In a growing economy like India, companies are often seen in
a mad rush to hire in the hundreds. Tight timelines for hiring and
cost-consciousness often tempt recruiters to go easy on checks and
verification.
And it is not hard to get fake documents in the country.
There are close to 7500 companies in India, which operate just for providing
fake employment and educational certificates, according to a report by First
Advantage, a background screening company.
The company discovered this startling number during the
process of education verification on prospective hires that it conducted for
its clients. Among the discrepancies found in the second quarter of 2014,
anomalies related to employment, address and education antecedents were at
60.4%, 15.9% and 6.0% respectively.
Who does these checks
in India?
In India, the prevalent norm is for human resources (HR) to
conduct a reference check from past employment based on the information
provided by a candidate. The authentication of residential addresses,
educational and criminal records is typically outsourced to third party
background verification companies.
These agencies usually take between seven and 10 days to
give a report and charge between Rs. 2,000 and Rs. 3,000 per candidate. The fee
goes up in case of extensive checks and for senior level hires.
Despite the growth in the number of screening agencies, most
companies are yet to give pre-employment background checks the importance it
deserves.
About 90% of organized sector undertake some form of checks
while 95% companies in the unorganized sector are still hiring without any
background check.
Learn from IT firms
Executives involved in background checks say IT and ITES,
banking and financial services and FMCG sectors are way ahead of their peers in
sectors such as telecommunications, manufacturing, retail, hospitality,
healthcare, travel, education and entertainment.
It is an investment as background checks help
in safeguarding organizational assets, promoting safety at workplace, reducing
turnover owing to right hiring, safeguarding company reputation, avoiding legal
action and inspiring confidence in customers and shareholders,
IT companies such as Tata Consultancy Services, Infosys
Technologies and Wipro are known to show zero-tolerance towards corporate fraud
and fraudulent employees. Punitive actions include termination of services and
blacklisting such candidates and recruiters.
In fact, the industry body for technology companies,
National Association of Software and Services Companies, maintains a
centralized database of IT and ITES employees and third-party verified
information on education, experience history and personal details of these
professionals.
Job portals such as Naukri, Monster and communities such as
CiteHR forums also alert users of blacklisted candidates. But this is not
enough for carrying out checks. There is no single platform for non-IT/ITES
companies where details of fraudulent candidates and recruiters can be found.
Also, what makes the process of background verification
difficult and cumbersome is the lack of a centralized repository of
information, defined processes and procedures to conduct checks at educational
institutes, police stations or courts.
But with newer forms of white collar crimes emerging, perhaps it is time that companies go the extra mile and conduct thorough background checks on prospective employees.
Better to be safe, than sorry.
When a thing is done, it's done. Don't look back. Look forward to your next objective.
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