Three New Faces Every Friday Night. Nobody Checked.
UK hospitality workforce
annual staff turnover rate
to verify with Certifyd
The reality of hospitality staff in the UK.
Identity verification for hospitality staff addresses an industry where high turnover and last-minute staffing create persistent identity gaps. Certifyd uses bi-directional authentication — both the venue manager and the worker cryptographically prove their identity to each other in real time. When a hospitality worker arrives for a shift, the system verifies not just who they are, but that they hold an active assignment with their agency or employer and are authorised to work. The result is a tamper-proof, auditable record of every shift.
UK hospitality employs approximately 3.5 million people across 180,000 businesses, with annual staff turnover around 30%. Hotels, restaurants, pubs, and event venues routinely rely on agency and casual workers to fill shifts at short notice. On any busy Friday night, a restaurant may have three staff members who started that day — none of whose identity has been independently verified beyond a glance at a document.
Hospitality is one of the sectors most at risk from right-to-work non-compliance. The Home Office’s own data shows that hospitality consistently features in illegal working enforcement actions. The Fair Work Agency (launching April 2026) will consolidate enforcement powers and increase inspection frequency across the sector. For businesses that rely on casual and agency labour, the ability to demonstrate real-time identity verification for every worker on every shift is moving from ‘nice to have’ to ‘essential’.
The hospitality staffing model — high volume, high turnover, last-minute bookings — means that traditional identity verification methods (photocopied passports in a filing cabinet) cannot keep pace. Workers arrive from multiple agencies, work a few shifts, and move on. Certifyd’s device-bound authentication creates a verifiable identity record for each worker that persists across venues, agencies, and assignments.
This is broken.
Here's why.
High turnover means new, unverified faces appear on the rota every week.
Last-minute shift coverage relies on agency workers whose identity hasn’t been independently confirmed.
Hospitality is a top target for right-to-work enforcement actions.
Photocopied passports in filing cabinets don’t prove the person working today is the person who was checked.
Simple verification.
Every time.
Worker arrives for shift — both parties open Certifyd and authenticate via their registered device
Each person’s identity is cryptographically verified to the other — bi-directional, not one-way
The system confirms the worker’s active role with their employer or agency and their right-to-work status
A tamper-proof record is created: who, when, where, and under whose organisational authority
Ready to see it in action?
Book a demo or tell us about your needs.
“On a busy weekend we’ll have agency staff we’ve never met working the bar. They’re serving alcohol, handling payments, dealing with customers. I just have to hope the agency did their checks.”— Operations Manager, hotel chain
Common questions.
Hospitality combines high turnover, casual employment, and reliance on agency labour — all factors that create identity verification gaps. The Home Office consistently targets hospitality in enforcement operations. Penalties of up to £60,000 per illegal worker, potential imprisonment, and sponsor licence revocation make non-compliance existentially risky for hospitality businesses. The Fair Work Agency (from April 2026) will increase inspection frequency further.
The hotel and the staffing agency both register as Organisations on Certifyd. The agency adds each worker as a member. When a worker arrives for a shift, the hotel manager verifies them through Certifyd — confirming their identity, active agency membership, and right-to-work status in real time. The hotel gets a tamper-proof verification record without needing to conduct its own background check.
Yes. Event staffing often involves large numbers of casual workers arriving for a single day or weekend. Certifyd’s 30-second verification works at scale — multiple managers can verify workers simultaneously, and each verification creates an auditable record. For event companies that rotate staff across multiple venues weekly, Certifyd provides a consistent identity verification system regardless of location.
Certifyd is device-bound, meaning verification works through the worker’s registered device. For the rare case where a worker doesn’t have access to a smartphone, alternative verification methods can be arranged through the employing organisation. However, with UK smartphone penetration above 95%, this is an edge case rather than a systemic barrier.
Explore more use cases.
Verify every hospitality worker before their shift
Book a demo to see how Certifyd works for your team, or tell us about your verification needs and we'll get back to you within 24 hours.
Read: Fair Work Agency — What Changes in April 2026