First Advantage, a Symphony Technology Group (STG) company and the leading global provider of screening analytics and identity solutions, today announced the release of Q2 2015 trends report, “First Advantage Background Screening Trends Report: India”. 

India continues to be one of the most desired destinations for setting up business due to multiple factors. With a more vibrant job market, there is also a notable rise in discrepancy rates across verticals and designations. Most multinational companies are using global hiring process to ensure they hire the right candidate. Even the Indian companies have introduced some of the best practices which include background screening in their hiring process to avoid the loss associated with a bad hire as well as to open more opportunities for deserving candidates. The surge in crime/fraud of all kinds have also raised an alarm, thereby compelling the employers to source necessary information about the candidates.

To help multinational organizations better understand the screening trends in India, First Advantage created the report: “First Advantage Background Screening Trends Report: India.” This latest study reveals key macro and micro trends and also provides the insight for organizations to benchmark their current programs and fine-tune their existing screening practices.

The report is based on data drawn from employment background verifications and reference checks conducted by First Advantage in India. The screening results represent the company’s clients located in India. The results of the report are segmented under critical discrepancy types (employment, education, financial-related, address, database) and examines the discrepancy breakdown by state and by industry.

KEY FINDINGS FROM THE REPORT INCLUDE:

·         In Q2-15 - discrepancies related to Employment, Address and Education components were at 49.3 per cent, 16.2 per cent and 3.9 per cent respectively.

·         79 per cent of the Discrepant Cases are males and remaining 21 per cent are females.

·         Case Level Discrepancy across Industrial sectors like Telecommunication, Retail, Travel & Hospitality, Engineering, Manufacturing, IT and ITES/BPO have shown a rise in Q2-15 in comparison to Q1-15.

·         Discrepancy rates for Employment and Address checks are very high in the Southern zone in India whereas discrepancy rates are very high for education checks in the Northern zone in India.

·         City-wise Bengaluru leads in Employment and Address related discrepancies & Namchi leads in Education related discrepancies.

·         Highest number of discrepancies have been observed in the Associate level employees and in that too - the age bracket > = 22 to 30 years has the biggest chunk of discrepant cases at 44.2 per cent.

·         The overall discrepancy trend shows that the > 51 years age bracket is the highest at 21.2 per cent.

·         Out of every 100 Education Discrepancies identified - 68 are from the Graduate level.

·         In Q2-15, State-wise discrepancies, Karnataka state leads at 22 per cent.Maharashtra closely follows at 20 per cent, Andhra Pradesh at 12 per cent is followed by Tamil Nadu at 8 per cent and New Delhi and Uttar Pradesh were at 6 per cent each.

“The overall discrepancy in Q2 2015 has risen to 12.3 per cent with employment related discrepancy leading at 49.3 per cent. Through the trends report First Advantage attempts to inform the employers about the discrepancy trend in India and enable them to make an informed decision by verifying the details of candidates,” said Purushotam Savlani, SVP and Managing Director, First Advantage. He further added, “Our strategic vision is to make a security conscious society. The data in the trends report will help the employers upgrade their risk mitigation and hiring strategies and benchmark them against industry standard.”

First Advantage is the leading provider of background screening in the world and conducts around 54 million global background checks annually.