According to a recent study of the Canadian employment sector, nearly 45% of the Canadian workforce will be self-employed by 2020. These revealing figures show that an increasing number of companies are dealing with freelancers to perform a variety of tasks that are often essential to their operations.

However, some organizations don’t pay as much attention to the hiring process for their freelancers as they do for hiring full-time employees.

Find out why it is important to conduct a background check in a hiring process for a self-employed or freelance worker.

Self-employed workers have access to sensitive data

Many companies are not willing to invest time and money to conduct background checks on their freelancers because they do not consider them as important as their full-time employees. However, there are risks involved with this rationale.

Although self-employed workers are often only employed by the organisation for a short period of time, some may have access to confidential information about customers or the company itself. A malicious individual could therefore use this valuable information to their advantage and damage the company’s image while undermining the public’s trust in the organization. Sensitive data leaks caused by an employee, self-employed or not, can even lead to legal ramifications, including  class action lawsuits against the company that recruited them.

In this sense, a criminal record check is warranted since it could identify candidates with a role related criminal record.

Remote working raises new issues about the identity of self-employed workers

One of the reasons for the increasing number of self-employed workers on the labour market is the relative ease of working remotely via technology. As a result, a recruiter may never meet with the worker in person before giving them a contract.

In this specific situation, how can an employer be absolutely certain that the candidate is indeed the person they claim to be and that they have an official right to work in Canada? The solution to this delicate situation is a background check service.

This will confirm that the information provided by the candidate about their employment history, academic background and professional titles and certifications is true. Such an approach is an effective way to protect your organization from fraudsters and imposters.

Secure your recruitment process for self-employed workers

In conclusion, even if self-employed workers are generally only employed for a short period of time and for specific projects, they still become ambassadors for the employer’s brand and can have an impact on the company’s reputation. For this reason, they should be subject to background checks, just like permanent employees.

At Mintz Global Screening, our wide range of background check services enables us to offer customized solutions to our clients, whatever their needs may be.

Contact us to find out how we can help secure your hiring process.

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