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HireRight, a leading provider of global background screening services and workforce risk management solutions, has released its 2025 Global Benchmark Report, highlighting escalating challenges in identity fraud and candidate discrepancies during the hiring process. The report draws from responses by over 1,000 HR, risk, and talent acquisition professionals worldwide, revealing gaps in verification practices amid rising threats, including those amplified by generative AI tools.
Despite reports of increasing identity fraud, only three in five survey respondents globally include identity checks in their pre-employment screening. Alarmingly, one in six businesses confirmed identity fraud incidents during hiring, while three in ten were uncertain. The proliferation of generative AI has facilitated misrepresentation, from fabricated credentials to altered documents and misleading applications, emphasizing the need for robust, technology-driven identity verification.
Organizations relying on third-party providers for identity checks outnumber those handling it in-house, where one in six globally still manage internally, often with limited one-time staff training. In North America, in-house approaches are more prevalent than in EMEA and APAC, where ongoing training is standard.
“These findings underscore that identity fraud and candidate misrepresentation continue to present real risks for employers worldwide,” said Euan Menzies, President and CEO of HireRight. “While many companies are taking steps to verify identities and screen thoroughly, there are still significant gaps. Employers that fail to strengthen their identity verification processes or overlook recurring discrepancy patterns could face costly consequences, from compliance failures to reputational harm.”
More than three-quarters of respondents globally identified candidate discrepancies in the past year, with nearly two in five detecting at least one in every 20 screened candidates and 13% finding one in every five. Enterprises were far more likely to uncover issues than SMBs, with only 7% of large organizations reporting no discrepancies versus 41% of smaller businesses.
By region, employment verifications topped discrepancy sources, cited by 72% in APAC and 64% in EMEA. Education credentials posed particular challenges in EMEA, where 47% reported issues, compared to lower rates in North America and APAC. Criminal records and drug testing also emerged as concerns, with 36-40% noting discrepancies in criminal checks and nearly four in ten reporting positive drug results.
HireRight is a leading global provider of technology-driven workforce risk management and compliance solutions. We provide comprehensive background screening, verification, identification, monitoring, and drug and health screening services for approximately 34,000 customers worldwide. We offer our services via a global platform that tightly integrates into our customers’ human capital management systems, enabling highly effective and efficient workflows for workforce hiring, onboarding, and monitoring. In 2024, we screened more than 60 million job applicants, employees, and contractors for our customers and processed more than 120 million screens.
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