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.

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.

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.

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.