Authbridge

Surveys say cases of employee infidelity, such as the one involving Citibank's wealth manager Shivraj Puri, are on the rise. A ground check says there's already an industry in place to control such misdemeanour.

These firms call themselves risk management consultancies, and there are several of them doing brisk business — big enough to be a Rs 100-crore segment, and aiming higher. These firms comb through resumes to verify the tiniest details for authenticity, and, in several cases, what they come up with is nothing less than stunning.

Wayne Tollemache, executive MD of one such company, First Advantage, recalls how a senior candidate hired as practice head by one of India's largest IT firms was found to have furnished fake degree certificates from IIM Ahmedabad and IIT Mumbai. He had managed to survive in corporate India for 20 years before he was finally caught, and that too only because someone decided to hire a screening firm.

As more and more companies realise the need to filter talent though a verification process, business is booming for companies like AuthBridge, Pinkerton and First Advantage.

Heaps of resumes waiting to be verified during a visit to the Gurgaon office of AuthBridge indicate the scale of business at these companies. Things are very streamlined, with one department for verifying educational credentials, another for criminal verification and yet another for previous employment. AuthBridge at present does close to 20,000 screenings per month for its 400-odd clients.

Though estimates say about 80% registered companies in India do not ask for background checks on candidates while hiring, growth in the segment has been phenomenal, encompassing IT and ITeS segments to manufacturing, petroleum, hospitality, healthcare, retail, telecom and entertainment. “The current size of the background screening services industry in India is Rs 100 crore, but it has the potential to touch the Rs 1,500-crore level in the next decade. If we add PSUs, it could be as high as Rs 4,000 crore,” says Ajay Trehan, CEO, AuthBridge.

Big, it seems, is on everyone’s mind. Take CRP HR Services, headquartered in Mumbai. The firm has about 250 clients in India, netting 30,000 checks a month. It has six other zonal offices and three international offices as well.

Post 26/11, four hospitality chains signed up with CRP, which also has several requests for criminal verification. CEO Nipa Modi can’t be faulted for being smug when she claims that “business will grow by 40% this year.” First Advantage doubled its workforce in India to 1,100 last year and sees this number growing. Currently, the company is servicing 1,000 Indian clients from Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai and Delhi.

Sangeeta Lala, VP, TeamLease Services, explains what swings business for such companies. “Companies are outsourcing the verification process to professional agencies because the latter can maintain a certain degree of confidentiality and the verification is done impartially,” she says.

The verification process checks every information provided by the prospective candidate— educational qualifications, address, employment (number of years of experience, last salary drawn, the last working date), credit history, criminal record, digital footprint, and even substance abuse testing. Arun Das Mahapatra, partner in charge-India, Heidrick & Struggles, claims his firm goes down at least 15 years into the candidate’s professional history and does a 360-degree reference check, talking to candidates’ bosses and peers.