India ranks fourth in APAC in resume fraud: HireRight report

Says that 22.5% of screenings done in Apr-June 2015 had an discrepancy

India ranks fourth in resume frauds in the Asia Pacific.  HireRight, a global firm specialising in employment background screening, said nearly three out of 10 screenings in the country contained a discrepancy.

The HireRight Employment Background Screening Trends Report for India from April to June 2015 showed these discrepancies comprised fabrications or inaccuracies in resumes related to education, employment and professional licences.

The report showed while there has been an increase in hiring in 2015, the percentage of discrepancies had also risen from a year ago. “There has been an increase in resume fraud in the current quarter (April-June) from the previous January-March quarter,”  said Edward Hickey, managing director, APAC, HireRight. The discrepancy rate for January-March was 16.31 per cent, which rose to 22.55 per cent in April-June.

The report is based on data drawn from employment background verifications conducted by HireRight in India. Of the 23,539 screenings conducted, 22.55 per cent were found to have discrepancies.

Discrepancies related to education were the highest at 40.80 per cent. These included candidates lying about their qualifications to obtain better jobs. This is followed by discrepancies over professional licences at 8.82 per cent. In the Asia Pacific region, Malaysia was on the top of the list, followed by Singapore, the Philippines and India.

Among Indian cities, Surat led with discrepancies in education at 68.09 per cent followed by Mumbai (53 per cent) and Ahmedabad (51.41 per cent). Kochi, Patna and Jaipur had the least discrepancy rates at 25 per cent, 21.43 per cent and 18.24 per cent, respectively.

Hickey said fraud techniques had been getting a technical boost. For instance, some candidates morphed original degrees using software and others hacked into university databases to create fake entities.

He also said there had been a rise in companies screening candidates at all levels, including part-time workers and senior management staff who would have the same access to office premises and confidential information as permanent staff did.
 

Apart from traditional screening, Hickey explained that there has been increase in screening candidates based on their social network profile apart from LinkedIn. “However, screening job candidates based on their social network footprint is a controversial and potentially risky area for employers,” he cautioned. 

According to him, along with social media screening, companies are also screening the international backgrounds of candidates they’re hiring.