To be in the best position to serve your clients, you need to understand the industries they serve and the most serious liabilities they face. In the staffing industry, the entire landscape of recruiting and placement is changing, requiring more diligence on the part of both client and insurance agent to address potential exposures through staffing liability insurance. With virtual hiring providing a quick solution to the employment challenges presented by COVID-19, few companies have explored the potential dangers associated with remotely hiring candidates without verifying their identity.
The Importance of Identity Checking
There are many benefits to virtual recruiting and hiring practices, but there are a few problems that need to be addressed if a company is going to avoid costly mistakes and errors. As an insurance agent, you are in the perfect position to explain to clients why identity checking is important and how it safeguards against legal concerns.
1. Identity Checking Impacts Background Screening
Companies often use a background screen to narrow down candidate choices, but if the information isn’t correct or complete when submitting the request, the returning information won’t be complete or accurate. Using a background check to find the criminal history of an individual is important to making an informed hiring choice but failing to provide an accurate birthday or full name on the screen can alter the results or cause significant delays in the hiring process.
2. Identity Checking Validates Automating Candidate Data Entry
The idea of having to go through another verification step seems like it would be counter-productive from a time-sensitivity perspective. However, being able to automate data entry according to verified information reduces the need for additional entry over and over again during the rest of the process. It also reduces the chance that additional errors will be made when re-entering information. Automated data entry makes the application and hiring process more efficient, but only when the data is accurate and complete.
3. Identity Checking Establishes Better Hiring Experiences
Companies need to attract the best talent if they wish to remain competitive and efficient, and by encouraging identity-checking early on in the recruiting process, you can help companies improve the hiring experience. An optimized workflow is streamlined and simple to use, giving the company and applicants a better experience. Fewer errors and unhappy individuals are crucial to avoid costly litigation or claims of negligence during the hiring process.
4. Identity Checking Improves Productivity
Sell your clients on the fact that their productivity (and therefore revenue) will improve if they implement identity-checking during the hiring process. By eliminating many of the redundancies of collecting and recollecting recruit information, it frees up staff to move on to profit-generating tasks that are more meaningful.
As an agent, counseling your clients on the importance of identity checking benefits you both. You can protect them from liability claims while protecting the agency from costly claim payouts.
About World Wide Specialty Programs
For the last 50 years, World Wide Specialty Programs has dedicated itself to providing the optimal products and solutions for the staffing industry. As the only insurance firm to be an ASA commercial liability partner, we are committed to that partnership and committed to using our knowledge of the industry to provide staffing firms with the best possible coverage. For more information about Staffing Professional Liability Insurance or any other coverage, we have available to protect your staffing business, give us a call at (877) 256-0468 to speak with one of our representatives.