Excerpted from a Forbes article by Alonzo Martinez
As 2025 begins, employers face a rapidly evolving landscape in hiring and background screening shaped by legislative developments, technological advancements, and emerging threats. Three key issues are poised to dominate the year: the advancement of clean slate laws, the growing adoption of fraudulent identities by threat actors, and the progression of artificial intelligence (AI) legislation. These trends underscore the importance of adaptability, compliance, and a proactive approach to mitigating risks while promoting equitable hiring practices.
The Expansion of Clean Slate Laws
Clean slate laws are reshaping the way employers assess candidates by automatically sealing or expunging certain criminal records after a specified period. These laws aim to reduce the barriers individuals with criminal records face when seeking employment, fostering fairer hiring practices. By 2025, the clean slate movement is expected to accelerate, with more states enacting or expanding laws similar to those in Minnesota, Virginia, Colorado, and Washington, D.C.
The societal implications of these laws cannot be overstated. Millions of individuals with outdated or minor criminal records will gain access to broader employment opportunities, supporting economic growth and reducing recidivism rates. However, for employers, clean slate laws introduce compliance challenges, particularly for background screening. Employers must ensure their candidate-facing teams are prepared to discuss and assess the impact on adjudication during the transitional period between a clean slate law’s effective date and the point when courts fully redact eligible criminal offenses from their indexes, which often leads to confusion for candidates with criminal histories who expect their records to be sealed or expunged.
Threat Actors and the Rise of Fraudulent Identities
The rise of remote and hybrid work models has created unprecedented challenges in verifying the identity of candidates. In 2025, threat actors are expected to increasingly adopt fraudulent identities to infiltrate organizations, whether to commit financial fraud, steal intellectual property, or gain unauthorized access to sensitive systems. As I discussed in a recent piece, the emergence of “fake workers” is not a hypothetical risk—it’s a reality that employers can no longer afford to ignore.
Conducting robust identity verifications will be essential for mitigating this growing threat. Employers should leverage advanced identity verification technologies that provide robust and reliable validation.
The Progression of AI Legislation
Artificial intelligence continues to play an increasingly prominent role in hiring, with applications ranging from resume screening to candidate assessments. However, AI-related legislation is advancing rapidly, focusing on critical decisions made by AI. Employers using AI-driven tools must tread carefully to ensure compliance with emerging laws while avoiding discriminatory outcomes.
In 2025, we can expect more states to generally follow Illinois’ HB 3773 and Colorado’s regulations, which require bias audits and transparency in AI decision-making. These laws aim to address concerns that AI could unintentionally perpetuate systemic discrimination if not properly monitored. As I emphasized in my articles on AI in employment, existing anti-discrimination laws, such as Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, remain highly relevant in this context. Employers must ensure that their AI tools are not making decisions based on protected characteristics, even indirectly.
This regulatory trend extends beyond hiring decisions to include AI tools used in ongoing worker monitoring and management. For example, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) recently issued rules requiring employers to ensure transparency and fairness in AI systems that monitor employee productivity or performance.
Preparing for the Future
As these three trends converge in 2025, the stakes for employers have never been higher. Compliance with clean slate laws will require meticulous attention to detail and an openness to adopting more holistic hiring criteria. Protecting against identity fraud will demand investment in cutting-edge verification technologies and processes. Adapting to AI legislation will necessitate a balance between leveraging innovation and ensuring fairness.
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