Conducting Background Checks is Important: Here's Why

The success of any company highly depends on the efforts of its employees. Businesses often struggle to find optimistic, hardworking, and honest employees to work for them. Besides looking for highly skilled people, they look for productive and loyal individuals to their jobs. And this leads to a significant impact on the company’s overall profit as well as its image.  

But if the hiring process goes wrong, then the consequences faced by the company can be worst. Not only does the company face severe financial loss, but the reputation it had earned over the years gets shattered to dust. As the adage says, “Trust takes years to build, seconds to break and forever to repair.” Thus, once the company loses people’s trust, it’s hard to earn the position back.

Not only business, but even the government can face such issues when its employees fake their qualifications to get a secured job in the office. This is what happened.

 News published by INDIA TV, says - 

11,700 employees in Maharashtra faced removal for submitting fake certificates.

The compliance of The Supreme Court, removal of employees carrying fake degrees and certificates becomes a headache for the Maha government. The SC had conveyed that anyone who is found guilty of using a fake caste certificate to get enrolled or employed, will lose both their degree and job. He/she will also face legal action, irrespective of his/her service tenure.

The state of the Govt is puzzled as around 11,700 govt. employees used forged caste certificates to get employed. Also, there have been cases where some of the people used the forged certificate to get a job in their past and now hold a very higher post in the government sector.

This can be a big step by the government and likely to be the biggest sack of employees in one move, which can trigger unions' protests.

If such a thing can happen within the government sector itself, then what can the businesses do to ensure that nothing like this happens?

Apart from conduction risk assessments, they can conduct a background check on the candidates while hiring them for their respective jobs. 

What do you understand by a background check?

A background check is said to be a verifying process often used by the employers to identify the individual employees and check whether they are true to those who they claim to be. This background check includes several layers to check his/her employment history, educational qualifications, and whether the person has or had any criminal record. 

The purpose of doing so is not only to save the organizations from any fraud case but also to safeguard the employees working there.

Various types of background checks take place based on different situations. To briefly name them to help you identify each type, here is a list of the most frequent types of background checks that can take place including:

• Background checks for previous employment
• Background Checks for any illegal activity
• Universal background checks
• International background screening
• Background Checks on social media and internet
• Educational background checks
• Background checks for Fingerprint(s)
• Credit history checks
• OIG background checks
• Individual background checks
• Security background screening
• Certificates and licenses checks

Several countries conduct these checks through different methods, and it is prevalent in every sector and industry. These checks are administered by any investigative agency and sometimes private companies. Here’s an example of how a leading IT company reported the occurrence of a smuggling case after a complaint in the name of the employee.

This case occurred in the capital city of Kerela, Thiruvananthapuram. The accused is identified as Swapna Suresh, along with two consulting agencies - Vision Technologies and PricewaterHouseCoopers. These two agencies were involved in verifying whether the documents presented by her were authentic or not.

The case first came into focus when the Kerala State Information Technology Infrastructure Limited (KSITIL) filed a complaint. The accused along with the two firms was booked on charges under IPC sections –

• 406 (criminal breach of trust)
• 420 (cheating)
• 465 (forgery) 
• 471 (using as genuine a forged document) 

by Kerala police over alleged fake degree certificate submitted by her to secure a job in the IT department, from which she has been removed later.

The case unfolded when the person’s name came up, linking to the 30kg of gold smuggled at the international airport. The person charged was accused of submitting fake educational degrees and a fake B. Com degree certificate from the Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar University in Maharashtra. And this made her eligible to get a job in the Space Park, under the state IT department. The woman was a former employee of the United Arab Emirates consulate and was arrested by the National Investigation Agency along with other defaulters.

Citing these examples, we can now surely understand how important it is to check about the person. A small step can save the company from such damage. However qualified or skilled a person can be, it is always important to understand that he or she may be a criminal or may take advantage of the company and do something illegal in the process.

Background checks are crucial to know about the errors that can occur. Today several companies have been looking at the importance of the background check, and they have been providing their services to many leading companies to save their image. Thus, before making any decision, make sure to do a thorough research of the person and then hire anyone new in the company.