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The GCC is in the midst of a talent transformation. Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 projects, the UAE’s expanding financial hub, and large-scale infrastructure investments across the region are creating unprecedented demand for skilled professionals. But with this growth comes risk. A wrong hire today is no longer a simple HR misstep; it’s an enterprise-level vulnerability.
Unlike a traditional “bad hire” who simply underperforms, a wrong hire is someone who actively misrepresents who they are, their identity, their qualifications, or their experience. In markets where regulation and trust are tightly intertwined, that distinction is critical. A single oversight could escalate into regulatory fines, reputational damage, or contract delays that affect not just HR but the entire business.
Why the GCC is more exposed
HireRight’s 2025 Global Benchmark Report reveals that more than three-quarters of businesses worldwide uncovered discrepancies during screening last year, with education and employment misrepresentations among the most common. But in the GCC, the stakes are arguably even higher. With much of the workforce recruited internationally, businesses often need to navigate fragmented verification systems across multiple jurisdictions—a complexity that can create optimum conditions for fraud.
Many of the region’s vital industries, such as financial services, healthcare, construction, and energy, are also some of the most tightly regulated. A compliance breach in any of these sectors could result not only in financial penalties but also in the loss of crucial licenses or approvals.
The cost of a wrong hire varies by role and by organisation, but as you might expect, typically the more senior — and more highly paid —the role is, the greater the expense. In addition to the tangible costs of hiring somebody unsuitable for the job, such as wasted salary and additional recruitment expenses for rehiring, other potential financial impacts can be more difficult to measure. These can include a loss of earnings, temporary contractor costs, lost productivity, damage to team morale, and a management time drain. Add to these the cost of the GCC’s hiring model itself — visa sponsorship, relocation, and onboarding — and even a single wrong hire could quickly escalate into an expensive liability.
The next wave of risk
The challenge of catching identity fraud and falsified documents in the recruitment process is intensifying. AI-generated credentials and deepfake identities are beginning to appear in global hiring, and organisations in the GCC must prepare for this new reality. The pace of regional growth means businesses often need to fill roles quickly to keep projects on track, but speed without due diligence is precisely what makes companies vulnerable.
Consider a financial institution uncovering falsified education records before onboarding, or an engineering firm flagging an unqualified candidate before they reached the site. These are not hypothetical HR wins but real-world scenarios that highlight how background screening functions as a frontline risk management tool.
In both cases, the potential consequences could have included regulatory breaches, costly project delays, or safety risks. By detecting issues early, screening prevents disruptions that can compromise compliance, profitability, and brand reputation.
What should business leaders do
For business leaders in the GCC, the lesson is clear: hiring integrity should be managed with the same seriousness as cybersecurity or financial auditing. This means positioning background screening as part of enterprise risk management rather than a back-office process. It also means moving away from one-time checks toward periodic employee rescreening and continuous monitoring, especially for roles that carry compliance or security responsibilities, leveraging the latest technologies, such as AI-enhanced verification processes and biometric identity tools, to counter increasingly sophisticated fraud attempts.
Screening policies also need to reflect regional realities. With high levels of cross-border hiring and evolving compliance regimes, GCC employers must ensure that their screening strategies are aligned with both local regulations and the global nature of their workforce.
Looking ahead
The GCC’s growth story depends on the ability to attract and retain world-class talent. But without rigorous screening, the region’s most ambitious projects are vulnerable to disruption by something as avoidable as a wrong hire. Conducting millions of checks annually across more than 200 countries, we have seen the risks evolve firsthand. The organisations that succeed are those who elevate screening from process to policy.
In a region defined by rapid transformation, the message is clear: the wrong hire is not an HR issue. It is a boardroom risk, and one that forward-looking leaders can no longer afford to ignore.
The writer is the Middle East Sales Director at HireRight.
