A talent crunch and pressure to recruit are leading Indian companies into a new fight—against fake résumés.
Till now, the problem was thought to be restricted largely to the information technology (IT), IT-enabled services (ITeS), banking and insurance sectors. In the last six months, consumer goods, retail and health care firms have seen increasing instances of staffers fudging résumés and claiming non-existent qualifications.
Companies are gradually waking up to the problem. Ashish Dehade, managing director, West Asia, First Advantage Pvt. Ltd, a background screening and verification company, says that more than 90% of the registered companies still don’t undertake detailed background checks on education, address, previous employment, criminal record, if any, and references.
But if most companies are making do with limited lines of enquiry, some large companies have begun to insist on comprehensive checks. The growing importance of candidate verification has spawned a new business opportunity for background screening companies.
ICICI Bank Ltd, for instance, found that of the 17,000 new recruits in 2007, 400-500 had misrepresented facts in their résumés, says K. Ramkumar, group head of human resources, or HR, for the bank.
Sony Entertainment Network, now known as Multi Screen Media Pvt. Ltd, puts the percentage of fudged résumés at 3% of total new hires. The discrepancies include falsification of educational qualifications, work experience, job roles and projects, and inflated compensation figures. Some also submit fake certificates and documents, say HR managers.
“It is a serious issue that can have long-lasting repercussions,” says Rohit Mahajan, executive director, forensic services, KPMG India. A bad hire not only impacts business efficiency, but can have consequences such as theft of intellectual property, leakage of confidential information or misuse of resources.
Experts say that in the current talent crunch scenario, potential employees see an opportunity to overstate their qualifications to meet job specifications. “In a booming market, recruiters are under pressure to hire people in a short time, and a background check is most often done cursorily,” says A. Sudhakar, executive vice-president of HR at Dabur India Ltd.
(Illustration: Malay Karmakar / Mint)
Managers link the growing incidence of discrepancies in résumés to companies ramping up operations and hiring. “Whenever there are large job opportunities, some candidates and recruiting firms don’t hesitate in cheating for gains,” says Dehade.
Companies such as Wipro Ltd, Infosys Technologies Ltd and Satyam Computer Services Ltd take action against those involved in fudging résumés, including terminating services and blacklisting such candidates and recruiters.