Big Problem – Simple Solutions : Background Verification

Let’s get into ‘once upon a time..’ mode! Yes the story time.

This is not a story of a king or queen, rather is a real problem faced by one of the Japan’s biggest cosmetic company. This was a case of empty soap box.

The problem started when the company received a compliant of consumer that the soap box he purchased was empty. Somehow, one of the packaged boxes went empty from the assembly line and reached the end-user. Astounded by this complaint, top management immediately put the best engineers into action to sort out the problem so that it never happened again as the goodwill of the company was at stake.

Big minds were at work, big amount was spent. Solution was found fast. X-ray machines with high resolution were found to be an apt solution which would be manned by two people.

All said and done!

The same problem was put forward in front of the worker group in the company, for explaining the reason for the need of X-ray machines. One of the workers stood up after listening to the problem. He wanted to provide a solution for the problem. With permission of his senior, he was allowed to present what he had thought about. Of course the seniors laughed in their minds. Nevertheless, they waited for the solution he wanted to present.

He brought an electric fan, placed in front of the assembly line and switched it on. The ones filled with soap, passed the test. The ones that were empty, flew out of the assembly line.

Moral of the story – there lies a simple solution to big problems. Always. We just need to open our eyes to see that simple solution. Like, the growing corporate frauds, increasing amount of money duped by the employees, faked salary slips, faked educational qualification, and many other such problems, the solution is – a comprehensive background verification for both small and large organizations.

Every company needs their industrial fan: background verification agency, at their gate of employment. Unsuitable candidates will be blown out of the line and the ones fit for candidature, will be considered for the post. So, let’s make a simpler world.

Image courtesy: http://www.innovationmanagement.se/imtool-articles/in-innovation-the-simple-trumps-the-complex/

Reebok Face Off – Needs Background Verification

When Cadbury chocolates were found not suitable for eating, Cadbury recalled their product on an urgent note and discarded the entire lot. They restocked the market with chocolates having improved packaging.

What if our employees show their rotten behavior and do a fraud of Rs 870 crore only?

I am certainly talking about the recent fraud in the operations of Reebok India. On account of systemic “mismanagement” in the business planning and running of the company, Reebok India was let down by few of its officials and employees.

Of course, the quality of the Reebok product was not questioned, but the integrity of employees was. With the inflated bills and incorrect accounts, former Managing Director Subhinder Singh Prem and Chief Operating Officer Vishnu Bhagat along with few others, indulged into a major conspiracy.

Shocked by the designation of the culprits? Well, that’s the hard truth!

Had it been a product, Reebok might have done what Cadbury did. But with goodwill at stake, and with their core assets, their employees at fault, can they call back the time and goodwill, which they have earned till date?

Stringent steps need to be taken to curb the ongoing corporate frauds and the answer to all the corporate frauds is – a rigorous and inflexible background verification followed by continuous auditing and due diligence. Reebok India is just a wake-up call for all the corporates to realize the dire need of background verification at this hour.

People who can fake their salary slips or educational certificates to gain employment, will do the same later on at a bigger stage and for a higher stake. To check such potential candidates from joining your organization, let’s come hand in hand with the background verification agencies. Going few steps backward to move with assured steps forward, background verification agencies provide a straightforward and indispensable solution.

Image courtesy:: http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2012-11-06/news/34946266_1_subhinder-singh-singh-prem-vishnu-bhagat

Why verify your degree?

Generally, our blog posts are targeted on HR professionals and business owners as to why they should get the credentials (including academic degrees and certificates) of their employees verified. This post takes (a hopefully refreshing) break and focuses on why a consumer (like you – our esteemed reader) may benefit from degree verification.

You are applying overseas for higher education

You have made up your mind that you need to go overseas for higher education. You have gone through the long and meticulous cycle of planning, preparation and execution. All the tests are taken, results in, universities and schools selected and applied to. While quite a few of the universities may ask for original hard copy transcripts from the university or institute, others may just ask for a verified copy of the degree. This typically means a stamp and signature from registrar’s office on the photocopy of the degree.

