The advent of a global workforce has led to an exponential increase in risks related to talent acquisition. With connectivity and operations reaching beyond geographical boundaries, organizations are seeking candidates from all over the world. While millions of people are being hired, knowing who is right and who is not is a gargantuan task. It is a massive undertaking and an organization can either invest a substantial amount of its time in tracking the antecedents of candidates it is employing or run its business. Billions of dollars are lost world over due to unverified employees who sabotage crucial job positions and are eventually responsible for the stunted growth of an organization. Technology and migration make it quite easy to misinform employers in order to gain undeserved employment. Unfortunately in India, there are no stringent laws to discourage people from presenting fake resumes even though the implications for the company can be disastrous. In fact, the problem is so rampant that closely working with pre-employment and background verification agencies is a cost companies and organizations are glad to bear rather than face monumental losses later on.

The background screening industry is still in its nascent stages in India. Even though a simple exercise of verifying qualifications, passport details, previous employments and addresses of candidates can help weed out majority of the bad stock, there is an urgent need to verify the remaining aspects of an individual too, so as to avoid legal and financial problems. Therefore, choosing the right vendor is a business critical decision.

Do’s and don’ts of identifying the right partner

• Database vendor or actual investigator?
Some agencies provide information from the database on either one-on-one basis or a monthly subscription. Instead of genuinely investigating the case, they only rely on their present database.

• Unrealistic pricing options?
If a background verification and assessment service does not have a clearly defined pricing structure, it means that they normally compete on the basis of pricing rather than on the quality of service.

• Unrealistic turnaround time?
Unless records are updated, it is humanly impossible, at least not with contemporary technology, to dig out all relevant information about an employee within 24 hours.