India Inc is now getting smart towards ‘resume’ frauds: companies are hiring professionals to run pre-employment checks on job applicants.
BANGALORE: India Inc is now getting smart towards ‘resume’ frauds: job applicants who send in resumes with false information. Companies are increasingly hiring professionals to run background checks on job applicants.
Background checks are not entirely new to Indian companies. “But these were earlier viewed more as a formality but not as a stringent necessity,’’ says B.S. Murthy, Bangalore-based HR consultant. The process has now become tougher and organised following the entry of foreign competitors. Background checking now covers education, previous employment records, criminal verification, sexual harassment history, corruption and credit defaults.
As companies scale up, the screening has expanded to more sectors. IT and ITES sectors were among the first to adopt background screening. Now hospitality, healthcare, transport, education and FMCG sectors have followed suit. “In 2000 US financial services companies were our main customers. Now Indian BPOs, insurance and; oil and gas sectors also use our services,” says Yogesh Bhura, the managing director of First Advantage Quest Research, a leading employee-screening firm in Mumbai.
Earlier this year, Wipro chief Azim Premji made a starting revelation: a background check revealed that one per cent of Wipro’s workforce had submitted false documents at the time of interview.
Awareness is growing, as risks involved are huge, says Ajay Trehan, CEO, another screening company AuthBridge Research in Gurgaon. This has meant better procedures and quality of checks.
But lack of laws making screening mandatory and unavailability of online records in India makes background screening difficult, says Shehan Menezes, director, of Mumbai-based screening company BlackJag Consulting. “Recruiter’s look out for ‘red flags’ or false claims in resumes across all levels. This is done now more than before because decision-making responsibilities that affect a company’s future is delegated to people down the chain,” says Gautam Ghosh, Hyderabad-based HR consultant.
Resume fraud is seen across all levels in India, most people lie about educational qualifications. According to a BBC Risk Advisory Group 2004 study, a quarter of CVs they received had a lie. Most common lies pertain to previous employment, achievements and education. Costs of screening per employee ranges from Rs175-6,000, depending on the type of check undertaken. In India the primary focus is on education and work experience, while in the West it is criminal records and personality screening.
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