You are applying overseas for an employment opportunity

You have decided that it is time to work overseas now. While being fairly difficult to achieve, relative to the higher education route, it still may work out for certain countries, types of sectors and kind of job in consideration. There is a reasonable chance that the employer may ask for a verified copy of the degree, either at the time of application or at any later stage of the hiring cycle.

You are applying for a visa

Good news – one of the earlier scenarios has played out successfully for you. You have secured either an admission to an academic program or a job opportunity overseas. In either case, you will show up at the concerned embassy or consulate for getting the suitable visa. Certain countries and specific types of visas may require you to either submit hard copy of the transcripts or verified copy of the degree.

Your university’s accreditation was revoked or the university shut down or university never had any accreditation

These are more serious scenarios which present big challenges in degree verification. In certain cases, the degree verification may be possible – for example, degree was awarded at a point of time when the university accreditation had not been revoked. But other scenarios like closure of the university or never having accreditation do not offer any suitable solution.

In any of these four scenarios, typically, you will end up traveling to the university, staying there for a few days, applying for degree verification and following up to receive verified photocopies. All this presents a huge cost to you – in terms of time, money and the hassle. A better solution would be to go in for the degree (Education Self) verification services provided by professional third party verification agencies like JantaKhoj. So leave the degree verification to experts and enjoy peace of mind.

Doing vs. Managing – the Queen Bee vs. Drone syndrome

This last couple of weeks many folks asked me – so why did you slow down on the blogging? Problem was, Tulasi, my Woman Friday for 7 plus years; the queen of our household; my children’s mom and dad, sister and teacher, friend, philosopher, guide – left – to get married.

While this in itself is great news for all of us, and we really lived it up at the wedding; it did leave me with a household to run…

Like any good manager, I have a warm pipeline of resources to backfill any attrition – in this case, my erstwhile second in command Rupa got a promotion, and has now taken over running the household – and I will “decrease household running cost” by hiring resources for cleaning chores lower down the value chain, thereby “also guaranteeing job rotation”.

Whilst all these HR practices were playing out in their usual way in our house, I did have to spend a fair amount of time on different from usual activities – cooking/ cleaning/ grocery shopping/ advising gardener/ pet care ( this last is a LONG story – of how we thought we had 2 girl rabbits named Sita and Gita, and one fine day 7 really ugly looking things plopped out of one of those girls – sending our entire household into a googling tizzy – on care of newborn rabbits. My nephew Dhruv and daughter Riddhi were most active. For those interested, this one is a good resource. Rabbits had to be renamed Ram and Sita) – that I had not even touched – for a good 7 years.

Made me think of the whole “doing” vs. “getting done” thing, and how your attitude towards this split in your management tasks affects your behavior, your people policies, your time management, your pleasure in your work, your motivation and ultimately your success..

I think “doing” is kind of ingrained in us Indians – even our epics teach us the value of “doing” – the Bhagwad Gita’s most famous quote by far is the one which loosely translated means – keep focused on your work, don’t worry about the reward. karmanyewadhikarasthey ma faleshu kadachana. (this being Lord Krishna’s sage advise to Arjuna as he was agonizing over fighting and killing his own kith and kin)

My mom is a prime example – she just can NOT understand our slavery to our domestic help. She has had a speedily revolving door on her help – because she sets high standards, and is not afraid of managing the daily chores herself if she doesn’t have anyone to help – at nearly 70 (the nearly is really important if I don’t want her to skin my hide!) she sweeps, swabs, dish-washes, cooks, disposes garbage AND goes for her 5 miler walks everyday when required. The good part – her house is always sparkling clean and her food is always mummy yummy. The not so good part – she pretty much kills herself doing all this, not leaving a lot of “me” time for her.

