There is a great demand for the right people across all lines of employment. The economy is rebounding but this time around many companies are cautious and weary of hiring candidates that lack the right aptitude and the background to get the job done. The hire and fire in mass concept has given way to a more stable and long term relationship building employee-employer dynamics. The crux for this relation being trust.
In today’s job market an employee is hired based on his qualification, his likability factor and the employer’s gut instincts. Most of the factors considered in hiring are subjective and are open to errors. The next logical step in providing a seamless hiring process and qualifying candidates before the interviews would be a standardized employee verification system.
As more and more companies rely on employee background checks to help select and finalize a candidate, the more the need to create a standard for background checks. At present the depth of checks done on a candidate’s past varies from company to company. This leads to a partial and at times flawed approach to employee background verification. As demand for the employee verification services increases only the best of these service providers will prevail.
Standardization of the employee verification services may even lead to these checks being a pre-requisite for all candidates applying for a job. The candidates in essence would need to approach the background verification companies and get their resumes, educational qualifications verified before applying to a job. This theory may sound radical but it may be a reality in the plausible future. A similar example can be drawn from the account verification service that social media platform like Facebook and Twitter provide to ascertain whether a given profile is that of the said celebrity or not.
There needs to be a continuous endeavor on behalf of the background verification companies to develop a standard that provides for the most prolific background checks. As these simple background checks of today can become the Badge of Trust for tomorrow.
The common man is finally stretching his arms and legs. There is a whiff of revolution in the air and the fight against corruption the primary agenda. Any person worth his mettle is at the forefront of leading a protest against corruption and trying to wriggle in amendments that would result in a more transparent functioning of the political machinery. This process of the modern civil disobedience was set into motion by Anna Hazare and was sensationalized by Baba Ramdev.
These protests against corruption did stir the hornet’s nest and has resulted in the Government trying to save face either by cajoling the protestors to give up their stand, by using force (the infamous midnight lathi charge) or by mudslinging against those spearheading the protest. There appears to be a predefined protocol for initiating the mudslinging process. It all starts with the cajoling process (read six Congressmen pick Baba Ramdev from airport), failure to persuade leads to the disruption process and finally the mudslinging allegation process with character assassination being the primary motive.
What really puzzles me most is why does a person’s financial and/or background verification come into play only when the person is perceived as a threat to the Government? Does it imply that the Government would turn a blind eye towards a person’s disproportionate income if he is an asset to them?
History says yes. This kind of negligent attitude can be often found in the workplace too. How many times have we hired a person without a background check only to doubt his credentials when he underperforms?
The point I am trying to make is that background verifications should be made an integral part of the hiring process. Be it hiring a leader to lead the country or an employee to work in an organization. Detailed background verification can provide the required information to make a informed decision. It also develops a sense of trust towards the leader that you follow or the employee that you hire.
Increased work pressure and the need to meet multiple deadlines have left us spending more and more time at work. This increased work load has lead to most of us spending minimal time at home and/or caring for our loved ones. As we are busy earning we have left the caretaking of our assets and our kids to others.
Finding the right help with whom we can entrust the responsibilities of our homes and/or kids is a delicate process. There are ample of companies that provide this kind of manpower. However the main criteria for most of these manpower companies is to maintain good profit margin, hence the concentration is more on hiring cheap help than hiring the right help. Credential verification for almost all domestic help positions is non-existential.
Off late there have been many instances where the domestic help betrayed trust and either kidnapped the child they were looking after or made away with the jewelry and cash that was stored in the house. A lot of these incidents could have been deterred had there been a conscious effort to look into the credential of the person that was hired for the job. There are many companies that can help you make the required domestic help verifications.
The few tips that can help you make your own domestic help verification are
- If your town police offer domestic help verification service, submit the application form at your local police station. This is by far the best thing you can do.
- Verify the current and permanent address and ID proofs of your domestic help and retain a photocopy for your records.
- Visit the current address and confirm the residence. Ask the local neighbors too.
- Ask for previous employer references even if the domestic help is coming through word of mouth referral or through a domestic help agency. Call the previous employers and ask questions to confirm and learn more.
- Retain a current photograph of the domestic help.
The above tasks though basic help provide the needful satisfaction that the right person is being hired. The more in-depth and detailed the enquiries the better the insight about the persons background.
A detailed background check provides a complete picture about a person’s past track record. Any discrepancies or negative feedback that crops up can be a red flag against hiring that person. The basic ideology behind a background check is that a person is a creature of habit and develops his characteristics over successive repetition. This human tendency can be piggybacked to find any negative traits that a person may have exhibited in the past.
The information provided via the domestic help verification process does not guarantee that the domestic help hired will not commit a crime. However it will provide you with the satisfaction that you have done the best to keep your assets and family safe and sound.
Since going live with JantaKhoj website, our People Search service has been available for free. It was kept in beta version till the website upgrade which we did last month. The intent was to see the market adoption and acceptance. The entire process of building the People Search database and continuously maintaining and updating it, requires fair bit of continued efforts and associated costs. With a view to offset some of these costs and to continue making more investments in improving the People Search and associated customer service, we are moving over to paid subscription model for People Search.
Three variants of subscriptions are being offered – Day (24 hour) Pass, Monthly Pass and Yearly Pass, costing Rs 49, Rs 299 and Rs 999 respectively. Each of these variants allows unlimited searches during the period of subscription. Also, if newer data sources or updated records are added during the subscription, they are automatically included in the subscription package. As always, support will be available via email, phone or live chat.
If you are an individual who requires looking up a person or a few persons, the Daily Pass will be the best option. If you are a business and want to try out the service, the Monthly Pass will be suitable. Once your business sees value in the service after trying out the service for a month, you should consider going in for the Yearly Pass as it gives the best value and maximum discount.
As always, I look forward to your comments and feedback.
Background Verifications | Manish | 
June 29, 2011 6:46 am | 
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