The government have announced that the COVID19 temporary guidance ends on the 20th June. Physical checks of ID documents for Right to Work will need to start from the 20th June (changed from the 17th May) – are you ready?

How do you:

• Notify all your staff?
• Know the right combinations of documents have been captured?
• Ensure the documents presented are real?
• Your process remains GDPR Compliant?

However there are some options, offer further training, or alternatively, use our technology. Our solution uAuthenticate mobile:

• Is always up-to-date with the Right to Work Home Office guidance
• Through it’s wizard driven process, ensures your staff have captured the right combination of documents
• Uses your mobile phone to authenticate the documents and help you spot any fakes
• From a GDPR perspective, is secure and stores the documents in the cloud using the latest encryption technologies. Removes paper and stores all you information in a central cloud service.

Right to Work rule changes continue to be in the spotlight

With continual changes (the most recent example is between April and May the physical checks were required from 17th May; on the 12th May this has changed to the 21st June) it is essential to ensure you remain compliant with the employment landscape. It’s a long and winding road from the initial Brexit and the transition period especially when the Home Office guidance is being constantly updated and key milestones arrive.

Consequently, How do you manage to keep up?

From 1st July this year, there are different requirements when employing EU citizens. Specifically, EU citizens (aside from Irish citizens) must have a valid UK immigration status under the European Temporary Leave to Remain scheme, the EU Settlement scheme, or be sponsored through the new points-based immigration system.

Under the latest guidance if you employ an EU citizen who does not have appropriate immigration endorsement and who has not submitted a valid application under the EU Settlement scheme after 30 June 2021, they will be classed as an illegal immigrant.

There is a real risk that employers will face legal consequences for employing an illegal immigrant.

Forgive this hard hitting message about compliance.

For Right to Work, if your employee:

• Does not have permission to remain in the UK;
• Had permission to remain but it has expired;
• Is not allowed to do certain types of work; or
• Has incorrect or false papers;

….. you cloud be guilty of illegally employing an individual

The Home Office guidance indicates that company directors have a risk of personal liability if found to be employing illegal immigrants. The offense is a criminal one and comes into play if:

• you employ someone you know lacks the right to work in the UK,
• have reasonable cause to believe that to be the case,
• Suspect the worker is illegal.

Forget the £20,000 fine per illegal, as those found guilty of knowingly employing illegal workers can face unlimited fines and a jail term of up to five years.

In summary, changes to the new immigration system were announced before the UK left the EU in March 2019. Consequently, company directors are expected to know about the Home Office guidance for Right to Work. The Governments media have done their job well especially so in 2021.  Therefore, claiming ignorance would be an uphill struggle for any director to argue.

Technology and Right to Work represents a good answer

Fortunately, for Right to Work help is at hand with uAuthenticate

Contact us to find out more.

Alternatively, if you have a largely paper based process you could also take the opportunity to look at how simply we could help you create one digital flow for onboarding of staff through:

• Increasing efficiency
• Ensuring your staff follow your process
• Enhancing Security of data storage
• Eliminating paper

Finally, one for you to consider, uOnboard could be a great first step to digitsing your recruitment process and improving green credentials too.

The post Right to Work – Physical ID checks are needed from the 21st June appeared first on uComply.

Technology helps your recruitment process consistently comply with the regulations in place, thereby reducing your training requirements and key person dependencies.

A great benefit of using technology and digitising your process is that you can:

• eliminate paper
• increase security of PII
• enhance your green credentials

We at uComply are looking at ways where we can help all businesses get back on the ‘right footing’.

In June we launched our Return to Work offer of a uAuthenticate Mobile licence for a donation to charity. Our chosen charity is NHS Charities Together (registered charity no. 1186569).

We are also offering our web based solution uAuthenticate Web free of charge during the COVID-19 period. This allows your onboarding process to fully comply with the new temporary change to the Home Office Right to Work guidance.

We have recently become an accredited ‘Made in Britain’ company. We hope our contributions can help companies have confidence for a safe Return to Work.

Embrace technology to ensure your Right to Work process is correct and at the same time help stimulate Britain’s recovery.

