Indian IT Sector Also Reports 16.6% Discrepancy in Employee Background Verification in FY20
At 16.60%, the IT sector reports the highest discrepancy ratios for FY20. This is 9.3% higher than the previous FY.
The most discrepancy in information shared was observed in the age group >=29
Employment verification discrepancy stood at 3.69%, the highest in three years
In a year marred by unprecedented financial instability, India’s IT sector offered a silver lining. As per a NASSCOM report, the overall IT revenues grew to $194bn while IT exports grew by 1.9% in FY21. The IT industry also employed 138,000 new hires in the year when hiring almost froze in other sectors. However, a report on employee background verification trends by AuthBridge, one of India’s India's largest Authentication company, uncovers a different side to this growth story. Titled Annual Trends Report 2020, the report highlights that the IT sector reported the highest discrepancy during employee background verification across sectors, even more than Retail and Pharma where major frauds were reported in FY 20.
Key Findings of the Report
Overall discrepancy of 16.6%
The sector reported an overall discrepancy of 16.6% in the personal and professional details shared by employees with their employers. This figure stood only at 7.30% in FY19 and 8.70% in FY18. This means that more employees furbished falsified or embellished details on their resume. The sharp increase in the numbers in the pandemic year are consistent with instances of increased frauds in other industries like Retail and Pharma.
Increase in discrepancy in the age group >=29
The rates of discrepancy in the age group of <=24 increased from 3.8% in FY19 to a whopping 7.22% in FY20. For the age group >=25-29, this figure stood at a high of 8.37% in FY20. The increased numbers could be attributed to ease of information fabrication and lesser scrutiny from organisations at the entry-level and mid-level jobs, especially with the increased physical distance between candidates and employers.
Employment verification discrepancy at 3.69%
For the previous employment verification checks, the discrepancy ratio stood at a high of 3.69%. This meant that more candidates in the sector felt confident to share misleading details on their employment history than before.
Founder and CEO of AuthBridge, Ajay Trehan, commented “The IT sector pivoted the fastest when the pandemic hit us, which allowed it to hire, grow and infuse vigour into the economy. But the scale of the change was unprecedented, and no one really knew what hiring, verifying and onboarding would entail under the changed circumstances. The high verification discrepancies in this sector should prepare us for the new age of remote work, where candidate journeys need to be 100% digital yet capable of sieving through frauds related to identity, work history, education etc.”
The AuthBridge Annual Trend Report 2020 draws data-driven insights from millions of background checks the company conducted and discrepancy trends that were observed in the information shared by candidates during their verification process in the last three years. The report uncovers discrepancy patterns under a variety of checks across 15 industries. These checks included identity verification, address verification, education check, reference check, criminal history verification. This report is a great resource to gather insights to build an effective risk mitigation strategy while hiring across various industries. The report releases at a crucial moment when the job market appears to be recovering from the ongoing pandemic.
