Employment Screening

Market Overview
Pre-employment verification
In India, the primary focus during screening is on education and work experience; in the West, it is on criminal
records and personality traits.
There is no standard solution for verification. In developed societies where wired communities and logs are
commonplace, where the state keeps individual records stored in central databases and accesses them,
verification is an easy task. But, in less developed societies, the task is complex owing to the fact that data is
not found at one location leave apart a cyber location. Data in fact has to be verified manually. Even when a
centre that hosts data has been found, it is often difficult to verify individual information because of the
cumbersome route that has to be taken to get to it.
The verification process is dependent on the agency hired to do it and on the level at which recruitment is
taking place. There are certain basic steps. Usually, applications of selected candidates are handed over to the
pre-employment screening agency. The agency scrutinizes the applications and assigns a team of
investigators trained people who know the local language to check out the individual.
Pre-employment verification is tailor-made and depends on a companys requirement. In most cases, it
involves verifying:
1. The job-seekers present residential address;
2. The last educational benchmark attained; and
3. Past employment credentials.
4. The references given by the new employee are scrutinized
5. Professional licenses
6. Checks for a criminal record and for credit.
At the entry level the focus is on educational qualifications, and at the mid-level it is on projects/technologies
and record with the previous employer. At the management level, the focus is on the individuals record of
success, ability to envision and operationalize strategic initiatives and management style.
The cost of screening an employee ranges from Rs200-6,500 ($4-$136), depending on the type of checks
required.
There are also: Credit checks; civil & criminal litigation checks; and a review of international prescribed lists.
After all these, you can rest assured that your employee poses no risk to your business.
Industry response
India's National Association of Software and Service Companies (NASSCOM) announced Wednesday ,Jan-18-
2006, the launch of a National Skills Registry (NSR) for IT and BPO (business process outsourcing)
professionals. The registry, which is online at https://www.nationalskillsregistry.com/, aims to strengthen
security in Indian IT and BPO by providing potential employers with information on employees.
The registry has been set up by NASSCOM in collaboration with the National Securities Depository Ltd. (NSDL)
in Mumbai, which is also hosting the registry. The NSR has been designed to ensure authenticity of data
through independent verification and biometric identification of employees, according to NASSCOM. Employees
will enter personal, professional, and other information into the registry, and the information will be verified by
independent agencies selected by NASSCOM and NSDL.
NASSCOM is looking at having a similar registry for employees of industry contractors as well.

Why Employee Verification is required?

Identifying and recruiting the right candidate can be crucial to your business and background
verification becomes very important and a necessity when you consider the time, money and efforts
associated with recruiting, hiring & training new employees.
Pre employment screening has become an integral part of the recruitment process today.
Employment screening has also become vital from the point of view of safety of the existing
employees and for developing an integrated workforce and culture
Benefits of Employee Screening for organisations

Helps you take well-informed hiring decisions
Minimises replacement hiring costs
Creates a safe and productive workplace
Filters out undesirable candidates with false credentials
Create a workplace of better quality of employees

Common malpractices employed by potential hires. Some of them are listed below
1. Exaggeration of resumes
2. Faking names of employers & employment dates particularly in the IT industry where there are far
too many nondescript companies
3. Doctoring of educational certificates & employment/release letters
4. Concocting salary slips
5. Providing ghost references
6. Non disclosure of exact residential address & acts of criminality
The highest incidence of non disclosure or incorrect disclosure is in terms of employment history
(almost 65% of rejected candidates were culpable of this act) followed by discrepancies in
educational attainments (close to 25%). The remaining 10% of discrepancies were related to
residential addresses, references and criminal history.
Very few Indian universities provide the facility of electronically verifying educational data. The
police has not even contemplated an online database of charge sheeted and convicted persons.
Compounding the challenge is the absence of an equivalent of an electronically administered social
security system in India. Several foreign background screening firms have been known to limit
their Indian operations to online verification which does not address even one percent of the target
population.
The more intuitive MNCs have realized the limitation of using these firms and progressively, home
grown background screening firms are winning market share from these limited capability
foreign firms.

Verification providers
Yet, the employee verification market has been growing in size since the last two years, though it is difficult to
say how big it is exactly.
And it faces many challenges. Those in the business of verifying employees for a client have to build bridges
with centres that host data like universities, which have educational records - and consolidate relationships
with information sources. This involves a lot of low-key spadework and an investment in time.
Key players
Some of the providers include
1. First Advantage
2. AuthBridge Research in Gurgaon
3. Globe Group
4. Jantakhoj
5. Onicra
6. CRP.com
7. Crederity
8. TACT India
9. ExpertRating
10. VerifyDirect
Products & Services available in market
Employee verification
Tenant Screening
Matrimonial verification
Self verification
Employment verification package differ from each provider, the MNC like First advantage & Verify direct
have the below model

Basic Package Standard Package Full check Package
(INR 2707) (INR 4914) (INR 8627)
Checks
Employment (current / past) Employment (current/ past) Employment (Current/past)
Education verify Educational verification Educational verification
Criminal Criminal records Criminal records
Address Address
Passport Passport
Criminal check
Credit & Reputation
Civil & litigation
Reference

Similar packages are offered for Matrimonial check and Tenant Screening in Basic & Standard Package