Background Verification Process (BGC) in IT Companies

Source

A prospective employee of TCS was surprised when his parents called from his native place, saying that they received a call from some agency of TCS and the person was asking questions like

1. Educational Qualification of the candidate
2. Current address of the candidate
3. Whether the house is own or rented?
4. How many floors are there in the house
5. Is there any police case going against the candidate

The humble parents of the expert job hopper were a bit worried about these questions. But the smart techie clarified that this was a routine procedure for BackGroundCheck (Commonly known as BGC). However, in many of the cases the verification agency is not trained enough to ask the right questions. For example, in this case, the question number 3 and 4 was out of place. Probably the verifying agency is the same who verifies the client for giving loan. So the questions were the same. Anyways, it is a routine procedure and followed by most of the companies.

The HR of various companies are looking for the Finest Quality Original guys – See below 🙂

Source : Facebook

WHAT is BGC – Background Check?

Background check process provides guidelines to ensure that only candidates with bona fide credentials join a company. We are aware of fake degrees provided by private institutions in India, it becomes very easy in terms of scoring average aggregate marks to join any organization by those kind of applicants and employees, whereas other candidates with less than aggregate even if they have their original degree it becomes bit tough to be get placed comparatively. For security and safeguard of company’s reputation and rules it is necessary a person clear his background check. Even if the previous organization has already completed background Check, the candidate may still need to go through background check process of the prospect employer.

Source : Facebook

For WHOM it is Done:

Freshers joining after Campus Placement:

Usually, the background check is waived off for campus recruits as the college would have verified most of the documents of the candidate. The company has tie up with the placement committee, so there are very less chance of fraud.

Off-campus Hires:

Database & passport verification check will be applicable to all off campus recruits. Additional due diligence is done for off-campus guys.

Lateral Hires:

Background verification is applicable for all lateral hires, across all levels of organizations of India. The HR of NSR (National Skills Registry) empanelled company will say that verification will be mandatory. NSR is an initiative of the NASSCOM towards having a database of prospective candidates with Background check completion from registered vendors. Some of the NSR empanelled companies are HP, Wipro, CTS, Accenture etc.

Note that NSR is NOT mandatory.

Contract Hires:

For Contract hires, the process is slightly different

1. Background verification for contract resources would be completed by the third party contractor within 30 days from the date of onboarding into company. All such reports are normally shared with the company’s onboarding & Background verification team within 30 days from the date of joining.
2. In addition to the checks done by the third party vendor the company would also require additional client specific Background check for the resources deployed in client projects as per client’s service agreement to be completed by company’s through the third party Background verification vendors prior to joining.

Re-joinees:

Regular lateral background checks are applicable in case a campus joiner is rehired in a firm. For lateral rehires, only the differential checks are applicable. Both are subject to any client mandatory checks.

Onsite Rehires:

Associates who worked with any company onsite and rejoining in India, the differential Background verification check is applicable and such client mandatory checks. Any negative Background verification from the client will be handled strictly as per the company’s policy

Merger & Acquisition Hires:

All associates from M&A organization will undergo Background verification as per the agreement signed at the time of Merger/acquisition and would undergo client specific Background check at the time of deployment at client projects.

WHAT is done in BGC:

Some people think that police verification is done during Background check but this is not the case. You don’t need to go to a police station like you had to do for passport verification.  It is a simple verification of documents by the HR of your company and some designated third party verification agency. This is normally conducted within 30 days from the Date of Joining of the of the employee. It looks easy after clearing your interview and joining any company but the major part of the job is background check. The process may include:

1. Education:Education details provided by the candidate will be verified which includes period of Education and course completion status on the following conditions:
   • Highest full-time degree or the degree evaluated for the job and
   • Post graduate degree if obtained through correspondence or part-time, will be verified if the candidate is considered for hiring based on the same

2. Employment: Previous employment details in the last five years provided by the candidate will be verified. This includes Veracity of employer, last designation held by the employee, dates of employment, nature of employment (full-time, part-time, or trainee) and nature of exit (Job Abandonment, termination, resignation) will be verified.

3. Criminal Database Check:  The Background verification will include a check of the candidate’s name in any of the national or international criminal databases.

4. Gap verification: Any gap identified(in the given below instances) in the period of last 5 years declared by the candidate, is greater than or equal to 6 months, then such gaps need to be identified and documented by the recruiter. Gaps may include:-
   • Personal Reasons like sabbatical, abroad travel, Marriage which requires supporting documentary evidence
   • For Medical Reasons (Self/Family members/Maternity) – wherein the candidate needs to provide Document proof of medication subject to verification
   • Break in Study (i.e) break between the studies starting from 10th to highest graduation.
   • Break between education and employment
   • Break between employment

Who is Responsible:

HR:

The HR should mail the list of entire required document to the candidate. Background check documents and reports are confidential documents & circulated only within the HR

Community based on specific business justification. Some companies make a central repository and give limited access

Associates:

They are either asked to upload the scanned copy of the document in an internal portal or they are asked to send self attested copies of the documents to the HR.Timely submission of relevant documents is required

Third Party Background Check Vendors:

They are responsible for conducting the background check. It is important that they maintain a high level of Data confidentiality and adhere to their service level agreement

When it comes to making decisions in hiring, the corporate would like to consider the complete background check of the job applicants. Most of the IT services companies are very strict about the background check as their reputation in front of the client is at stake. To summarize, I would say:

Background Check (BGC) is a necessary formality.