Job-seekers seem to be lying their way into companies. And Bangalore tops the list in the country when it comes to candidates providing incorrect information about previous employment tenures, inflated designations and compensation and other false employment information.
According to ‘Background Screening Trends - India Annual Trends Report 2013’ done by US-based background verification firm First Advantage, 19 per cent of employment discrepancies were found in candidates who sought jobs in Bangalore last year, followed by 17 per cent in Mumbai and 8 per cent in Chennai.
The study, which looked at discrepancies in employment, address and education, was conducted across four quarters of 2013 covering more than 7,000 talent acquisition and background verification companies in the country.
At 12 per cent, Bangalore also tops the country for discrepancies in address details provided by job-seekers — their place of residence and period of stay. Mumbai follows with 9 per cent address discrepancies and New Delhi with 8 per cent.
The cities of Namchi (13%), Mumbai (9%) and New Delhi (8%) had the highest levels of discrepancies in education details provided by candidates.
Although Bangalore had only 2 per cent of total discrepancies in education details, it had 74 per cent cases of producing fake documents about educational qualifications, especially graduation or post-graduation.
Nalanda accounted for the most fake document submissions followed by Hyderabad (96), Mumbai (88), Allahabad and Meerut (84 each).
Incorrect information on tenure of previous employment tops the list of employment discrepancies as the study found 8,901 (or 36 per cent) such cases.
As many as 96 per cent job-seekers provided false information on period of stay at their address, the study says.
“There is a high rate of discrepancy in India due to a lot of false information that is provided and also fraudulent documents that are produced by people trying to bridge gaps between their resume and the job that they are seeking,” said Navin Chugh, managing director at First Advantage, which processes 23 million background checks annually around the globe, of which around 12 lakh checks are in India alone.
A majority of job-seekers lied about previous employment in the Information Technlogy (IT), IT Enabled Services/BPO, financial services and healthcare sectors, while errenous address details were found highest in retail and travel sectors.
Job aspirants lying about various aspects is a systemic flaw, says Aditya Narayan Mishra, President (staffing), Randstad India, a consultancy firm.
“This is a challenge for companies, especially when the opportunities are not many. Candidates tend to lie, misinterpret or over-project themselves, especially at the junior levels.”
“For example, if someone has 1.9 years of experience and the employer is looking for two years experience on paper, the candidates will show two years,” Mishra said.
He further said that a proper human resource management system (HRMS) and record of previous employees should be readily available.
The study says 66 per cent of these discrepancies were found at the ‘associate’ level of employee categories.
However, the study has found manipulation at senior levels as well.
“Senior personnel in most organisations enjoy unconditional access and power to use confidential data. As many as 68 per cent senior-level staff provided false employment information,” the report says.