How Proof Fixed the Identity Gap in its Own Hiring Pipeline
Hiring used to be about finding the right person for the job. Now, in a remote-first world, it starts with making sure that person actually exists (or is who they purport to be). As Proof scaled its global team, the People Ops team realized that traditional vetting was not built for the age of sophisticated identity spoofing. To protect the integrity of the team, Proof turned to its own product, Identify, to verify candidates before they ever hopped on a Zoom call.
When Spoofing Becomes Identity Fraud
As Proof’s profile grew, so did the volume of applications, averaging 1000+ candidates for every open role. Alongside the talent came a growing trend of fraudulent candidates and identity impersonation. This was more than a security risk; it was a massive drain on the recruiting team’s time. Recruiter Dana Dimodica felt the shift firsthand. "The shift to remote-first hiring opened up vulnerabilities we hadn't seen before, where it became increasingly difficult to ensure that the person interviewing for a role was actually the person they claimed to be on their application," she explains. Without a way to verify identity early, the team risked spending many hours per cycle interviewing candidates who were not who they said they were. This created a bottleneck that slowed down legitimate hires - and costs the business time and resources.
Building Trust Before the First Interview
The team decided to move identity verification to the very front of the interview process. Instead of a manual, awkward ID check later in the game, Proof integrated Identify into the initial outreach. Before a first-round technical interview, candidates received a secure link to verify their government ID and biometric data. The goal was not to "gatekeep," but to establish a foundation of trust. "Integrating Identify into our recruitment workflow didn't just add a layer of security; it actually gave our candidates more confidence in us as a company," says Dimodica. "We were able to replace manual, awkward ID requests with a sleek, digital experience that felt like a natural extension of our brand." By the time a recruiter joined a call, the identity question was already settled, allowing them to focus entirely on the candidate’s skills.
A New Standard for Remote Trust
By putting Identify to work, the People Ops team did not just catch fraud. They gained back their time. Proof saved hours per hiring cycle and successfully stopped fraudulent applications before they reached the interview stage. The impact went beyond the metrics. It protected the company culture. As Ashley Bird, Director of People Operations and Experience, puts it: "In a world where remote work is the standard, you can’t afford to guess who you’re hiring. Using Identify allowed us to protect our culture and our company's data by ensuring every new hire started on a foundation of verified trust."
Securing the Hiring Process with Identity Verification
Proof uses Identify to ensure that every "new hire" notification in Slack represents a real person with a verified identity. It is how we protect our team and our customers, one hire at a time.