In summary, we believe that if everyone pulls together we can get through whatever COVID-19 throws at us.

Call us to see how our process driven technology can help you.

The post Return to Work – what you need to consider appeared first on uComply.

However, when you taking on new employees you do have to comply with the Home Office guidance for Right to Work.

Our RTW offer

For a donation to charity we are offering every employer one licence of uAuthenticate Mobile valid until December 2020. Our chosen charity is NHS Charities Together (registered charity no. 1186569)

All employers are under pressure during this period and uComply would like to help. To comply with the guidance can seem onerous. You need to follow the Home Office RTW guidance. Click here to see the full 40 pages of documentation. Adopt technology, use our RTW APP in your organisation.

What is the RTW guidance?

The full RTW guidance asks that you:

• See the original document and ensure that it is genuine
• Tie the document/s to the individual, this can be using video.
• Have proof that the checks were made, including a signature and date of the check

Perform these checks and you will get a Statutory Excuse against prosecution if the candidate is illegal.

The image to the left shows how, using a few steps, our technology could help you follow the RTW process. If you would like ensure you have full compliance why not take a look at uAuthenticate Mobile

During the COVID-19 outbreak there are temporary changes in place to the current home office guidance for RTW:

• Ask the worker to submit a scanned copy or a photo of their original documents
• Arrange a video call with the worker – ask them to hold up the original documents to the camera and check them against the digital copy of the documents presented
• Record the date you made the check and mark it as “adjusted check undertaken on [insert date] due to COVID-19”

Once the COVID-19 period has ended you have 8 weeks to review the original documents.

This applies to all staff taken onboard during the current outbreak.

Our solution uAuthenticate Web will safely take you through this process and ensure you stay compliant with the RTW process. It will seamlessly dove-tail into our mobile solution to ensure any face to face checks are done in-line with the current guidance.

Help your business. Donate to charity. Let’s get Britain going again.

If you would like to know more please get in contact with us.

The post Return to Work our RTW solution for a donation to charity appeared first on uComply.

Q: Who is the best person to ask when it comes to immigration compliance checks after Brexit?

A: The government, Brussels, newspapers, the internet…. or the answer is not sure.

The whole point here is that no one really knows how Brexit is going to play out, so it pays to be prepared. But, prepared for what? It’s a fair question, and still no one really knows the answer right now. There’s no getting away from it, Brexit is holding up a lot of important business decisions and causing business owners plenty of headaches along the way.

What Do We Do in the Meantime?

There are three schools of thought when it comes to what to do now:

• Try to decipher what you hear in the media, keep your ear low to the ground, and hope to get lucky
• Panic and start throwing money around left, right, and centre so that you feel like you’re covering every base
• Keep calm and carry on, whilst also investing in flexible future-proofed tools

When you see it written down like that, it’s pretty clear that Option 3 is the smart way to go, isn’t it? With that in mind, it’s worth taking a look at what we know for certain right now…

What Do We Reliably Know About Immigration Compliance Checks?

For the time being, little has changed regarding immigration compliance checks. The UK continues to operate as it did before the referendum decided to take over all of our lives. Every time you pick up a paper, turn on the news, or listen to the radio you’ll hear that something has been agreed in principle, and that it’s going to cause X, Y, and Z to all change dramatically. But nothing has changed yet, and the EU Settlement Scheme is still an optional / voluntary process.

You should of course be aware of it and plan for the future, but right now if you keep doing what you’ve been doing for years, you’ll already be halfway there. Now that we’ve got the present covered, how does the future look?

How Do We Move Forward with Immigration Compliance Checks?

The most important thing to remember is that it seems impossible for any two experts to agree on what’s going to happen next. That’s human nature, and you should take everything you hear with a pinch of salt. Just because someone comes on the TV in the evening and speaks confidently and boldly about the way forward, doesn’t mean you should base all of your company’s immigration compliance checks for the next 20 years on what they say.

Take a step back, have a coffee, and just make a mental note that you’ve heard yet another potential outcome. It’s useful to be aware of them, but what you really need is a tool that keeps track of immigration compliance checks for you.

