Authbridge

Chandigarh: Applying for a new job?  Be prepared for getting all your credentials checked, as most companies are opting for the employee verification that is being done by professionals.  With the increasing instances of fudging of the CVs, companies are not ready to take chances anymore.

“The practice of background screening of employees picked up in the USA after the 9/11 attack.  Now companies across all sectors – be it information technology, financial services, hospitality or NGOs – are not taking any chances at all,” shared Ajay Trehan, chief executive officer of Authbridge, who has been doing background screening for about 400 companies.

Depending on the number of credentials that need to be checked, the company charges anything between Rs. 5,000 to Rs. 15,000 per employee as fee.

“Checking the background of employees is not entirely new to companies.  However, earlier it was a mere formality, now it has become a serious business.  Background checking now covers education, previous employment records, criminal verification, sexual harassment history, corruption and credit defaults,” says Trehan.

Authbridge, which started its operation in August 2005, has completed about 5 million verifications done already.  “Nearly 8% degrees are fake which are submitted get jobs, about 12 to 15% employment details are not genuine.  People lie about the job responsibilities, companies they have worked with, and many a time references are false.  People even give false domiciles,” added Trehan.

“Earlier, companies would just want us to check previous records to employees.  Now, they are emphasizing on past criminal records, if any.  Not just big firms, requests come from small and medium-sized enterprises too.

The candidates are required to declare whether they were booked in any case or not,” Trehan said.

Sharing his experience, Trehan said, “We had done a background screening for a firm in Baddi tht was hiring workforce.  Out of 200 employees whose credentials were checked it was found that about 80 persons had submitted fake domicile certificates.”

Authbridge, which is based in Gurgaon, is in the process of setting up an office here in SAS Nagar with a workforce of 40 people.  Trehan says, “We plan to scale up the number of employees to 100 within 2 months.”

He added the company was also venturing into servant verification too and would help the residents get their employees like the maids, drivers, watchman and gardeners verified.  “We would be working in close coordination with the police,” Trehan said.

He further said the only competition in the verification business in the country is First Advantage Quest Research, which has been doing employees’ screening since 2000.