Amritsar, NFAPost: The fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) sector has recorded the highest discrepancies in information provided by job seekers during background checks done in the Apr-Jun quarter, a report by comprehensive background screening solutions provider First Advantage showed.
The mismatch between information provided by a candidate and the actual facts found out by an organisation through background check in the FMCG sector during Apr-Jun was at 24.1% as against 15.3% recorded in Jan-Mar, and way above the industry average of 9.7%, according to the report named Employment Screening Trends Report: India.
The report based on data available with First Advantage shows that while many companies have reduced hiring or implemented a hiring freeze due to the pandemic situation, there were firms that continued hiring as usual during Apr-Jun.
“In the wake of Covid-19 virus outbreak, serious implications are not just towards people’s health and healthcare services but there is a growing impact on employment and hiring across industries. Recruitment is taking place in most of the industries that are digitizing and automating their work processes. Few industries that are actively hiring during this time are industries working directly with the vulnerable category of people—Health care, transportation, and food or grocery delivery—where background check is a critical safety step in the hiring process,” Head-Commercial at First Advantage India, Amit Singh, said.
Singh added that though background screening in India is not a mandate like in the US and other developed countries, the awareness and importance of screening backgrounds is vastly growing in the country.
Apart from FMCG, other industries such as healthcare, banking, BPO, e-commerce and logistics, financial services, manufacturing, pharma, and telecom also witnessed discrepancy percentages way above the industry average of 9.7% during Apr-Jun, the report showed.
The report also mentioned that almost all industries such as consulting, engineering and infrastructure, financial services, information technology, healthcare, and telecom increased their percentages in terms of alternative mode of verification in the employment component during Apr-Jun.
The report showed that the highest number of discrepancies have been detected in the age bracket of 22-30 years candidates.
“India being a land of opportunities, limited resources tend to be inevitably susceptible to discrepancy cases with all aiming to grab the best, the report said.
It added that causes of discrepancies can barely be controlled, however, discrepancy cases can surely be curbed with smarter recruitment systems, planned processes and an unbiased autonomous background screening provider.
“2020 background screening data from across industries has clearly shown that desperate times need desperate measures which need to be sustainable, auditable and ethical and will further become the foundation of 2021. Identifying common and newer gaps with uncommon and newer mechanisms is the need of the hour,” Singh said.
