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With lockdowns in place and restricted hours for usual brick and mortar services, the COVID-19 pandemic has meant more people are using gig services like cleaners, dog walkers, hairdressers, babysitters, and drivers, and asking them to come directly to them and their houses.
This offers a world of convenience and demand-driven efficiency, however it also raises questions of security and privacy. It is vital in these intimate settings that the customer can trust that the gig worker allocated is suitable to enter their house. Some of this gig work involves caring for children or being in the same vicinity as children, meaning the issue of security is even more heightened.
Whether you’re a business operating in the gig economy or you’re a customer directly hiring freelancers, it’s vital to ensure you are properly and thoroughly verifying workers for gig services. With identity theft on the rise, screening and verification is a vital element to any hiring or onboarding process.
Steps for verification
Most organisations and hirers will follow the same typical steps - receiving a resume or CV regarding the person’s qualifications and employment history, conducting an interview, and contacting some referees. However, with the time pressures of gig work, one vital step that is often missed is conducting identity and other screening checks on the prospective worker.
This means comparing the person’s unique details, like fingerprints, image of face, or voice, to existing databases to confirm that the person is indeed who they say they are. This can then confirm all the other details - employment history, qualifications, referrals - that pertain to this same individual. It acts to tie all the pieces together and confirm the whole picture of the gig worker.
Due to the digital nature of gig work, it is unlikely and usually unsuitable to capture physical identity checks for prospective workers. This is where remote identity verification comes in.
Candidates can virtually provide their sample through tools or programs that capture the person’s likeness or unique traits, and this is then run through databases or used to compare to pre-existing sources. The whole process can be done virtually, quickly and conveniently for all parties.
Our remote identity verification solution
InstaID+ is National Crime Check’s remote identity verification tool - it uses the latest machine learning and facial recognition technology to offer a reliable, convenient and efficient way to conduct biometric identity verification checks in a range of industries.
Whether you’re verifying a customer, a prospective employee, a tenant or purchaser, InstaID+ is a cost-effective solution and is configurable to your needs. Unlike other providers, InstaID+ is accessible from any device and we offer customer support directly to the applicant so that checks are conducted accurately and quickly every time.
In a time when we’re hiring gig workers virtually, protect yourself and your business with InstaID+, the latest in remote identity verification technology. If you’d like to learn more, please get in touch at support@instaid.plus.