Thorough verification of a candidate’s resume is an integral part of the selection process

Being future-ready requires formulation of a strategy that focuses on selection and hiring of the right talent using scientifically designed assessment tools and interviewing techniques. A good recruitment strategy should ensure that those selected/hired are comprehensively screened for authenticity of facts and documents. As a result, background checks have gained importance in the last decade and it is undoubtedly an integral part of the hiring process. With pressures on the recruitment team to hire more and fast, a recruiter has to be extra careful during a selection process.

A good recruitment plan should identify which aspects of a candidate’s profile are to be mandatorily screened, based on the definition of roles. For technical and individual contributor roles, a verification of the individual’s technical credentials need to be thoroughly checked while for middle and senior leadership roles, any discrepancies between the individual’s claimed personality and actual behavioural traits need to be verified. A recruitment plan also needs to include a future course of action where discrepancy is proven. Global stringency on possible terrorist links, money-laundering smears, shadow of corruption or the rising incidents of criminally-motivated applicants have compelled organisations to include background verification and country-specific legal assessments as an integral part of their recruitment strategy.

The health of the background screening process in an organisation is a powerful indicator of the management’s commitment to the process. With the changed set of personal values and the workforce becoming increasingly multi-generational, policies and processes need to evolve to address newer issues. Recruiters have to verify candidates from a wide spectrum of credentials such as the relevance of correspondence education from an unrecognised institution, gaps in education and employment history and unstated employment histories.

Tactical hiring trends include employee referrals and social media as options to source candidates. While being efficient means to source applications, they also increase the need for more stringent background verification. Using social media for employee verification is fraught with uncertainty and carries the risk of infringement of privacy. Two important elements of the background screening policy of an organisation include role-wise checks and stage for initiation of the screening process.

I would like to leave you with one last point. While you hire on the basis of the resume and the interview, do you validate what the resume states against what the candidate fills in the candidate information sheet once the hiring process has been initiated? If you are not cross-referencing candidate resumes against candidate information sheets, that is the first ‘risk’ you are ignoring.

Ajay Trehan is the Founder and CEO of AuthBridge