'More cos initiating for employee background checks'

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SME Times News Bureau | 27 Apr, 2013
Against the horrendous rape case in Delhi and the national outrage, nearly 52 percent of companies in different sectors have woken up to the need of carrying out background verification of their new as well as existing employees as per the quick findings of the random survey undertaken by ASSOCHAM Social Development Foundation (ASDF) reveals.

The findings of ASSOCHAM survey reveals that a large number of corporates, in and around Delhi, have already started verifying their current existing and prospective employees at all levels based on the responses received from human resource officials representing more than 1,500 small, medium and large businesses from the cities like Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Bangalore, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Pune, Dehradun etc.

The survey majorly focused on broad sectors such as BPO, IT/ITes sector, financial and other services, construction, real estate, hospitality, tourism, FMCG and infrastructure, media & advertising, manufacturing and textiles, logistics, transport operators etc.

About 52 percent of the human resource officials of various companies are now cross-checking each and every detail of job applicants prior to hiring them mainly in construction, catering, exporters, event management, merchandising, hospitality, Medicare, logistic, housekeeping, guards etc.

"Companies are fast realizing the benefit of doing background checks of prospective employees or risk hurting their brand image in a fraud case. Screening of job candidates at all levels, and even vendors and contract staff is preferred. Previous employment details, academic and professional certificates, identity, criminal records, and credit risk, among other information are checked thoroughly for authenticity and veracity," adds the survey.

While releasing the survey D S Rawat, Secretary General ASSOCHAM said, background screening conducted by specialists adds a big 'preventive' dimension which could significantly minimize the risk of engaging with the 'wrong' people, whether at the work place or outside.

The Associated Chamber of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM) advocates the need for verification which must be enhanced so that the anti-social elements are weeded out. The employee verification process includes finding out the genuineness of work experience, educational documents and whether the candidate has any criminal record or not.

Corporates are certainly becoming more careful and cautious when they are recruiting for the junior, middle and senior level positions, highlights the ASSOCHAM survey.

According to the survey, many companies haven't done any form of background check before hiring an employee mainly at junior levels. The horrendous rape case in Delhi has certainly led to the need for carrying out a comprehensive scrutiny of employees at all levels.

Nearly 25 percent of the companies who are unable to verify themselves are now increasingly outsourcing the employee verification process to specialised third party agencies who cross-check each and every detail of the job applicant and criminal record.

Rawat said for certain jobs like working with children or in healthcare, employers need to carry out a mandatory criminal record check on new employees before they can start and also suggested an appropriate legislation for the entire country.

"Background checks conducted by specialist screening companies can more likely provide information of any history of misrepresentation, or crime by individuals seeking jobs. Even a small incident of misrepresentation may be sufficient in predicting the larger threat ahead," added Rawat.

Security consciousness has to be a 'movement', resulting from a collective sense of responsibility, so that it can filter out individuals with unclean credentials or dishonourable intentions, and demonstrate that crime does not pay, highlights the survey.