In sharp contrast is the principle of outsourcing non core activities – which led to the whole BPO/ even IT boom in India. That one says – do what you NEED to do, the rest – get someone else to do – someone who is more qualified, probably does it faster better cheaper than you and therefore optimize overall cost time and resources

But most of us essentially vary the ‘doing” vs “getting done” or “managing” bit in different degrees – and this proportion of one vs. the other actually changes as we rise in the corporate hierarchy.

That actually makes sense – this inverted triangle is good sound horse sense. I think the problem comes when we do too much of one to the exclusion of the other. Essentially, what I’m saying is that there has to be a limiting factor at each end of the spectrum – so, there IS an optimal range – which determines the min-max of “doing” just as it does of “managing”, that we would be wise to stay within.

I know of senior leaders who are so enchanted by their “doing” – that they don’t learn to delegate – and, more importantly, therefore cannot/ will not be able to pay attention to “higher order” tasks that need to be done by someone in their role – so, it’s the Vice President who still does/ looks at every report that needs to be sent out, hence not spending enough time on core business development or people issues. Now this syndrome – the “doer” syndrome in general will happen when the manager is almost “scared” to graduate to “managing” – his comfort level is in the “doing” – it’s stuff that he was/is good at – that’s why after all he kept getting promoted, and he has probably now reached his Peter’s level of incompetence. (This is a fascinating theory – for those who would like to know more, click here)

Ofcourse, the flip side of the coin – and probably more prevalent is the manager who has so lost touch with “doing” that she is only “managing”. Reminds me of when my daughter once asked me – mom, if all you are doing is telecons and meetings, when do you actually work? I had to explain to her how at the meetings we were actually taking decisions – so it was the culmination of a lot of work, and also therefore qualified as work.

This is reality, right? – at senior levels, you generally manage resources who manage resources who maybe manage more resources who actually do the work – much like the beehive. But you know, then, one has to have really well developed systems to a) enable the worker bees to judge those components of the “work” which need to be showcased to the next level – and/ or escalated as needing help; or b) at the Queen bee level a very fine knowledge of the work and the people involved to sniff out that which needs attention/ correction/ decision…

Corporate science and all, this is NOT a small deal – it is WHY the cadre of MBAs was born and grew. And despite the armies of MBAs, it is still not foolproof – witness the hours spent trouble shooting/ fire fighting rather than doing proactive business development.

I think it may be worthwhile therefore for even senior management to keep in touch with the “core” of the work – there SHOULD be elements of your organisation’s scope of activities that you can do better than most others – and, if those elements are changing – then you jolly well stay abreast of those changes. Its why doctors, lawyers and chartered accountants have to clock hours at “continuing education”. This enables one to be able to fine tune that antenna or, at the enterprise level, those systems that ensure smoother running of the organization, very often enabling value addition via innovative ideas (one doesn’t have to rely on a think tank or “lab” all the time, you know!).

But, more importantly, it helps engender respect amongst your subordinates for your abilities. Its like, in my aerobics classes, I am always more motivated to work-out harder since I see Niru the trainer herself “do” all the really complicated steps – and – better than anyone else! If she just stood and instructed – I don’t think I would have seen the energy I see/ feel in the class (I have seen dance and swimming classes for my kids where the coaches have managed by gesticulation! – those classes were really short lived, as you can imagine!).

Finally, I think for folks used to dealing all the time with earth shattering, world shaking decisions and situations, its almost a “relief” at times to get back to the basics of “doing” – honestly, I used to LOVE brainstorming sessions when folks said – can we figure out how to evolve this framework for a client?

On the other hand, if you don’t “do”, sometimes its almost a negative – someone told me a few months ago, “Sangita, in this company, the minute someone becomes an AVP – you can’t ask them how to do work – their standard answer is – “go figure it out yourself”. After all, I already tried figuring it out myself – I couldn’t and that’s why I went to him! I don’t know whether they forget/ they are too scared to do it, or they just don’t think its worth their while!”

