First Advantage Corporation acquires screening firm Quest Research Limited
Human Capital June,2005

First Advantage Corporation, leading United States-based risk mitigation and business solutions provider, has acquired Quest Research Ltd., the premier provider of employment screening services in India and East Asia. This strategic addition of Quest Research bolsters the international employment screening operations of First Advantage, situating First Advantage to more effectively service multinational corporations’ demands for these services. During the past two years, First Advantage has explored various strategic growth opportunities globally that would provide the company with a competitive advantage in serving multinational corporations. Growing market demand for international screening, coupled with First Advantage’s early successes with operations in Bangalore, India, encouraged management to focus on Asia-based screening services.

Headquartered in Hong Kong, Quest Research currently provides comprehensive screening programs for more than 200 companies with presence in India and East Asia, including multinational corporations in the financial services, technology, and business process outsourcing (BPO) industries. The company also provides international services for other employment screening firms in the United States and Europe. With additional offices in Mumbai, New Delhi, Bangalore and Chennai, India, Beijing, Singapore and Perth, Australia, Quest Research has nearly 400 employees and the infrastructure to deliver its global screening offering, which includes education, qualifications and employment verification, as well as public records searches. As a part of First Advantage, Quest Research will change its name to First Advantage – Asia and will report to Bart Valdez, president of the Employment Screening Services division of First Advantage.

Human Capital caught up with John Long, CEO, President & Director, First Advantage Corporation, USA for an exclusive interview:

HC: How is the Indian market different to the other countries where you operate?
John Long: The Indian market is unique because it is at a very early stage of development and offers tremendous opportunity for growth. We are conscious of the fact that Asia, including India and China, would be the growth engine for the global economy in the next 15-20 years and First Advantage would like to be part of the growth story in the region through First Advantage – Asia. I think background screening has played an important role in establishing a comfort level to overseas investors/customers seeking business opportunities in the region. More importantly, local professionally managed companies too have realized that they would have to institute similar business practices as their American counterparts – and this would be a big catalyst for the growth of our business in the region. First Advantage purchased Quest with the intent to invest in the company’s infrastructure in order to continue growth. Quest has grown rapidly since it started in 2001 in India and a lot of potential remains untapped. Our objective is to continue the momentum in the growth of our business in India through investments in technology, people and network.

HC: What is your biggest business challenge in India and how do you plan to tackle it?
John Long: In the United States, background screening is an established practice when hiring employees as compared to the Asia region. Here the challenge lies is creating a higher level of awareness about our business and consolidating our relationships with various sources of information like Universities and employers. In India (and in most of Asian countries), we do not have online systems for public record searches; as well as education an employment verification. Therefore, we have to rely on manual processes. For education verification, we would have to continuously build relationships with universities over long time periods in order to ensure a timely response. In addition, corporate human resources departments in some cases do not have processes in place to reply to verification requests quickly. We are sure over a period of time as background screening grows to be more accepted as sound HR practice, we would be able to irons out all these creases.