January

Here's Verifile's 2021 review...

2021 was another strange year for us all and I can't be the only person still wondering what "normal" even looks like.

But before I share my review what's been happening here at Verifile, I want to ensure you are all aware of the news that UK employers have been waiting for. I am delighted that we can all look ahead to the era of Digital ID Validation!

UK GOV have announced that digital identity checks can be used for Right to Work checks from April 2022. Candidates will be able to upload images of their personal documents, instead of having originals checked by prospective employers. This is great news which will save significant resource, reduce onboarding time, and mitigate risk for employers.

Better still, the same identification technology can be used to support DBS checks too! We will of course be sharing more detail over the coming months but rest assured that we have been working hard behind the scenes in preparation.

As I sit here thinking about 2021, what stands out is that it's been a year of both significant growth, and significant change. Few would have predicted the incredible bounce back after the first year of Covid-19. Fewer still foresaw the 'great resignation' and the battle for recruitment and retention.

In response to unprecedented demand for our services, we've been recruiting non-stop for 18 months. Headcount at Verifile is already up by two thirds compared to pre-pandemic levels and with no plans to slow down. In September we welcomed our new Chief People Officer, Fiona Buchanan, to the board. Fiona has already set about making changes to make Verifile an even better place to work for our rapidly growing team! A new Chief Technology Officer is also due to join us early March and we have big plans for our platform and product – more on these will be shared in due course.

2021 was without doubt our most challenging year to date. Our Operations teams have been working relentlessly to deliver the services you rely on. Highlights include:

• 41% increase in number of candidates screened
• 40% increase in number of checks completed
• 95% of verifications closed successfully
• 25% of checks are ordered through our API (If you are interested to learn how you can access our checks via your own platform, we’d love to help you!)
• 60% of checks were completed fully by our automated technology without any manual intervention
• DBS times consistently averaging between 3 and 7 days
• We checked candidates in 155 countries

The highlight from 2021 that we are most proud of is our verification success rate. Only 5% of all the employment references, qualifications, and memberships we checked were unable to be verified at source. That’s an incredible accomplishment considering all the disruption experienced by all third-party respondents throughout the year!

This aspect of our service is truly what continues to set Verifile apart and provide unparalleled value. And while this approach may take longer in some cases, we maintain that if a job is worth doing, it’s worth doing properly.

When looking at all the candidates we checked in 2021, we also found that:

• Over half of all candidates have had discrepancies on their CV (55%)
• Almost 1 in 4 candidates had a significant discrepancy with a red traffic light (23%)
• 1 in 10 employments we checked had a significant discrepancy with a red traffic light (10%)
• 1 in 10 qualifications we checked had a significant discrepancy with a red traffic light (10%)
• 1 in 8 memberships we checked had a significant discrepancy with a red traffic light (12%) 

Now looking ahead, what’s in store for 2022 here at Verifile?

• Digital ID Verification bringing about big changes to DBS and Right to Work checks
• The launch of an alternative candidate-centric ordering process
• Further data source integrations, and more products and services
• Exciting news about our international expansion
• New leaders joining our Board and senior management team
• Adoption of Customer Success philosophy over Account Management - a major investment in how we support you
• Continued investment in recruitment and in our colleagues’ well-being and personal development.

Our Business Support Team is creating initiatives, and enabling the return to office-based working for staff wishing to do so. Kelly, our Vendor & Accreditation Officer, is busy steering us through various audits as we continue to renew our 7 certifications, and we’re working towards more certifications for 2022.

In summary, I hope you enter the new year as full of optimism and excitement as we do here at Verifile. My team and I look forward to keeping in touch with you and enjoying more shared success in 2022.

Yours sincerely,
 
Eyal Ben Cohen

Verifile Founder and CEO

The UK Government has released further details on how employers will soon be able to use digital identity verification services. 
 
Challenges for employers around ID verification, for both Right to Work and DBS checks, were amplified by the pandemic. This focused attention on the subject has resulted in changes to legislation which will allow digital identification. At Verifile we greatly welcome this initiative and look forward to launching compliant services to support the new process.
 
The changes to legislation are expected to take effect on or soon after 6 April 2022, but solutions may not actually be available on this date. Providers wanting to supply these services must first become certified against the DBS and Right to Work schemes. There are currently no certified providers, nor is there even a single certification body. A list of certifiers will be selected in due course. Until then the legislation change itself won’t necessarily result in an instant solution.
 
Verifile has been working closely with our technology and digital identity verification partners this past year on some different approaches. We are doing all that we can with the information available, including developing a working solution to be ready for the start of April. But, there are still aspects of this initiative which are unknown and need further detail from Government.
 
The Government has also indicated that the certification process itself could take up to 8 weeks. As such, we felt it necessary to manage expectations about timeframes accordingly.
 
Unfortunately, we must caution that there will be no silver bullet which will transform the process for all candidates overnight on April 6th. Even if there is a certified solution in place by that date, not all candidates will embrace a Government-led digital ID verification initiative. We will of course provide alternative solutions for candidates who are not willing to take the digital pathway.
 
It is important for us to stress that in all scenarios, you will be able to continue using the existing identity checking guidelines, including the temporary arrangements introduced in March 2020.
 
Our solution, which we intend to launch as soon as possible, will offer different options to meet all needs.
 
We’ll continue to update you as we are getting closer to April.

The DBS have released figures about current performance in light of the impact on their turnaround times due to the pandemic. Given the impact this has on your own operations we wanted to share the details with you. 
 
The DBS revealed that there's been quite a spike in turnaround times since the start of the year. They assure us, however, that these are returning to pre-Christmas levels with no significant delays. 
 
Here's a table showing the DBS's published service standards compared with the actual performance of the DBS checks we have put through on your behalf:
 

 
Despite the delays experienced by the DBS which have exceeded their published standards in recent weeks, we’ve been able to maintain and even exceed those service levels for Verifile customers!
 
If you want to know how we can help you with fast and accurate DBS checks, please contact sales@verifile.co.uk or call 01234 608090!