Investigators at work— Pre-employment screening

Sudipta Dev / Mumbai

One of the greatest challenge for hiring managers has been to ascertain that the candidate being recruited is what he says he is? That his CV is authentic…his qualifications, work experiences stated are true…that he is not a spy sent by a competitor to steal sensitive company information, etc, etc.

Screening is globally a $6 billion business, and pre-employment screening is considered mandatory by more than 93 percent of Fortune 1,000 companies. In the Indian IT industry, it has been gaining significance to ensure that client confidentiality clauses are maintained and also to prevent unwanted people from accessing critical information. Incre-asingly, organisations are seeking specialised services to ascertain that the candidate is what he claims to be and also find out other relevant details that have not been disclosed by him.

Specialists’ job

Pre-employment as well as post-employment screening being a specialised job, requires the services of background screening consultants with expertise in investigation work. The country’s largest detective organisation, the Globe Detective Agency, has handled more than 25 IT clients in the last two years and has verified more than 5,000 people to be recruited in the industry. “As far as the IT industry is concerned, the positions have ranged from the peon to that of the CEO,” says Vivek Kumar, managing director of Globe Detective Agency.

Kumar points out that pre-employment screening has become almost mandatory following 9/11, with the United States insisting that all people being sent on deputation/projects to their country should be screened first. The organisation also has a tie-up in the US to investigate necessary details of a candidate, if needed. “We are mostly approached by the client organisation and not the headhunter, who we feel are not suited to carry out this kind of function,” adds Kumar.

Agrees Chiranjit Banerjee, director of business development at Quest Research, “The executive search company has a vested interest in the placement of candidates and they tend to “showcase” all their resources. Client organisations are usually aware of the risks associated with hiring without diligence and employ the screening process themselves or through consultants—sometimes to ensure that the HR function is not in a ‘nexus’ with placement firms.”

A leading screening organisation in Asia Quest has offices in Hong Kong, Beijing, Singapore, Perth, Mum-bai, Bangalore, Delhi and Dubai. “This business practice is still

comparatively new in Asia but given the kind of growth that is anticipated in the knowledge-based sector in this region (particularly India), background screening could well witness its strongest ever growth here,” asserts Banerjee, adding that the screening business has to a large extent been riding on the backs of foreign IT and ITES companies. In fact, Fortune 500 companies who have outsourced work to Indian IT majors, set the ball rolling by having people dedicated to their projects being screened by credible screening companies.

Types of verification

The types of verification vary from organisation to organisation and is determined by the need (and often the budget set)—from ascertaining whether the permanent address given on the CV is actually true to finding out other details e.g. the nature of work being done by the candidate; performance standard, verifying qualifications, whether he was sacked from the previous company or left on his own; any criminal records; investigating entire family background; whether an alcoholic/womaniser; et al. “In the case of a CEO we have also had to carry out surveillance for three days,” points out Kumar.

According to Banerjee, verification

of previous employment is the major demand for lateral hires, whereas for freshers, it is educational verification. The other process commonly asked for is “derogatory” database checks. These databases list individuals who have committed some form of economic offence or the other i.e. RBI defaulters list, individuals named in the 1992 JPC report, etc.

“Some recruiters also expect the police to certify that there are no criminal records listed against the prospective candidate. This has more to do with HR practices in the US where major recruiters screen police records of potential employees going back as many as seven years. In the US, most of the information sought by recruiting clients is available on the Net but that is not quite so in Asia,” adds Banerjee. The end product submitted to the client is either a soft or a hard report with annexures of verifications received from various independent sources i.e. former employers, educational bodies, etc.

Vikram Bhardwaj, a senior consultant with Stanton Chase International exe-cutive search firm believes that for entry level/mid-level staffing, one needs to check the authenticity. However for top level hirings, it is not the authenticity of CVs which is of pre-eminence, intensive reference checking is. “In IT/ITES sector, since both are service related consulting businesses, greatest scrutiny is required before hiring the C-level/business/functional heads. On one hand, they are responsible for leading the teams int-ernally, and on the other hand, leading the business with the clients.”

False information

Quest Services’ experience in India has revealed that almost 75 percent of “discrepant” bio-datas have inaccurate information concerning previous employment; while 20 percent pertains to inaccurate educational/professional qualifications. The rest have to do with inaccurate residential records.

Kumar of Globe Detective states his common experience: “Alm-ost 10 percent to 15 percent people give false information. This could range from mentioning a company on the CV where he/she has never worked to giving a wrong job description. For instance, a data entry operator might claim to lead of team of 20 people.”

Bharadwaj points out that strangely candidates at the junior/mid-level are relatively honest, senior candidates are generally the ones who try to hide critical evaluation inputs, most often related to performance/achievements in the current job and sometimes compensation as well: “Sometimes, the role and responsibility in the current job could be portrayed slightly differently by bringing in few more areas under the ambit, reporting etc. In such cases, reference check as a tool comes in handy to get the facts right.”

For an executive search firm, one of the most important processes is extensive reference check on the candidate. “In general, business performance and behavioural aspects are the key criteria. This has to be undertaken very confidentially and discreetly by the search firm,” he adds.

Interestingly, screening consultants are also called in when an employee who has signed a contract to serve the company for a certain period absconds and has to be traced to his current work place. Whether pre- or post-employment screening, the job of the investigator is limited to submitting the report. “We do not give a conclusion. I am not a moderator, I am a fact-finder. The onus is on the client to decide what to do,” concludes Kumar.

sudipta@expresscomputeronline.com