Exhaustive Planning vs Flexibility

It’s tempting to try and create some master plan where you list every possible Brexit outcome, and then detail the immigration compliance checks you’ll need to add to your current processes. But just hit the pause button for moment and consider how much duplicated effort this is going to take. How will you find time to take care of the dozens of non-Brexit related things that need doing too?

We’re very much on the side of flexibility, which is exactly why we developed uAuthenticate. The idea is to make life that little bit easier by investing in a smart tool that changes with the times. Because you know that you’re using something that’s always up to speed, you can be sure of always being compliant despite the latest Brexit developments.

For more information or support on your immigration compliance checks, get in touch with us today.

The post What Does Brexit Mean for Right to Work & Immigration Compliance Checks? appeared first on uComply.

This Award identifies products, services, technology/apps and/or innovations in use within the UK Cleaning Industry.

They will be announcing the winner at the Award Ceremony on 20th March at Excel during the Cleaning Show.

The Ceremony on the 20th March 2019 is an invitation only event please contact the CSSA to attend.

The awards ceremony takes place during the three day Cleaning show 2019 between the 19th and 21st March where we will be exhibiting.

Come along to our stand A20b which is near the conference area / VIP Lounge.

If you are attending The Cleaning Show please visit us. We’d love to meet with you and let us show you how we can help you better manage your Right to Work process with uAuthenticate mobile.

Innovation and Technology has a place in every day processes

Technology can be threatening to some. First of all our technology innovation is driven by our clients / regulatory processes, let us help you improve your worker on-boarding process.

With Brexit on the horizon the Home Office guidance for Right to Work is going through a ‘state of flux’. Hence, the latest changes which support key elements of Brexit went live on the 29th January 2019. Are you aware of the changes?

Depending on the eventual deal/no-deal outcome more changes may be in the pipeline.
Consequently how do you ensure you stay up-to-date?

Innovation is at the heart of progressive businesses and we help you stay on top of changes when they happen. Let us create efficiencies in your process whilst at the same time protecting you from the risk of illegal workers. A most noteworthy by-product many of our clients find, is that they can demonstration compliance to their clients. This results in winning / retaining more business. Above all why not a look at our testimonials and see what our clients say about our service?

Finally, if you like to know more give us a call and ask for a free no obligation trial so you can see innovation at work. We’d love to hear from you.

The post uComply are 2019 CSSA Contract Innovation Finalists appeared first on uComply.

What Does Brexit Mean For Compliance?

At the time of writing, the specifics of the Brexit deal are still very much up in the air. With unprecedented levels of detail to be decided , negotiations still to be finalised ramifications for businesses could last years.

This type of uncertainty makes planning for Brexit considerably more difficult than preparing yourself for GDPR. Whilst the latter are defined rules / regulations, the former is seemingly in a state of flux. Add to the mix, the highly complex nature of any deal, and it’s hard to plan for the future when you don’t know what it will look like. One of these elements relates directly to compliance for Right to Work.  It is worthwhile asking a few questions

• Will there be any new rules?
• What will employers need to do?
• Can you be certain that you will be compliant when these changes happen?

Unfortunately, when it comes to the issue of compliance, pleading ignorance is never going to be good enough.

uAuthenticate Offers Protection From Day Zero

No matter when Brexit finally arrives, you need to ready. You can have tools in place that you can trust no matter what the business landscape looks like. Above all this is where the idea of an adaptable system comes into its own.

uAuthenticate is constantly updated to ensure 100% compliance with all rules,  regulations and standards. Using uAuthenticate you ensure your business has a built-in safeguard in an ever-changing world. This provides intelligent insulation against any Right to Work guidance changes which could otherwise impact your business.

In summary, get peace of mind that RTW is taken care of and redirect your team’s time / energy to planning on other knock-on effects of Brexit.

Efficiency Will Be Key in the New Business Landscape

With GDPR and Brexit hitting businesses in 2018/2019,  rarely has their been a time of greater change in recent history. Change is good in that it drives innovation — like using uAuthenticate to go fully paperless. Legacy systems can easily go out of date and feel the strain.