So there you have it – coaching vs. empowerment / doing vs. managing / drone vs queen…. There is no way you can be both fully – and its not wise to be one at the expense of the other.

Maybe this strikes at the root of the dignity of labor question? Its infra-dig to “do” and better to “manage”? Tulasi’s new husband told me with a really fine sneer on his face – “she won’t do “this kind of work” – ie, household chores, any longer – we will train her in tailoring, and she will do that”

Which means, I will be without her – and have to spend time and energy training and transitioniong the new help. In addition, Ram and Sita gave birth to their second litter of 11 babies – heaven help me – I think they are headed to the Ghosts of Ram-Sita Future ! (see picture! )

Avoid Corporate Frauds – with Background Verification

Corruption has put its foot forward in the corporate world as well. If you happen to hit Google with the keywords – “corporate frauds”, You will find thousands of reports. There has been a study going on, on this topic and the surveys have brought an alarming figure in picture. A recent research done by a Pune-based research and consultancy firm stated that ‘India maybe losing around US$40 billion to employee fraud every year.‘

70% of corporates have no mechanism to deal with frauds which might happen in future. Corporate frauds have become inevitable at this point of time. But still, we are reluctant to talk about it.

Can we really afford being ignorant about this topic? Well, of course no. It’s better to be safe than sorry.

In such a fraud-filled scenario, background verification becomes a must. Analyse a situation where a candidate comes up with simple misrepresentations like:

• Dates of employment changed or extended,
• Position or salary or tasks are exaggerated or forged, or
• Unmatched lie like employer listed is fictitious.

These might help the candidate to get the job, but if not stopped here, he might indulge in some other malpractices’ after joining the firm to reach his/her goals. Will you make such a phony candidate face of your organization who will further bring losses?

Another matter of concern is that can we leave the critical background verification check on the recruitment consultancies? The world is becoming bigger and area to be forged wider. It has become imperative to get the background check done by specialists and experts who have a wide web of network and which do a comprehensive check of the candidate selected.

JantaKhoj is one such answer to the growing problems. So let’s team up together and get the dollars flowing in the direction of growth and keep the frauds out of your organization!!

How NOT to handle customer support – Dell DataSafe support review

This post is not related to background verification or People Search, but focuses on customer service and support. While the rant may appear to be coming from personal experience, the impact has been on the business and hence it becomes suitable for JantaKhoj blog.  Since 2004, I have been a Dell buyer, earlier owning an Inspiron laptop and later on Studio 1555. Now, one application which comes bundled with the OEM software is Dell DataSafe, an online backup application which allows the folders to be sync’ed up automatically with online backup servers. Since my storage requirements were above the minimum free quota, I bought the annual subscription for 10GB online storage.

Recently I had a hard disk crash. Thankfully I had purchased the extended warranty so the disk replacement and associated on-site service was covered. Full marks to Dell up to now as the service was quite prompt and to my complete satisfaction. After installed the other software like Windows 7 and Office 2010, I was able to restore all my files from Dell DataSafe to the new disk. Again full marks to Dell.

But one file – the Outlook Archive file (.PST), which had a large number of official emails from last two years or so, was pretty large at 5.67GB. I tried restoring this file quite a few times. In the initial stages, the file transfer would get interrupted as the wireless connection at office or home would encounter a temporary glitch. So I ran it on the home LAN which was fully solid and let the batch job run overnight. One or the other error code would show up at the end of 12-15 hours cycle.

I raised it to Dell first time via their email support on 10^th October 2012. I did get response from their India office but the local team could not resolve it over phone. There after the customer support’s true colors started coming out. Even after multiple calls and emails (which got more and more desperate with my increasing exasperation) and repeatedly sending log files, screenshots and problem details, over next even weeks, the problem lies unresolved. I can understand that the local technical team may not be conversant with a special/niche application like Dell DataSafe but then why is Dell selling this solution when they cannot provide support – for paying customers.

