India Inc hiring forensic companies to weed out moonlighters: Report

Forensic companies are checking voice samples to single out employees that are using Zoom for interviews with other companies

Companies are increasingly hiring forensic and employment verification companies to find out the moonlighters and review their compliance. The companies are also aiming to control the rules as the true extent of the problem emerges, a report in Economic Times (ET) said. 

Although moonlighting has affected nearly all industries, IT services, ITES, media and consulting are among the worst impacted. During the Covid-19 pandemic, people opted to work as freelancers or in some cases, for the competitors of their current employers. This, along with Work from Home policies, has pushed up attrition rates in the industry. 

In their financial results for the third quarter, all the top four major IT companies in India, HCL, Wipro, Infosys and TCS recorded an attrition rate of over 20 per cent. 

"We are getting more calls from concerned clients and the mandates range from pre-screening to investigations," Nikhil Bedi, head, of Deloitte Forensic practice told ET.

"We have signed on at least 15 new large clients, including top-tier IT-related companies. The surge in moonlighting incidentally coincided with the Great Resignation," Maneesha Garg, partner and head, Forensics Managed Services, KPMG India, also told ET. 

To track moonlighters, forensic experts are using software that sources data from public-source databases and social media analytics. In some cases, the UAN number is also being used to identify if a person is receiving money from any other source. Voice samples are also being used to single out employees that are using Zoom for interviews with other companies. 

The companies that deal with sensitive data of MNCs, including IPs, have been particularly worried about moonlighting. Vendors are liable to pay hefty fines if any information leak is found. 

"The significant increase in moonlighting is spurring forensic professionals to review internal matters of compliance, policy, controls, and frameworks. Technology is helping create a controlled environment and in continuous monitoring for course correction,” Arpinder Singh, leader, of EY’s Forensic & Integrity Services practice told ET.