Our approach is to make a virtue out of the greater demands being placed on business, by using it as a key constraint with which we can drive efficiency. Looking for new ways to get more things done in less time is one of the areas in which technology comes into its own. By making repetitive processes quick and easy for people to manage in a fully paperless environment, we can join up multiple sites with the click of a button whilst at the same time beefing up your compliance for Right to Work in the UK.

That way you have the tools you need to get the most out of your team in a time when change is very much the word of the moment.

Tech ensures you can centralise training needs

As the business landscapes rapidly change, it’s hard to keep track of individual training needs across all of your staff. By using tools like uAuthenticate to centralise key Right to Work processes, you can readily identify training gaps. Perfect for ensuring that your team is always pulling in the same direction.

Finally thoughts on compliance for Right to Work in the UK

Technolgy has a role to play in driving efficiency in business, now more than ever. With unprecedented, and as yet undefined change on the horizon in the form of Brexit, it pays to use technology. Use this to insulate yourself against any changes and ensure your compliance for Right to Work in the UK.

Why not give us a call and see how we can help?

The post How Technology Can Guarantee Compliance for Right to Work appeared first on uComply.

Uncompromising Paperless Design as Standard

Our App uAuthenticate mobile doesn’t just get rid of mountains of paperwork; it’s GDPR compliant from the moment you download it. Fully encrypted cloud storage as standard ensures you can sleep easy knowing that every piece of data you gather is stored securely. At the same time you can take your first step to go paperless.

Avoid unnecessary DBS checks…

DBS checks are expensive and Right to Work documents are needed as a part of this process. But theses uploads do not verify the Right to Work documents authenticity. Make sure your documents are authentic before you incur a DBS cost using our mobile App uAuthenticate mobile.

Efficiency – Take Your Work With You

Our App uAuthenticate mobile performs Right to Work checks anywhere, anytime. It is wizard driven ensuring the correct documents are captured, authenticated and securely stored with 24/7 availability. Take a picture with your phone, capture the documents you want, get the candidates consent, above all it’s paperless using your phone.

Improve your pipeline

Using uAuthenticate mobile is a sales enabler. You can demonstrate compliance to your clients/prospects thereby helping retain/win new business.

As a result it is perfect if you want to move ahead of the competition.

In Summary going paperless will help your green credentials

uAuthenticate mobile makes your Right to Work process more efficient, helps you go paperless for a large part of the on-boarding process and provides protection against the risk of fines. Even more, don’t take our word for it, read what our clients have said.

In conclusion why not find out how we can help you and your business. You can call us on 01707 800 840, email or just fill out the contact form and we will be in touch.

The post Go Paperless, Protect, Save Time and ensure employees have the Right to Work appeared first on uComply.

How easy is it to obtain illegal documents?

The grey lining to our silver cloud is that this makes the UK an attractive place for all especially with the numbers of illegal documents out there. There are many from within Europe and beyond who have their eyes firmly set on working and living in the UK but, they don’t all have the necessary criteria for legal entry. So, what do they do?

The BBC published a video in May where they went undercover to see how easy it would be to obtain EU documents in Turkey.

It presents a new problem where the refugees who obtained permission to be in Europe legally are selling their documents (great use of recycling!).

Yet again, we find that social media is doing its bit. Without giving too much away, Facebook seems to be one of the sites facilitating the sale of these documents.

The video highlighted the sales of a German issued Schengen Visa but other documents are available at a price. It’s well worth the watch. Click here to view: BBC how easy to get an illegal passport

It really highlights how the criminal world can further exploit individuals using indebtedness.

Exploitation is out there

A typical scenario is;

• Immigrant arrives in the UK planning to stay
• Debts are built up by the immigrant from rent, food and illegal documents.
• The immigrant cannot easily get a bank account so one is given to them by the “landlord”.

Now they have documentation, address, a bank account. They can work?

The GLAA (The Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority) looks to stop this type of scenario:

• Prevent workers from being exploited for their labour;
• Protect workers and potential victims so making them less vulnerable to being exploited for their labour;
• Pursue relentlessly, disrupting and prosecuting those who engage in the exploitation of workers.

We all as employers have a role to play in the modern slavery or more politely exploitation of people. By following the Home Office guidance on Right to Work we can help reduce this activity, but….

