Introduction
Multinational companies plan to hire more than 5,00,000 employees in India via GCCs by the end of the financial year 2023-24. It’s not a new story. MNCs practice bulk hiring every year. But how do they ensure that they hire the right candidates? The answer is stringent background verification from the best BGV vendors in the industry. One that involves looking into possibly everything that affects a hiring decision.
Let’s look at what background verification in MNCs looks like.
What is background verification in MNCs?
The BGV process in MNCs can be rather slow as compared to SMEs. MNCs invest more time, effort, and money in digging deep into the candidate’s background and spotting any discrepancies that might be a potential threat.
Background verification in MNCs is as difficult to get through as in their interview rounds. These companies run stringent checks on the candidates before hiring them. After all, one bad fish in the pond is enough to cause serious damage. As the name suggests, when it comes to an MNC’s ‘multinational’ presence, this damage can extend to more than just one branch or location.
However, MNCs don’t run these checks themselves. They partner with trustworthy BGV vendors to do the job. One such BGV vendor is IDfy, a trusted BGV partner to MNCs like Amazon, Zomato, Wellspun, and Apollo Hospital among others.
What background verification checks do MNCs run on a candidate?
MNCs prefer to perform a list of BGV checks based on the role they’re hiring the candidate for. These checks are:
1. Identity check
This involves verifying government-authorized documents of identification. These provide details of the candidate like name, date of birth, residential address, and identity number.
2. Education verification
The BGV vendors hired by the MNCs verify the candidate’s degree, professional certifications, and licenses. This saves the company from hiring inept candidates who fake their educational credentials to get hired.
3. Address verification
A candidate lying about his/her residential address might have fraudulent intentions. Hence, the background verification vendor either verifies the candidate’s address digitally or by physically visiting the given address.
4. Employment verification
Here, the candidate’s past employment details are cross-verified. Details like joining and leaving date, name of the past company, salary bracket, and reason for leaving are verified.
5. Fake employment database check
There are numerous ways by which fraudulent candidates try to trick the background verification process by producing employment documents from fake or blacklisted companies. To tackle this, MNCs run a check to see if the documents submitted by the candidate are issued from such fake companies.
Fake job certificates in a day? Possible.
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6. Reference check
This is about digging deeper into a candidate’s past employment (usually meant for white-collar). Here, the employer tries to understand the candidate’s strengths and weaknesses, quality of work, experience, skills, and conduct at work from his/her referee. It is a crucial background verification check for MNCs hiring above entry-level positions.
7. Criminal history check
To ensure a safe work environment and company security, this background check in MNCs looks for any possible criminal records against the candidate before hiring him/her.
8. Drug screening test
Industries like aviation run these tests to ensure that the candidate isn’t used to any chemical influence.
9. Sexual offender database or the NDSO
Safety of every gender at work stands among the top priorities for MNCs. Any record found against the candidate in this regard may result in adverse hiring decisions.
10. Personal finances and credit history check
This enables background verification for MNCs to check the candidate’s payments and default history and identify financial distress (if any). Financial distress could serve as a motivation for theft or fraud, and hence, this check is mandatory. Especially, for roles that are directly involved in the company’s finances.
11. Social media checks
This is a newly introduced check that is most relevant for candidates applying for higher positions at MNCs. Employees in such positions either have a direct impact on the company’s reputation or the underlying employees’ team. To avoid an adverse employment experience, MNCs prefer to check the candidate’s activities, interests, and affiliations via their social media accounts.
12. Pre-interview checks
Many MNCs are now exploring conducting a basic yet instant background check before the interview stage to avoid any unwanted surprises after an offer is sent to the candidate. These checks save a lot of time and resources for HR teams and ensure a more efficient hiring process.
Sources of Background Verification in MNCs in India
The government of India has made it easier to verify candidates by putting certain practices in place. They are:
1. Aadhaar Card
This consists of a person’s biometric, name, date of birth and residential address.
2. PAN Card
It helps keep track of a person’s tax liability and transactions.
3. National Skills Registry (NSR)
A database consisting of nearly 255 companies with 18,84,380 biometrics, helps companies counter-check employees’ information, provided that they are registered on the platform.
4. National Academics Depository (NAD)
Here candidates can store their educational documents digitally.
If you’d like to know more about how we can help companies like yours run efficient BGV operations, please feel free to write to us at shivani@idfy.com.