BENGALURU: Bengaluru tops the country when it comes to employment- and address-related fudging by job seekers, a talent search company has revealed.
According to a survey by First Advantage, about 80 per cent of misrepresentations or discrepancies involved men and the rest women. Fake documents were the biggest reason for such discrepancies.
The report said in employment discrepancies, the city topped with 17 per cent, followed by Mumbai (13 per cent), Chennai (eight per cent) and Hyderabad (seven per cent). In address-related discrepancies, the city recorded 17 per cent, compared to Mumbai (11 per cent), New Delhi (eight per cent) and Hyderabad (five per cent).
Karnataka also topped the list in terms of discrepancy rates among major states in the country. The state recorded 22 per cent, compared to Maharashtra (19 per cent), Andhra Pradesh (nine per cent), Tamil Nadu (nine per cent) and Uttar Pradesh (seven per cent).
Speaking to Express, First Advantage MD Navin Chugh said: “Lot of hiring takes place in Bengaluru as a large number of IT/BPO companies are located here. Considering the fact that proper background verification checks are carried out by these companies, discrepancies are spotted.”
The report is based on a number of background checks carried out by companies in the last quarter of 2014. Of the total number of discrepancies, a huge chunk occurred in the employment component, followed by address- and education-related sections. While employment and address mismatches are high in south India, education component misrepresentations are on top in the north. Also, the highest number of background discrepancies have been observed mainly in associate-level employees in the age bracket of 22-30 years.
The report states that compared to the last three years (since 2011), discrepancies had increased in the last quarter. In 2011, it was 8.1 per cent while in 2012, it rose to 9.8 per cent. Similarly, in 2013, it was 10 per cent and in the last quarter of 2014, it went up to 10.7 per cent. In terms of discrepancy trends in the last quarter of 2014, compared to the same period in 2013, employment discrepancies have recorded an increase in most sectors including banking and financial services, FMCG, IT, engineering, healthcare, hospitality and other sectors.
Also, fake documents formed the biggest chunk of discrepancies at 51 per cent in 2014, compared to 43 per cent in 2013.