This presents another challenge for employers – “The Imposter”.

This is where uComply can help – with training

There are a number of steps mandated in the Home Office guidance.

One of them ensures that the person you are seeing with the original documents at the time of the check is actually the person depicted on those documents.

Fortunately, nature has helped us out here. Simply put, most people have a natural ability to recognise faces but, ensuring we all do this consistently needs an established process which everyone follows.

The picture on the left (me on a good day) gives a summary of what you can do.

When we train people, we use this as well as other techniques to hone this skill.

We all understand as employers that employing illegal workers can result in fines of £20,000 per illegal worker and or a prison sentence.

Importantly though, employing an imposter will incur a fine if the worker is deemed illegal. There are no legitimate excuses for not spotting a substitute person.

The reason why we follow the Home Office guidance is to get a statutory excuse. It has never been more important to follow the Right to Work process.

The risk of illegal documents is still there though. With people still willing to sell fake documents, illegal documents can and do find their way on to the market. Check it out, type “buy fake document” into a search engine. You will find many websites blatantly offering fake documents for sale. Vigilance in this arena still required.

Technology combined with training helps identify illegal documents.

Did you know that even a smart phone can be used to establish the authenticity of a passport, ID card, Visa, Biometric Residents Permit and even a driving licence?

Utilising “Near Field Communication” (NFC) capabilities the chip found on the identity documents is readable.

This gives the user an unparalleled opportunity to prevent the use of illegal documents in the enrollment process.

On its own, without using skills from training (i.e. user interaction)technology is not a panacea. When user procedures for Right to Work combine with technology. It is a game changer.

At uComply, to help employers get that vital statutory excuse, we have created a fusion between technology and process.

Our unique product uAuthenticate ensures employers follow the guidance in a consistent manner and records all the results securely. At the same time, it checks document authenticity and supports consent based document capture (i.e. GDPR compliant).

We offer training which incorporates facial recognition, document inspection techniques and how to ensure that you follow the Home Office Right to Work guidance process.

The post Europe under threat from illegal documents? appeared first on uComply.

Everyone has a right to work, but not all have the right to work in the UK. Employing those who want to work here is one issue, but employing those who can legally work here is another.

Checking the legality of documentation is fast becoming an enormous problem with the production of better fake documents.
From now until Brexit day we anticipate thousands of workers will enter the UK before the door is shut. Many will be in the FM, care, healthcare, building, catering and leisure industries. The majority will have genuine paperwork and a legal right to work here.

However, a minority will not be eligible. Sifting these out is a big issue especially when fines of £20,000 or imprisonment are the penalties for employing a person without genuine paperwork. One firm using our solution is discovering many fakes. Based upon the going rate of fines you could equate this to a million pound saving since they came on board. It is hardly surprising as there are an estimated 8,000+ producers of fake documents across Europe.

How does the HR or regional manager carrying out interviews proceed confidently? An interviewer can, using our process driven solution, tell immediately whether the interviewee has genuine documents and is legally allowed to work here. For the less than the cost of a cup of coffee per candidate you get to sleep easy knowing that you do not have illegal workers  and are keeping on the right side of the law.
At the same time, HR could delegate large elements of the work to operational staff. As the right to work Home Office guidance process is built into our software it ensures a greater level of compliance even with inexperienced users. HR can oversee the results centrally focusing on the exceptions creating process efficiencies.

The right to work mobile version – uAuthenticate Mobile

For the Area Manager interviewing staff away from the office our checking process is completely paperless and carried out on a mobile.

The interviewer taps in the country of origin and a list of all necessary documentation will appear. They can then tell the candidate what is required for the interview.

Our solution allows the interviewer to take a photograph, save it to the cloud and the candidate signs the screen to allow storage of their documents. Essentially, providing a permission based process.

Now for the clever part – our App can scan the documents, read and save all the data from the information stored on the passports’ chip too.

All the information is stored safely and securely in our encrypted cloud solution for easy retrieval or easy deletion. In addition, a centralised HR team or compliance function can easily review all workers information.

