Fudged ur record? In for trouble Cos Run Check On Staff; Verification Agencies Roped In
By : PP Thimmaya in Bangalore The Economic Times January 24, 2006

YOU FUDGED your records to land that ‘must have’ job? Be careful. The big brother is watching. Increasing concerns about data security and desire for a high integrity work force are driving India Inc to increasingly seek the services of verification agencies to run a check through their employees previous records: educational and employment.

Companies are increasingly tightening the screws on the whole employee verification process and making it a very stringent procedure indeed. Estimates for the IT/ ITES industry reveal that 15-17% of the people have discrepancies in their records with 70% of them relating to false previous employment record and the balance to false educational qualifications. The figures for BPO sector alone is higher, at around 20%.

Call it the globalization effect or a business imperative, MNCs especially from the US are very particular about employee verification and this extends even to employees in India. Ms Nipa Modi, Business Development Manager, First Advantage Quest, an employee verification firm, says that with increasing offshoring there is a lot of confidential data being transferred and companies want minimum risk thereby going for stringent employee verification.

The current infrastructure in the country does not permit for verification to done in a systematic manner. Unlike in the West, there is no concept of a social security number in India to provide ready background details. As Mr Natarajan, VP-HR, Quest Engineering, says, “ the basic integrity of our employees is very important as our clients are very sensitive about any loss of data especially in the area of high-end engineering design.”

All this does not come cheap as Natarajan says, it spends around $150 – 200 per employee for verification.