used a stolen identity to access sensitive systems. It may sound like a plot from a movie, but it’s a real risk.
One reddit user shared that their companies had two incidents with fake applicants. One they caught just before sending a corporate laptop, the other — only when the person who they sent the W-4 form responded he had never worked for them.
These aren’t isolated incidents. As remote work and digital nomadism become the norm, organizations face growing risks from identity fraud, unauthorized workers, and non-compliance.
In this post, we discuss how identity verification can safeguard your organization against fraud, impersonation, and other hiring risks, and also provide guidance on choosing the right identity verification solution for your needs.
Why do companies verify employee identities?
As hiring processes become increasingly digital, employers face new challenges when establishing trust with candidates they may never meet in person. Identity verification helps organizations reduce uncertainty and make hiring decisions with greater confidence.
Avoid hiring imposters for remote work
Remote hiring has made it easier for companies to access global talent, but it has also increased the risk of identity fraud and impersonation. Without in-person interactions, bad actors may attempt to use fake or stolen identities to gain employment and access company resources.
In sectors that handle sensitive information, such as Finance and Healthcare, verifying a remote worker's identity is particularly important to prevent fraud and avoid costly security incidents.
In addition, companies often ship laptops and other equipment to remote hires. Without proper identity verification, organizations risk sending valuable assets to fraudulent individuals with little chance of recovery. Effective remote identity verification helps ensure that both company systems and physical assets remain protected.
Avoid hiring unauthorized workers
In many countries, employers are required by law to verify that an employee is legally eligible to work. In the U.S., the I-9 process matches an individual’s identity documents with their Social Security Number (SSN) to confirm work authorization. Tools like E-Verify help companies streamline this process. Similarly, in the UK, employers must report employees for tax purposes using National Insurance numbers. Any discrepancy in these numbers could signal an issue.
However, illegal immigrants may use someone else’s SSN to gain employment. In some cases, individuals share a name and SSN with others, complicating the employment process and making it harder to identify fraud.
Prevent illegal hiring of underaged people
In a real case involving Hyundai suppliers in Alabama, a 16-year-old used fake documents to work illegally from the age of 14. The hiring agencies involved faced penalties for a child labor violation and failing to verify the boy’s age. Hyundai, for its part, announced it would divest its majority stake in the parts maker where the employment of child workers was reported, highlighting the impact of weak identity verification processes for businesses.
Prevent confidential data leaks
Unauthorized employees with fake identities could gain access to sensitive company information, posing a major risk to the organization. By verifying each new hire's identity, companies can ensure that only trusted individuals have access to confidential systems and data. Additionally, insider threat monitoring helps detect and reduce this risk by tracking employee activities and behaviors for signs of malicious intent.
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Does your organization actually need employee identity verification?
Not every company needs enterprise-grade identity proofing, but many organizations underestimate their exposure to hiring fraud.
Employee identity verification is usually worth considering if you:
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Hire remotely or internationally;
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Provide employees with access to sensitive systems;
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Handle customer, financial, healthcare, or government data;
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Ship laptops, phones, or other equipment to new hires;
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Operate in a regulated industry with compliance requirements;
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Manage large volumes of employees.
Even if hiring fraud is not currently a major concern, implementing identity verification can help organizations strengthen onboarding processes and reduce risks before they become costly problems.
How do organizations verify employee identities?
Organizations can implement employee identity verification at different levels depending on their risk profile and compliance requirements.
Many countries provide government services for validating employment eligibility, tax identification numbers, and other employee information. Examples include E-Verify in the United States and Right to Work checks in the United Kingdom, Employment Pass (EP) framework in Singapore, etc. However, because these services vary significantly across jurisdictions, they are beyond the scope of this article.
Instead, we'll focus on the identity verification technologies that organizations can implement regardless of geography.
| 1 | 2 | 3 |
|---|---|---|
| Identity document verification | Identity document authentication | Biometric verification |
| Automated data extraction and logical checks of the document (expiration dates and presence of all required fields for this particular ID document) | Data extraction + assessment of the document's authenticity to detect counterfeits or altered documents | System verifies that the person is physically present and matches the portrait contained in the ID document |
All three verification stages are reflected in both remote and hybrid onboarding scenarios.
