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BPOs
run CV checks on candidates March 7,2004
A spurt in employment opportunities generated
by the booming IT-enabled services and business
process outsourcing (ITES/BPO) sector has spun off
an ancillary industry — companies screening
the background of prospective employees.
Between 5% and 10% of the candidates for a BPO/ITES
job make false claims in their applications, according
to industry sources. Overstatement of credentials
and previous background by applicants has led to
BPO firms seeking help from external professional
service screening agencies to conduct identity verification,
pre-employment status, past criminal records, and
other background checks.
The availability of fake qualifications/certificates
and its rampant usage is resulting in BPO firms
putting in place stringent procedures while hiring
prospective employees. A large part of the demand
for screening services, some firms state, has been
driven by the regulatory requirements of customers
in the US.
There are close to 10,000 accredited universities
in India. However, there is no estimate of the number
of fake universities. The most popular names commonly
used, according to screening agencies, include The
Commercial University, Andhra University or the
All India Commercial Association. The cottage industry
supporting production and printing of fake certificates
is said to be enormous, considering that printing
quality fake certificates is not a cheap exercise,
experts state.
One of the reasons firms use screening services
has also been to avoid organised crime in sectors
where employees at the medium and junior level have
access to sensitive information. The risk of hiring
the wrong person is far more expensive than conducting
a pre-recruitment screening check.
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Wary
of bad hire, IT goes for background checks January 10,2004
THEY have checked everything about me. Nothing
has been missed. They have enquired about me at
my school, college, computer institute, the institution
where I did my post-graduate diploma, and of course
my professors in the US and my previous employers,"
says Sriram, who has just been hired by one of the
big five consulting firms, in the US.
That's an experience that employees in India are
increasingly set to encounter — especially
in the IT sector.
Background checks have been done before - but never
as extensively or exhaustively as they are being
done now. "The trigger for the growth in this
kind of service has come from the 9/11 terrorist
strikes in the US and the subsequent developments.
Companies see this as a best practice as well as
a security tool, since the cost of a bad hire is
quite high.
Many MNCs, therefore, insist that even staff belonging
to their IT vendors are checked out. That can sometimes
have slightly shocking outcomes. In case of an Indian
IT vendor who did such a background check and found
that nearly 20 of the 200 staff assigned to an MNC's
project, had used fake certificates to get employment!
This vendor has now decided to have an enterprise-wide
background check.
Mr Shrinivas Sastri, General Manager, Human Resources,
Covansys India (Pvt) Ltd, says that he has found
the outsourced verification process paying good
dividends, especially with regard to past employment
details of candidates.
"The boom
period in the IT industry forced many to turn a
blind eye to certain due diligence practices. The
accent then was to get the candidate on board as
fast as possible and this created an atmosphere
where value-based action was compromised.
"More
than false educational certificates, we found a
large increase in those who lied about their experience.
We have outsourced the verification process and
it has worked very well for us. When there is a
responsible mediator, companies are willing to share
information. We have also done it. And it has paid
off," he said.
Background checks can sometimes cause casualties
at top management levels. "We had to let go
of senior managers of 10-15 years experience because
they used fake certificates or misrepresented their
experience. We have to ensure that proper conduct
and integrity is maintained," said an MNC executive
who predicts that background checks will soon become
a pre-requisite for all jobs.
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Indian
companies benefiting from the offshoring wave are doing
a bit of sleuthing. They are making sure their US clients'
data is safe by screening potential employees. August
9, 2004
GOOD things don't always come free
of trouble, it seems. Take, for instance, the offshore
outsourcing wave favouring Indian shores.
As US companies send more business to Indian companies
here, a significant chunk of data that is critical
in nature is getting offloaded here for processing.
The responsibility of making sure that this data
is not misused lies with the Indian companies, or
the vendors in this instance. In the absence of
proper data-protection laws, these vendors have
started taking steps to prevent leaks in manpower-related
security.
As a first step, companies have begun background
checks on their potential employees. Employee screening,
considered critical in emerging markets due to lack
of criminal databases, involves hiring an external
agency to conduct personal and background checks.
As the industry witnesses a significant churn in
employees because of high attrition rates, screening
the background of potential employees becomes imperative
considering the fact that quite a chunk of potential
employees lie about their education, experience,
and so on to gain jobs.
A study of 3,000 screenings by a leading risk management
consultancy firm has revealed that 30 per cent of
the candidates had falsified their resumes.
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Background checks on prospective employees are on the rise
August 2004
The enemy is within and it is not
easy for overworked human resource departments in
the attrition-hit ITES and BPO segments to spot
the bad apple during the hiring process. Doing the
rescue act are Pre-employment screening (PES) service
providers-mostly MNCs operating in the security
and risk analysis fields-with mini call centre-like
apparatus and technology aids. Also prowling around
are the old-fashioned detective agents who come
in handy for some intensive checks that involve
legwork.
While the banking and financial sectors are also
relying on third party PES, the phenomenon is spreading
across sectors due to globalization. While PES is
a compliance requirement of domestic legislations
in other countries such as the Patriot Act and Sarbanes
Oxley Act of the US, India is also catching on as
the limitations of ‘reference checks’
come to light.
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