What Is Credential Verification? Why Employers Need It in 2026
“Identity theft is not a joke.” That may be the famous line from Dwight Shrute from the hit sitcom ‘The Office,’ but it’s also true. Much like identity misuse, resume embellishment and false credentials are highly common. That’s where credential verification comes in.
A Hire Right report found more than three-quarters of respondents globally said they uncovered candidate discrepancies in the prior 12 months, and 13% said they found discrepancies in one out of every five candidates.
With artificial intelligence (AI) making deepfakes and forgery easier than ever before, employers may face even more challenges in verifying identity and credentials.
Resume fraud is also costly for employers. It reportedly costs American companies $600 billion each year.
That’s why we created Kred Vault, a new way to verify professional identity and credentials that employers can trust.
But first, let’s discuss credential verification in detail.
What Is Credential Verification?
Credential verification is the process of confirming that a candidate’s stated qualifications are accurate by checking them against authoritative sources.
Employers typically use credential verification to ensure a potential employee has the right qualifications for the job, especially for roles that require formal education, training, or experience.
Employers typically check:
- Education (degree, institution, dates, major)
- Employment history (company, title, dates, eligibility for rehire where applicable)
- Professional licenses and certifications (status, expiration, levels)
- Disciplinary actions (if public)
- Identity documents (where legally appropriate) to confirm the person is who they claim to be
Credential verification is not about “gotcha.” It’s a risk-control step to ensure the person you hire is qualified, compliant, and real.
How Does It Differ from Background Checks?
Background checks shouldn’t be confused with employment or identity verification. Credential verification is one component of a broader background screening program, but it’s not the same thing.
Credential verification focuses on whether the candidate’s claims (education, license, work history) are true.
Background checks are broader and may include criminal history checks, drug testing, credit checks (where legal/role-relevant), identity checks, and right-to-work/employment eligibility processes.
Both are important, but background checks alone don’t confirm employment eligibility and feasibility. For instance, someone with a clean criminal record could possibly have lied on their resume.
Why Credential Verification Is Important
Credential verification should be an integral part of the hiring process to ensure that the right person is filling a position. That’s not just important from a business perspective but also a legal one.
Here are several reasons why companies need to invest in robust credential verification processes and solutions:
Resume Fraud Crisis:
Resume misrepresentation is widespread, and it doesn’t always look like blatant fraud. Sometimes it’s minor date changes that hide gaps, inflated titles, or unverifiable credentials.
A ResumeLab survey reported 70% of workers admitted to lying on their resume. Similarly, HireRight’s 2025 Benchmark highlights that candidate discrepancies were reported by more than three-quarters of employers.
Remote Hiring and Verification Gaps:
Remote hiring has further increased verification gaps because of geographic complexities. It does increase speed and expand talent pools, but it also creates verification challenges for employers, especially those hiring talent from abroad.
While North America and Europe offer online methods to confirm educational credentials, similar verification may not be possible for credentials from other countries.
Synthetic ID and Deep Fake Problem:
In 2026, the threat isn’t only fake diplomas, it’s manufactured identities and AI-enabled impersonation.
On the hiring side, multiple public incidents and investigations have shown sophisticated “fake worker” attempts aimed at gaining access to company systems, especially in remote technical roles.
For example, HRGrapevine reported that thousands of North Korean fake IT workers had gotten into US companies. This kind of fraud doesn’t just cause problems for companies but also becomes a national security risk.
Regulatory and Compliance Risk:
Credential verification becomes essential when law, regulation, or contractual obligations require it. Different countries have their own requirements, which may also differ by industry.
Here are some examples:
- Work authorization/employment eligibility (US): DHS/USCIS guidance describes the Form I-9 process and the optional remote document examination “alternative procedure” for eligible employers, which still requires structured compliance steps and documentation.
- Healthcare exclusions (US): HHS OIG maintains the LEIE and warns that hiring excluded individuals can expose organizations to civil monetary penalties, recommending routine checking.
- Financial services (US): FINRA/SEC fingerprinting and related requirements apply for many firm personnel and are part of regulated onboarding controls.
- Right to work (UK): UK government guidance describes certification frameworks for digital identity checks used for right-to-work and related schemes.
Failing to comply with rules and hiring individuals who don’t have proper authorization to work can lead to significant penalties.
How Employers Verify Credentials
Now, there are several ways employers can verify educational and professional credentials, with each approach having its limitations, especially those that involve manual checks.
Manual Verification:
Manual verification usually means HR, recruiting ops, or compliance teams:
- Contact schools or employers directly
- Request official transcripts or letters
- Check license registries one by one
- Document everything in internal systems
Manual verification can be thorough, but it’s time and resource-intensive. Also, it’s prone to errors and fraud as well.
It may work for small volumes, but it’s slow, inconsistent, and easy to break when hiring scales or goes global.
Automated Verification:
Automation typically uses software to:
- Collect candidate consent and required info
- Validate documents and cross-check data fields
- Connect to education/employment/license data sources
- Flag mismatches for review
- Keep an audit trail (who checked what, when, and with what evidence)
This is where employers usually gain speed and consistency, especially for distributed teams. Automation can reduce the time to check documents to just under 24 hours (sometimes instant).
These solutions, of course, come at a cost. As mentioned, they only work where databases with credentials and identities are available. They might not work for multinational teams as effectively.
Third-Party Verification Services:
Third-party providers can handle verifications end-to-end. They have broader data access and follow standardized processes. Some even provide international coverage and localization for credential verification.
As HireRight’s report points out, many organizations use these services, but the fact that resume fraud is still rampant reflects that even they have limitations.
Kred Vault is a new way of credential evaluation that puts the responsibility on the professional. With highly secure, immutable NFT-based credential vaults, candidates can easily share verifiable details about their work and education with employers. Learn how it works.
What to Look for in Credential Verification Solutions (Checklist)
Whether you’re using a SaaS for credential verification of your hires or a dedicated service, use this short, practical checklist to reduce risk and improve turnaround time.
- Coverage that matches your hiring: It should cover the countries you operate in (including their languages, schools, license boards, and employers).
- Strong identity and anti-impersonation controls: For remote hiring, there should be reliable document-integrity checks to detect fraud signals.
- Clear discrepancy handling: See how exceptions are reviewed, what gets escalated, and what’s auto-cleared.
- Auditability: Reports should be exportable, and there should be an audit trail on who accessed records.
- Compliance controls: Look for built-in consent management, data retention, and role-based access.
- Integrations: If the tool connects with your ATS/HRIS, verification can become a part of the screening and onboarding process.
Make Credential Verification Part of Your Hiring Strategy
Credential verification works best when it’s not treated as a last-minute hurdle right before an offer. It should form the core part of your hiring strategy and employee experience. That means embracing the right solutions for verifying credentials of incoming employees, as well as creating verifiable professional experience/history for those who exit.
Kred Vault is a blockchain-based credential verification solution for professionals and organizations. As an organization, you can issue and own NFT credentials for your employees, think experience letters, certifications, and achievements, for global transparency.