Are you up to speed with Right to Work legislation?

Are you up to speed with Right to Work legislation?

Right to Work legislation is not straightforward! If you're making checks on staff, including temporary or voluntary staff, you can be shown 17 different types of document, potentially issued in hundreds of different countries, that may need to be checked in a variety of combinations to demonstrate eligibility to work in the UK.  And the Employers guide to Right to Work checks on the Government website stretches to 40 pages! So how confident are you that you and your staff all understand the rules and are all compliant when making identity document checks? We’ve put together a quick quiz based on some of…read more >
How will Brexit impact Right to Work checks?

How will Brexit impact Right to Work checks?

As you’re no doubt aware, all UK employers are currently required to conduct Right to Work checks on every prospective employee to comply with illegal working legislation and avoid unlawful discrimination But with huge uncertainty among UK businesses about Brexit, we are often asked how Right to Work legislation and processes may change when we leave the European Union. Of course, the answer is that none of us know for sure. However, we can be sure that there are already a significant number of illegal workers in the UK and that the attraction to try and gain illegal employment in…read more >
Making Right to Work checks: what happens when they go wrong?

Making Right to Work checks: what happens when they go wrong?

During a webinar with our partners CIPHR - 'Building a case for electronic Right to Work checks' - I gave an overview of current Right to Work legislation and the risks associated with employing illegal workers and shared how our solutions help to speed up Right to Work checks. As part of the webinar, I asked participants how they were currently making checks and what they thought were the biggest risks of getting checks wrong. Read on for a summary of the presentation...1. What are Right to Work checks?As you probably know, if you’re employing staff in the UK, you…read more >
Why do we need to do pre-employment immigration checks on UK or EU recruits?

Why do we need to do pre-employment immigration checks on UK or EU recruits?

As you probably know, every employer has a legal duty to prevent illegal working and is required to undertake pre-employment immigration checks on all staff to ensure that they have the right to work in the UK. But if your recruits claim to be British or EU nations, do you really need to make Right to Work checks?Employers could face prosecution if they deliberately ignore the law and employ someone who does not have the right to work in the UK or if they have ‘reasonable cause to believe’ that they are working illegally. Penalties can include fines of up…read more >
Why introduce electronic identity document checks if you don’t have to?

Why introduce electronic identity document checks if you don’t have to?

We work with two main types of business: those that have to introduce some form of identity validation technology - due to enforced compliance requirements - and those who choose to introduce it – perhaps because they are worried about making checks in the face of high staff turnover or fall into a ‘high-risk’ sector. No matter which pool your organisation falls into, you can benefit from electronic identity scanning, not just to drive compliance and find fraudulent documents, but in ways that you may not expect…Must doWe have implemented identity validation technology at over 100 locum agencies recruiting medical staff the NHS. They…read more >
4 steps to sensitively deal with fake identity documents

4 steps to sensitively deal with fake identity documents

Whilst there’s a lot of information available about how to check identity documents for Right to Work compliance, there’s little guidance about what action to take when a document fails your checks. Handling counterfeit or fraudulent documents can be nerve-wracking, so our guest blogger, Abbie Pullman, has pulled together some practical advice to tackle this sensitive topic ‘in the moment’ and beyond...Identity document forgery is rising. Forged ID (particularly EEA identity documents) and Fraudulently Obtained Genuine (FOG) documents remain a key facilitator of immigration crime. In 2016, Frontex, the European Border and Coastguard Agency, reported a 70% year-on-year rise in fake…read more >
Putting the trust back into business with ID verification

Putting the trust back into business with ID verification

Trust is the foundation on which the personal and business relationships that underpin success are built. It helps to create strong, open relationships within organisations, with customers, with suppliers, and within the wider business ecosystem. Consistent identity checks can help to build and maintain that trusting relationship. Making the right judgement If you’re an HR professional with responsibility for making Right to Work checks and ensuring that you bring the right personnel into your business, you will probably have a well developed instinct as to the trustworthiness of people. And the good news is that most of the time your…read more >
5 reasons why identity document checks are an essential part of the pre-employment process

5 reasons why identity document checks are an essential part of the pre-employment process

If you work in HR, you will know that there is an ever increasing enforcement of Right to Work legislation, putting more pressure on employers to check potential employee's right to work in the UK. But checking whether someone has a legal right to work in the UK should only be undertaken once a potential employee's identity has been confirmed. Checking identity documents, such as passports, are an essential element. Here's why: 1. Right to Work checks are irrelevant if the documents used to support their identity are forged. Checking a potential employee's right to work is time consuming and therefore…read more >