People can either make or break organizations. With fraudulent practices and white collar crimes on the rise, the need of the hour is to hire the ‘right’ people and, yes, retain them too. With a number of suspect companies providing fake employment letters and discredited universities dispensing degrees, it is critical that there are more stringent checks in place to curb the increase in frauds.

A recent update from the International Chamber of Commerce has indicated that globally the fraud and counterfeit goods industry is currently about US$ 650 billion and projected to be a staggering US$ 1.7 trillion industry by 2015. A recent article in The Economic Times, “One third of CXO aspirants in India Inc. fudge resume: Search firms”, suggests that there is a 33 percent plus discrepancy in the biography of CXO level candidates.

The background screening industry in India, despite being in business for over a decade now, is still a maturing industry. In the same timeframe, over 200 of the Fortune 500 companies have established direct or indirect presence in India and 90 percent of them now have policy mandates for background screening. The penetration is highest in IT, ITeS, BFSI and is rapidly evolving in hospitality, healthcare, retail, telecom, travel and transport, educational and manufacturing industries. For most organizations now, employee risk prevention is hot on the agenda and screening along with education and experience feature in the Top 3 hiring criteria, and not just a “check in the box”.

Industry analysis shows that the trend for background verification has an overall discrepancy which ranges between 9-11 percent. Quite intriguingly, employment related discrepancies are the highest in the country and are in the range of 65 to 70 percent. There are several cases showing how the brand takes a hit, because of a discrepancy in the information provided by an employee. This increases the burden for both the relieving and hiring organizations and hence, the need to be diligent about employment record verification.

The ROI on background screening cannot really be measured; however, the impact can be 20 to 200 times the cost of screening as a percentage of employee cost. This is evident by the fact that First Advantage, this year, has seen over a 27 percent increase in inbound inquiries from SMBs to large organizations looking to find the right partner to mitigate the risk. Screening protects customers, employees, information, and the workplace.