Background checks on prospective employees are on the rise
The Economics Times - August 9, 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.

The global market for pre-employment screening is worth $6-7bn; India accounts for barely 1% but as Chiranjit Banerjee, till recently director, South India, Quest Screening Services says, "It is growing at a furious pace as most IT and ITES jobs are being created here."

Quest Research is an Asian company dealing with background screening and has recently screened 800 employees of an IT major in India. And surprisingly, 20 software engineers have been sacked after it was found that they had lied about educational and professional qualifications as well as experience. Disturbingly, this is no one-off anecdotal instance.

The incidence is high in the high-end IT, ITES and BPO sectors as technologies become obsolete and the 'performance life cycle' is growing shorter. This existing workforce is not able to compete with freshers equipped with latest skills. The benched professionals (those not working on a project) and the large numbers of trained professionals churned out by obscure - often spurious - training institutes and universities are adding to the competition for jobs. Simultaneously, poaching of staff by head-hunters and attrition due to MNC-work practices and culture hoisted on the local populace is exacerbating the situation for the hapless HRD man.