Job-seekers from North India fake it to make it

BANGALORE:

Recession does strange things to people. A trend recently observed shows a sharp increase in resume frauds in North India while South India and East India accounted for the lowest number of resume frauds. This uncomfortable fact was brought to light by a report released by a Background Screening and Risk Management consulting company.

The report ‘Background Screening Trends -- A Recession time study’ based on a survey which evaluated about 10,000 cases per month, by AuthBridge Research Services, evaluates the upward trend in resume embellishments as an aftermath of the recent economic meltdown.

North India accounted for:-

47% of the total discrepancies reported in country. Next in line was the Western part of the country with 32 % of discrepancies being reported from there. South and East India combined accounted for the lowest number, the report revealed.

“March saw the highest number of resume embellishments-16%

Interestingly, this was the month when the economy was at its worst,” the report said. The report pointed out that discrepancies related to previous employment were 74% of the total discrepancies of which 59% candidates lied about their tenure, designation, CTC or reporting manager.

According to the report, fake/ forged documents formed 69% of the total education-related discrepancies.

Maximum discrepancies were reported from ITeS, IT and BFSI sectors. Commenting on the report and its findings, Ajay Trehan, Chief Executive Officer, AuthBridge, said, “Job cuts, layoffs and salary cuts have been the key factors during recession instigating candidates to lie in resumes so as to bag the available job at any cost.” “The upward trend in resume frauds show that employers need to scrutinise candidate’s profile even more carefully and watch for fraudulent credentials, such as inflated or fictional employment history or educational degrees so as to secure them from the hazardous repercussions of unsafe hiring,” he added.

Rajeev Yadav, Senior Division Manager - HR, NIIT Technologies said, “While we have seen that there has been increasing number of fraud and other problems, the study has provided with factual data and it is now necessary for companies across the industry who are manpower intensive as well as that handle sensitive information to set up risk management systems in place.” The difference between the information provided by the job applicant and the information dug out by AuthBridge while conducting background checks, also known as discrepancy rate was significantly higher than normal during the peak recession period.

Source: www.expressbuzz.com ; By Jayadevan PK