The right to work desktop version uAuthenticate Pro

Ideal for office based HR recruiters on a PC or laptop interviewing a large number of candidates at a central location.

Our Pro version incorporates a passport checker (the same type used in airports and border crossings). This allows a forensic level of checks for the passport in UV, Infrared light and chip reading. The solution checks scans of ID documents against a document library like a technological game of snap. This system is the only one that offers Home Office Guidance and this level of full passport authentication.

The storage of PII for this solution is All the information is on the clients own servers for easy retrieval or deletion.

User speak

One fast growing contract cleaning company, Birkin Cleaning Services of Welwyn Garden City is one of our clients. They have uAuthenticate mobile and appreciate the system as insurance that every new member of staff is working legally.

Birkin CEO Paul Ashton finds the system essential to his recruitment. He said: “We looked at several systems and chose uComply because it offered the widest range of checks, the price is keen and its training is superb. Ultimately, the system demonstrates our active commitment to stringent processes and therefore peace of mind as a business owner. It’s easy to use, non-aggressive, does what it promises and our staff love it for its simplicity.”

Paul, who is Chairman of the CSSA Innovation and Technology Board has invested heavily in technology this year. He said “This is the first piece of technology that has immediately paid for itself, impressed our clients and enhanced our reputation. It sets the tone of professionalism right from the start at the very first interview. I wish all software was so easy and user friendly.”

What happens?

There will be some readers asking the question. ‘What if a very clever fake gets through the system….’. The answer is comforting because if the employer can prove that it has all the documents checked, cleared, signed and dated, there should be no fine. So as the forgers get smarter, so do uComply’s solutions. If the Home Office guidance changes, our systems are always up-to-date. We have the only system that incorporates Home Office guidelines combined with this level of checks. Furthermore, no data leaves the UK.

The process does not end once a candidate is clear as our process is continuous. We create alerts for expiring documents like passports, VISA, Biometric cards, country ID cards, ECS check and driving licences. Our development, help desk, data storage functions are UK based with no external call centre.

Our pricing is within reach of employers, contractors and recruitment businesses. Employing one illegal worker by accident can cause immeasurable damage to your business and tarnish your valuable reputation.

When considering employing someone the golden rule is ‘If in doubt – don’t’.

The post The right to work here appeared first on uComply.

Our Right to Work Solution uAuthenticate Mobile is in the spotlight again and received strong praise for its innovative design and ease of use.

It is always good to hear a third party’s view on how well we stack up in the real world.

So how did it all come about?

It all started with one of our clients recommending that we enter for the CSSA hosted award for innovation. This we duly completed and a month later we were notified that our submission had passed.

We were (as 1 of 26 successful submissions from the first round) invited to a dragon’s den panel of cleaning industry professionals to grill us extensively. We demonstrated our Right to Work Solution and answered many questions, including:

• How our Right to Work Solution is innovative.
• Overview of the technology we use
• What the Home Office guidance is and how it is addressed in our solution

As a result of the HOW we were 1 of 6 finalists and invited to a great event at The Brewery in Chiswell Street. Many of the cleaning members were present and got a chance to look first hand at our Right to Work solution uAuthenticate Mobile and, additionally, at uAuthenticate Pro.

Getting invites to events on merit and not a sponsorship fee is unusual in today’s age. Congratulations to the CSSA for taking such a bold step and organising a great day.

Why have I gone through the details above for our Right to Work Solution and Technology?

As a technology led firm, we are always innovating and look to constantly receive feedback. From either our clients or prospects we always try and incorporating ideas to enhancing our solutions. However, one of the biggest challenges we face is the one of education. Although Identity document checking systems have been around for a few years not many people know about them.

In 2012 uAuthenticate Pro (our personal computer version) a true Right to Work Solution, was introduced. For the first time combining document checking whilst fully incorporating the Home Office guidance.

Technology moves on and last year we introduced uAuthenticate Mobile which uses smart phones to check the documents whilst fully incorporating the Home Office guidance. Thereby bringing the benefits of the Right to Work process to your fingertips and being available when and where you want it.

Call us to find out more.

The post uComply are an innovation finalist for their Right to Work Solution uAuthenticate Mobile appeared first on uComply.