Remote onboarding
Remote onboarding applies when a company hires or approves a worker without an in-person document check — for example, a driver, courier, contractor, or remote employee submitting documents through an app or web portal.
The goal is to make sure the applicant is using their own valid document, not a borrowed ID, fake document image, replayed video, or deepfake. Automated verification checks the document, matches the applicant’s face to the document portrait, and confirms that both the person and the document are physically present during the session.
Hybrid onboarding (may include an office visit)
In addition to document and biometric verification, hybrid onboarding scenarios typically incorporate document readers equipped. These devices enable document authentication by checking security features and validating documents against a database of more than 16,000 document templates from 254 countries and territories.
CASE STUDY
Uber Poland, a provider of ride-hailing services, requires drivers to verify their identity and eligibility before joining the platform by providing an ID card or passport and a valid driver's license. However, the existing verification process was time-consuming and could not reliably detect sophisticated document forgeries.
Regula equipped Uber offices with Regula 70X9 document readers. The devices identify document types, extract data from MRZs, RFID chips, and barcodes, and quickly flag possible forgery or tampering through Automatic Authenticity Control.
As a result, the total number of verified drivers increased significantly. Before implementation, one office could verify approximately 200 drivers per week; with Regula that number has tripled.
How to choose an employee identity verification flow
The right employee identity verification setup depends primarily on two factors: the level of risk associated with the role and the nature of the hiring process. A low-volume, in-office hiring workflow does not require the same level of identity assurance as remote contractor onboarding, driver onboarding, or hiring for positions with access to financial, healthcare, or customer data.
Match verification strength to role risk
A risk-based approach keeps low-risk hiring simple while adding stronger checks where fraud would create higher damage.
| Hiring scenario | Recommended identity verification |
|---|---|
| Low-risk office role | Identity document verification |
| Remote employee receiving company equipment | Identity document authentication + biometric verification |
| Employee with access to sensitive systems | Identity document authentication + biometric verification |
| Regulated role in finance, healthcare, or aviation | Identity document authentication + biometric verification |
| Gig worker, driver, courier, or contractor | Identity document authentication during onboarding + recurring biometric verification |
The goal is not to make every applicant pass the strictest possible flow. The goal is to apply enough assurance for the risk involved.
Separate identity verification from other hiring checks
Employee identity verification is not the same as a background check or a right-to-work check.
A background check reviews a person’s history. A right-to-work check confirms whether a person is legally allowed to work in a specific country. Identity verification confirms that the applicant is the rightful holder of the identity they present.
For remote hiring, this distinction matters. A background check may pass if the stolen identity belongs to a real person with a clean record. That does not prove the applicant is that person.
Check what the solution can actually verify
Before choosing a vendor, look beyond ID capture. For employee identity verification, the system should be able to:
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verify that the ID document is genuine and valid;
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extract identity data accurately from different document types;
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detect whether a presented document is physical and not just a screen image or edited file;
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match the applicant’s face to the photo from the ID document;
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detect presentation attacks, deepfakes, and injection attempts where biometric checks are used;
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support the countries, languages and document types your workforce actually uses;
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provide audit trails for exception handling and compliance review.
This is especially important for remote and international hiring, where HR teams may see unfamiliar documents and cannot rely on in-person inspection.
Regula's identity verification solutions automate all of these checks. And if your hiring process involves multiple verification steps, these capabilities can also be orchestrated within the Regula Identity Verification Platform, allowing organizations to manage users along their lifecycle, build a single workflow that combines document verification, biometric verification, authorization, re-verification, according to business logic, and integration with an HR system, workforce platform, driver app, access management flow, or internal employee portal.
Bottom line
If your organization hires remotely, provides access to sensitive systems or data, or ships equipment to new employees, identity verification should be a standard part of your onboarding process. The right solution can help you build a more secure hiring workflow while supporting compliance and reducing risk.
Not sure which approach is right for your organization? Our team can help you evaluate your requirements and identify the employee identity verification solution that best aligns with your security, compliance, and operational needs. Contact us to discuss your use case.
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