Face to Face
Nasscom, February 11, 2008
Ashish Dehade, Managing Director, First Advantage

Ashish joined First Advantage Pvt. Ltd. as Group Chief Operating Officer for the APAC region in November 2005 and was elevated to the role of Managing Director (West Asia) in July 2006.

In a career spanning 15 years, Ashish, a management graduate from Somaiya Institute of Management Studies, Mumbai, has worked in various capacities in Sales/Marketing, Strategic Planning and Operations in the Manufacturing, ITeS and Service industries.

Ashish was one of the initial management team members of one of India's first third party BPOs - TransWorks Information Services Pvt. Ltd., now an Aditya Birla Group company. He played a key leadership role, as the Vice President of Operations, in making TransWorks the first contact center in the world to get COPC 3.2 and 3.3 certifications.

Q: Which aspects do you consider during a background check? A: All checks are initiated only after we have been provided with an authorization in writing by the concerned candidate. We have specialized teams who focus on specific checks which help us deliver better quality results. We ensure that we go only through the legal route of getting verifications (which may imply relatively later verification compared to some agencies who provide 'quick' results but through processes which may not be able to stand the scrutiny of law!) through the official channels and by accessing information available in public domain.

Our Background Screening packages are customized to the client's specific requirements. The number and scope of checks vary by role, career levels or number of years of experience.

Services requested often are education verification, employment verification, criminal record check, address verification, reference check, drug testing, check against global regulatory and compliance databases, identity check, etc.

We are very particular about confidentiality because of the nature of the business and have invested heavily in ensuring that our infrastructure and processes are completely insulated from potential gaps. We use an online application which allows candidates to update/upload information remotely and also allows our clients to check status of various verifications 24x7. This application (and all our processes/facilities) has also stood the test of various client audits.

Moreover, all our employees (including myself) who have access to client or candidate information are background screened per the relevant British Standards.

Q: What are some of the common discrepancies that candidates mention in their resumes?
A: Through the screenings we have conducted, we have found that close to one out of every five resumes has some kind of misrepresentation. These could be related to employment or education or criminal backgrounds. Maximum discrepancies are noticed in employment checks - one in every four individuals.

These misrepresentations can be of different types. Gaps in employment not shown, inflated compensations and designations, fake employment being made up, employment with non-existing organizations, etc., are some examples.

From an education perspective, qualifications from non-existing institutions or from institutions that are not recognized, fake qualifications/certificates /pass percentage/class being changed to show better results, year of passing being changed, etc. are the common misrepresentations. We have even exposed very senior level profiles faking IIM - Ahmedabad and IIT - Mumbai certificates!

Through our extensive database search we have found people related to the pornography industry seeking jobs in BPOs!

Q: How would you compare the background check process in India compared to developed countries like US and UK?
A: Credit information, which is easily available in US and UK, is unavailable for non-financial services companies in geographies such as India.

Employment checks that can be conducted at the click of a button in US have to be conducted through phone calls or faxes or emails or site visits in India. Moreover, many organizations in India do not maintain databases or records for temporary employees, which lead to unavailability of such crucial information.

Criminal background information that is available through various online databases in US and UK is incomparable with what is available in other geographies. In India, such information needs to be sought locally in the concerned jurisdictions. Also, digitization is at a nascent stage in our country leading to manual process of verification - which can be time consuming.

There are many organizations/institutions in India who, as a policy, do not share information with third parties for verification purposes. For some organizations and institutions which do not mind sharing information, it is a long process as databases are manually maintained and verification process involves going through very old data maintained in paper files! In US and some other advanced countries, educational institutions have digitized databases, thus making the process of verification online and very quick.

Q: Do most IT organizations consider background checks of candidates a necessity today?
A: Organizations in the IT/ITes sector in India were amongst the first few industries to proactively adopt and implement Background Screening best practices.

However, Background Screening remains topmost concern with employers across industries. In today's world, connectivity is a given in most organizations and industries. Hence, that makes almost all organizations (including those in the IT/ITeS sector) with such connectivity vulnerable. After all, in the recent times, we have heard of many individuals working with high profile organizations or having a fairly sophisticated background - having links of some kind with criminal or even terrorism related activities.

Organizations that have given due importance to background screening continue to do so - irrespective of such events. And there are many such organizations in India.

However, we have experienced that due to such events, more and more organizations are getting serious about the need for complete background screening. Obviously, it would be ideal that organizations do not wait for such events to occur for them to take background screening seriously.

Unfortunately, there are some organizations still in our country who continue to consider background screening as a 'tick in the box requirement' or 'an extra cost'. Such a stance towards background screening is certain to come back to haunt them some day.

Hiring managers also need to be cautious of going for relatively cheaper options of conducting background checks. High quality services would imply relatively higher cost - but given the stakes involved, it is well worth it.As it is definitely not worth putting an organization's reputation at risk for a difference of few rupees.

Although time is of essence, certain checks take a minimum period of time for being completed. Any pressure from hiring managers (obviously due to the pressure coming from the business side) may potentially compromise on the quality of service received.