A new breed of detectives

Big and small businesses often realise the importance of background screenings once the damage is done. The sooner you hone this skill, the better it is for your company's success

Last year, Maruti Suzuki's worst nightmare came true when the company's general manager, human resources, was burnt to death by some workers in its automobile plant in Manesar. Several executives, managers and supervisors were also attacked during the violent showdown. The company took swift action by strengthening its background check process for blue- collared workers. Besides checking details of a worker's identity, address and criminal background, Maruti has made some fundamental changes in its screening process. Since the company hires technicians fresh out of Industrial Training Institutes, the focus is now on verifying their certificates and employment history.

The idea of a sound background screening process is indispensable in healthcare with more hospital chains pressurising their HR departments to dig deep into the employment history and educational qualifications of every new employees. Our research shows India Inc is coming round to the view that background screening is a step necessary only when you hire at absolutely the top levels. Accenture, IBM, Airbus, L&T, Infosys and Wipro have all started conducting background screenings for employees across the board.

Consider these numbers from a research conducted by global background screening and employment solutions company First Advantage. In India, around 70 per cent of the candidates fake work experience. Of these, while 4.3 per cent submit fake education certificates, more than 20 per cent lie about their residential addresses. In fact, screening has nothing to do with the size of a firm - it is imperative for small businesses.

Most importantly, companies have understood that background screening is not just part of the hiring process. Today, some companies are running annual background checks to keep a tab on their employees.

In this column, The Strategist had earlier addressed the significance of a sound reference check strategy to make robust hiring decisions. Since then we have come across studies that show that the industries most prone to frauds are engineering, healthcare and pharmaceuticals, real estate, travel and hospitality and media. The problem is most of these industries wait for a big disaster before putting a rigorous screening process in place. For instance, the hospitality industry put stringent screening norms for employees only after the terrorist attack of 26/11 in Mumbai.

E-commerce websites across the globe are warming up to this idea as a lucrative business opportunity. The US-based online caregiver portal Care.com provides screening facilities as part of its subscription plans. Families using Care.com can run background checks on care providers. These checks include national searches of criminal database records and sex offender registries. In India, adding this service to one's primary offering can be a game changer. Bharat Matrimony entertains online screening requests for select subscribers.

However, for a start-up such services may add to the final cost and erode competitiveness. It's a Catch-22 situation, really. If you don't want to pass on the hike to the end consumer you will have to absorb the costs. Moreover, a screening process is both time consuming and tricky. Collecting data on a candidate is the easy part; validation is not. Then there are subjective issues such as if a candidate has great performance under his belt but has also displayed some minor transgressions, is it okay to overlook these and still hire a person? Plus what is a 'minor' transgression and what is a major one?

This is an evolving story and hopefully things will sort out as companies and their consumers see the virtues of background screening.