I have pretty much given up hope of any resolution. And for sure, I will never be buying any Dell product for personal or business usage. In this specific case, Dell DataSafe and its technical support became the Achilles’ heel for Dell – Dell is a formidable provider of computers but was extremely vulnerable on Dell DataSafe technical support. For online backups, MyPCBackup, DropBox or even Google Drive is possibly a better solution.

Terminating an Employee – the Right Way and for the Right Reasons

We generally talk about hiring right and conducting proper employee background checks. The reason being that a wrong person could subject the company to a lot of risks, and also prove to be very costly in the long run. Find a detailed description of the costs entailed for every new hire in this earlier blog post – Employee Background Verification and its effect on employee turnover rate.

Terminating an employee is not an exciting process, yet it becomes a business compulsion in several occasions. Conducting proper employee background verifications reduces likelihood of terminations significantly. However, in this blog we talk about the correct ways to handle a termination. It is indeed a long, costly, yet necessary process.

In the above mentioned scenarios, the employer is liable to conduct fool proof investigations, before taking any serious action. Considerable care is taken to maintain employee confidentiality while the verifications are conducted. However, these are considered to be serious offences and the employee has to be fired immediately in most cases. The employer can also execute his judgement on case to case basis (eg. substance abuse) depending on the severity of the offence commmitted and avoid terminating the employee after a strict warning or a suitable punishment.

All the situations stated above often lead to for-cause dismissals. Yet, the employer is liable to suitably warn the employee about his negligent behaviour. The warning protocol is different for different organizations. But it has been observed that after a sequence of warnings the culpable employee does make efforts to mend his ways and get back on track.

However, if the employee does not show an intention to improve, a termination is unavoidable.
If employee terminations are not handled properly, theycould potentially lead to a number of lawsuits against the company in future. Accurate documentation of the entire process protects the interests of the employer as well as the employee.

The warning protocol commonly followed :

• The employee is first given verbal warnings. In case this does prove useful then written memos /emails are handed over. The number of such memos/emails are generally not beyond three to four.
• No prescribed protocol is followed during the probation period.
• The senior members of the company need to be consulted before going forward with the termination.

A case based view about the topic in hand is explained beautifully here: Indian Labour Laws (Part 2) – Termination of Employee for Misconduct.

Exit Interviews :

• Exit interviews are planned carefully in order to handle any unforeseen questions or behaviour.
• It is best to have two individuals handling the exit interview.
• Personal attacks and comments are completely avoided.
• The severance process is explained to the employee.
• The employee is allowed to express his views. This might in some cases give some unknown internal insights regarding the company.
• The employee should be allowed to remove his belongings at a low visibility time to safeguard him from further humiliation.
• All the exchanges are documented properly. This proves useful in the incidence of a lawsuit in future.
• A small note regarding the termination is sent across to the team members. But it should be concise and not derogatory in nature.
• The employee is also entitled to a written explanation for the reason of his termination.

Unbiased, data and process driven terminations which arise due to business needs save an organization from any form of negative publicity or unnecessary litigation. No matter how carefully a termination is carried out, a preventive measure such as conducting proper background checks is highly recommended.

Moment of Truth – What to do when everything’s perfect except one ex-employer’s feedback

Background verification has become inevitable. But what if an employee’s background check fails?

Let’s consider one such situation where an employee has an excellent track record and is a gem for the company and will add the medals of clients in long run. Only problem with his joining is his background verification result.

The result says that this employee has worked in two companies till now, let’s say X and Y. Some eight years back, this employee started his career with company X and broke the company’s employment bond. As a result, he didn’t receive a valid company leaving certificate. The information collected from X’s HR department indicates that this employee is absconding from the work and there is no mention of the last working day or date.

Remaining seven years of work in company Y was outstanding. He has been an ace employee and he has all the documents in place. Apart from the above mentioned problem, there are no legal, criminal or any other issues that are of concern with this employee.

Question is – with an absconding tag from his first company and outstanding employee tag from the next, is it fine for this new company to continue with his employment? What can we, the decision-making HR professionals, do when we face the moment of truth?

