IT firms employing background verification companies to check candidate fraud: Report

In the last year, major firms such as Accenture reportedly laid off a number of employees over submission of fraudulent documents

Remote work has transformed the recruitment process and while many of those changes have been for the better, it has also opened up a new world of deception.

In a bid to spot candidate fraud, Indian IT firms are now stepping up to streamline the entire virtual interview process. As per an Economic Times report, firms are now entrusting background verification companies to validate candidates' credentials before onboarding.

Fraudulent interviews increasing with remote hires

In the last year, major firms such as Accenture reportedly laid off a number of employees over the submission of fraudulent documents. Others firms too noted an increase in such incidents of candidate fraud.

Cases of impersonation during a virtual interview have also been on the rise, noted Ashok Hariharan, founder and CEO of background verification firm IDfy. This is when one person attends the interview and a completely different person joins the job. "Google searches on the side, getting answers prompted on Bluetooth devices are other ways people have tried to cheat in interviews,” Hariharan told ET.

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In a bid to curb such practices, the firm is employing certain techniques such as geotagging to verify the candidates' location during the virtual interview.

Similarly, other firms are also now insisting on conducting at least one in-person round before selection and also having one common interviewer present in all interview rounds.

As per the report, IT firm Mphasis also has several measures in place to minimise such incidents. Srikanth Karra, chief HR officer at Mphasis told ET that the firm is using software to spot lip-syncing during video interviews and conducting thorough background checks to screen candidates with an aim to weed out fake profiles in the initial interview stages.

Similarly, companies have made it compulsory for interviewers to keep screenshots and video recordings of virtual interviews to cross-check if there is any cause for concern in the future.

These stringent processes for employee background checks are becoming critical for the IT services and banking, financial services and insurance sectors as well which allow a high degree of virtual work for technical roles, Ajay Trehan, founder and chief executive of AuthBridge noted.

Amid an increase in cases around moonlighting and trends such as the great resignation and offer shopping, employing such stringent processes is becoming a norm in other sectors as well.

"From conducting one-time checks at the time of joining, companies are now adopting continuous compliance solutions that are implemented at a frequency of an employer’s choosing,” Trehan added.