Protecting Gig Identities - The 7 CIAM Capabilities You Need

There is no doubt, the gig economy is growing. In today's highly connected world, many companies prefer hiring short-term workers and contractors instead of full-time employees. In 2021, 59 million Americans freelanced, representing more than one-third of the entire U.S. workforce. And according to the Boston Consulting Group, there are more than 22 million independent contractors in the European Union. Start-ups are flooding the market with new business models that rely primarily on remote workers and independent contractors.

With so many people coming in and out of your company daily, you need to be able to confirm that contractors are who they claim and give them proper access to your applications and web portals as well as your physical stores. A secure Customer Identity and Access Management (CIAM) strategy that allows you to flexibly onboard and manage the digital identities of your on-demand work relationships in a way that compliments your permanent workforce is critical.

Gig Identities Create Challenges

When controlling the identities of your gig workers, you need to balance keeping sensitive corporate data safe and giving workers access to the tools they need to do their jobs and be productive and profitable. Managing the access rights of your seasonal and gig-based workforce efficiently can be strenuous.

Orchestration is the key to developing a streamlined and secure login procedure, which allows your gig workers to quickly and easily log in anytime they need access to specific services.

Business Initiatives for Deploying a CIAM Solution

Instant and protected access to online resources and physical spaces is made possible by implementing a Customer IAM (CIAM) solution. CIAM enables gig workers to register to a business – and authenticates and authorizes these workers when logging on to these services. An effective CIAM solution delivers a positive digital experience while ensuring security, privacy, and compliance.

So why invest in a CIAM platform?

• Orchestrate, scale, and automate the onboarding of gig workers with intuitive processes while providing a frictionless user experience.
• Ensure your gig worker's identity is unmistakably correct through eIDs or Bank ID systems and manage these accounts efficiently, promoting collaboration without compromising security.
• Enable user consent and preference management in line with privacy regulations.
• Ensure admission to corporate assets complies with corporate policies and legal regulations and control the gig workers' identity lifecycle management.
• Apply a unified process for provisioning users and assigning roles, eliminating redundancies, and enhancing agility through a single point to store identity data to increase visibility and efficiency.

7 CIAM Capabilities for Gig Identities

The following CIAM capabilities will allow temporary employees to complement your permanent workforce while entering and exiting your company - securely, seamlessly, and effortlessly. Allow them to register and validate their identity on the fly while offering instant, secure access to your online tools and physical locations.

1. Identity Proofing and Validation

Support for identity verification and validation ensures that digital identities can be associated with a real person. The CIAM solution should ensure that your gig workers' identity is correct, without a doubt, by verifying their identities against trusted third-party identity providers for the highest level of security. It should integrate with commercial and government bring-your-own-identity (BYOI) providers via eIDs, Bank-IDs, identity wallets, and other attribute verification services.

2. Efficient Registration

Businesses can effectively orchestrate, scale, and automate the management of new users and their roles using a customizable platform that enables smooth onboarding.

3. Single Sign-On (SSO)

With Single Sign-On, the CIAM solution offers fast, secure, and seamless access to online services with just one login of their choice.

4. Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA)

This functionality offers additional layers of protection, such as biometrics, face recognition, one-time passwords, or mobile login, enhancing security and user experience.

5. User Management

Streamline account management with a state-of-the-art CIAM platform to benefit from profile management, password management, and registration capabilities.

6. Delegation Administration

Enable the management of employee identities with a bird's-eye view by enforcing the appropriate autonomy and accountability for every gig worker’s identity.

7. Identity Lifecycle Management

Using multiple integrations with backend and source systems, enterprises may manage automatic provisioning at scale for their external workforce and construct a directory that meets the requirements of the present day.

Every Digital Interaction Begins With Identity

A trusted CIAM platform can provide peace of mind when managing and protecting your gig workers' identities, striking the much-desired balance between security and employee experience. With the acquisition of OneWelcome in 2022, Thales is now positioned for a comprehensive IAM and CIAM platform, allowing organizations of all sizes to manage internal and external identities.

The Thales OneWelcome advanced CIAM platform enables enterprises to accelerate growth in seasonal peaks, providing a cloud-first CIAM platform that facilitates and protects temporary workers and their digital identities.

Learn more about delivering one platform for every identity here.