In my view, there are few possible solutions to this problem -

1. Termination of the employee on grounds of not submitting all the documents mentioned.

2. Compromising with the situation and hence counting only the years of service in company Y and  adjusting the years of service and salary accordingly in agreement with the employee.

3. Asking the employee to resign on his own.

Whatever be the solution, win-win, win-lose or lose-lose, situation is challenging for the HR personnel who have to deal with it. There might be other feasible solutions as well. Or can we just overlook such issues? What’s your say? Let all of us know!!

Employee Background Verification – The Birbal Way!

Once upon a time, a rich merchant’s house was robbed. The merchant was furious and saddened by this deed and suspected one of his servants. He tried to find out who did this malicious act but all his efforts were in vain. At last, he went to Birbal and mentioned the incident. Birbal went to his house and assembled all of his servants and asked who had stolen the merchant’s assets. To no surprise, everybody denied.

Birbal thought for a moment, then gave a magic stick of equal length to all the servants of the merchant and said to them that the magic stick of the real thief will be longer by two inches tomorrow. All the servants should be present here again tomorrow with their magic sticks. All the servants went to their homes and gathered again at the same place the next day. Birbal asked them to show him their sticks. Everyone presented their sticks, which were of same length except for one. One of the servants had his stick shorter by two inches.

Birbal said, “This is your thief, merchant.” Later the merchant asked Birbal, “How did you catch him?” Birbal said, “The sticks were not magical. It was in the intention of the thief which made him cut his stick short by two inches in the night fearing that his stick will be longer by two inches by morning.”

In the current scenario, organizations are the rich merchants. Jobs are the wealth they have. To get this wealth, there are many who shorten or lengthen their credentials. JantaKhoj takes the prime seat of Birbal and with its comprehensive verifications – the magic wand, filters the right ones from the wrong ones.

Background verification has become inevitable in the highly competitive scenario where everyone wants to achieve more than what they deserve and faster than they can reach the sky. To get the best people try to hide many details from the employer which might be of importance for the employer. Hidden facts can appear trivial but then can we trust him/her with a big responsibility?

Of course, there are only few who tend to fall into this malpractice but then one bad fish can contaminate the entire pond. So, let us together discover and uncover the hidden truth and create a more open and cleaner environment.

Image Courtesy: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birbal

Low productivity – Who will take the blame?

Have you ever been lost in the woods and then tried to look back for the starting point? Well, I have been lost many a times and have learnt a lesson to track back to get to the right path.

An organization thrives on employees and their productivity. Good employees always make good company. But what if the productivity of employees is questioned? What if the output is not as expected out of the employees? If the output is not up to the mark, it is the time track back.

Low productivity can be due to many reasons. If we analyse and try to figure out the main causes, we will get many explanations for the productivity decline. Few might be –

• Personal
• Professional
• Emotional
• Health related, etc.

If employee faults once, it is still accepted but what if the employee’s performance has been persistently low since the time he has joined the organization? Who will take the blame of the wrong hire, low productivity and loss of time and money?

I am from the HR group and I have been at both sides of the table. I have tried to put on the best face to get hired and tried to question candidates to judge the best match for the job opening. Well, accepting the fact that at times, wrong hires do happen. Isn’t there a solution to curb the same?

Of course! Complete job knowledge!

The only way to get the correct candidates rolling in the organization:

• Recruiter needs to understand the job description and specification completely before they interview the candidates.
• It is on the recruiter to understand the skills, knowledge and ability that the candidate must have.
• It is on recruiter to recognize the caliber; candidate should exude to cope with the role pressure.

Not only a short synopsis about the position rather the comprehensive understanding about the job opening is extremely crucial. With the complete knowledge, we can assess others better. To create a great company, we need to have the finest employee who is the best fit for the opening. So, don’t just close the open position, find the supreme match to build the ladder of sure shot success.