Importance and Prevalence of Background Checks in India – A Complete Guide

Screening and background checks in India have been immensely popular for a very long time. But with every passing day, this practice is gaining traction. In this article, we will discuss the importance of screening and background checks in India, what it is and why it is required. Breeze through the article to learn more about it.

Background Check and Screening – What is it?

Even though background checks have been in practice for a long time in India, they have become more prevalent now. Both corporate and government sectors are conducting acute background checks for recruiting potential employees.

Before heading on to why background checks are critical in India, let us see what it means. Background check is the procedure of verifying details of certain budding and potential recruits as to whether they are true, real, and valid or not. This procedure of screening and background check is executed before hiring.

Background checks are executed to verify whether a significant candidate has qualified with a particular degree from a particular university. It is also implemented to check the employee’s qualifications and potentiality regarding work, develop an idea about his personality, and how much the companies can trust them.

To put it in another way, we can say that background checks are performed to ascertain the innocence and integrity of employees by distinctly checking the details provided by the recruits against the real documents possessed by them. It is common among all companies in India as there have been many fraud cases that took place by fudging documents and credentials.

What Can Happen if Background Checks are not Executed?

If background checks are not undertaken and fake documents are detected after hiring an employee, it is an embarrassment for the company and the candidate. It can cause greater deals of inconvenience throughout the entire process. Nevertheless, it will certainly lead to massive scandals if newly recruited employees have been found to have forged their documents regarding their education and other aspects.

Background Checks – What is the Process?

In the corporate world, background checks are usually conducted by outsourcing. The corporate sectors hire professional experts and experienced service providers for the same. These service providers have a well-built potential workforce and access to certain databases to operate any request regarding background checks.

However, there are exceptions as some companies have in-house employees to manage these operations. Nevertheless, certain companies perform cursory checks as they do not have ample time and plenty of resources to conduct substantial background inspection. No matter how essential background checks are, they can create problems later if unfavourable cases are extracted and found.

Background Checks in India – What Documents are included?

Various types of documents are included within background checks in India. They all depend on the role and significant industries the companies are hiring for. Certain legal and financial industries require greater screening than retail and sales industries. Some of them are:

• Passport Verification
• Address Verification
• Identity Verification
• Right to Work Validation
• Police Clearance Authentication
• Driver’s License Check
• National Identity Validation
• Local Court Criminal History Check
• Employment Verification
• Local Police Criminal History Check
• Education Verification
• Domestic Database search
• Credit Report
• AML Checks and PEP Checks
• Bankruptcy Search
• Professional Credential/ Qualification Verification
• Drug Screening
• Professional/ Personal Character Reference
• Directorship Search
• Financial Regulatory
• Civil Litigation Search

Background Checks in India – Why is it Important?

A report says that as many as?15.21% of job applications of India in 2017 ?contained immense discrepancies. Most of them were either education or employment-related.

Background checks in India are truly important and prevalent for various reasons. All the organisations and companies in the private sector can truly be benefited through this process. Some of the benefits are mentioned in this section.

If the background checks are implemented thoroughly, companies and organisations can screen the rightful candidate. This way, all the corporate and the private world companies can hire the potential employees to get the job done as per requirement.

• The entire process of recruiting and hiring can be extremely intimidating and time-consuming at the same time. For some companies, this might also be a costly investment. So it is necessary to put the investment in the right place, thereby getting a crystal clear identity of a candidate by conducting background checks.

Even though the investment is short-term, background checks can make a significant difference in the long-term outcome of the companies.

• There have been many cases where several candidates have duped reputed organisations by providing fudged documents. Many multinational companies, universities, and other organisations have been engrossed in certain scandals. Applying background checks can thoroughly reduce the company’s reputation and negative impact.
• Several industries have initiated specific regulatory frameworks for background checks. All the companies under the specific sectors need to abide by the rules that have been already applied.
• If background checks are not conducted thoroughly, an employer of any company can also be held responsible for such misconduct in verifying the details of the recruit. So by initiating background checks, companies can hire the rightful candidate for the required posts under valid grounds.

Background Checks in India – Which Situations and Industries are Included?

There are multiple situations and various industries in corporate and government sectors requiring background checks. Some of them are:

• Legal Services
• Energy and Utilities
• Government and Education
• Financial Services
• Manufacturing, Construction, and Transportation
• Certain places that are associated with “special needs” or “vulnerable” populations – children, orphans, disabled people, aged, etc.
• Any employment that requires legal registration and licensing, etc.

Other than these sectors, other companies also require thorough background checks to ensure suitable candidates are working within a particular environment. Hiring new employees contains risk; however, conducting background checks and screening can deliver the rightful employees thus benefiting all the companies in the long run.

Background Checks in India – Why Has it Become Critical During the Pandemic?

The epidemic COVID-19 has brought in acute unemployment across India, fraudulent cases have increased. People desperately want employment to live and provide bread for their families. That is why many people use falsified information to get employment by fudging documents that don’t hold any validity.

All the companies across India are trying to drive away certain mean practices and provide employment to those who deserve it by inculcating thorough background checks.

To Conclude

Since there is a high level of risk while hiring and employing in India, all the sectors have taken background checks quite seriously. In this way, all the sectors can prevent employment frauds thus maintaining the standards of their workforce. Most of the background checks in India include education verification, historical background verification, criminal records checks, professional qualification, etc. To conclude, background check in India is not an ‘option’ but a necessity for all organisations out there.

Originally published at https://www.amsinform.com/education-verification/know-everything-about-the-importance-and-prevalence-of-background-checks-in-india/