Male candidates top in faking CVs

Bengaluru: A high percentage of Indian male job seekers cook up their curricula vitae (CVs) and furnish untrue, or discrepant, information compared to women candidates. By a study on resume screening trends in India, some 78 per cent discrepant cases involved male candidates and the remaining 22 per cent cases were of women.

Also, the highest number of discrepancies was found in information furnished by job seekers in the age group of  22 to 30 years, says an yet to be released report by First Advantage, an Atlanta-based company that checks and verifies education, employment, resume, database and criminal records of job seekers in over 200 geographies.

Some 41 per cent of the overall discrepancies (employment, education and address) in India are from Karnataka and Maharashtra. Bengaluru, Mumbai and Hyderabad are the metro cities which have topped in employment related discrepancies, found the study. The highest number of discrepancy cases was in the banking financial services and insurance (BFSI) sector at 44 per cent, followed by information technology at 26 per cent. Industry verticals like BFSI, fast moving consumer goods (FMCG), healthcare & pharma, IT, manufacturing, retail  and travel & hospitality show a high discrepancy trend in the 31 to 40 years age bracket.

As per the highlights of the First Advantage Q4 2018-2019 Trends Report, out of every 100 discrepancies, 60 were related to employment, six were to address and 5.4 were to the education component. The discrepancy rate for the address component showed an increase in the telecom sector from 14.5 percent in Q3-18 to 16 per cent Q4-18.

In the employment component, incorrect tenure has topped the graph at 25 per cent. Fake institutions along with non-accredited universities constitute more than 41 per cent of the education discrepancies. Associate level discrepancy continues to top the graph at 65 per cent, followed by middle management at 18 per cent and first level supervisor at 13 per cent.

First Advantage India MD Vivek Khanna told Financial Chronicle that the quarterly study has been conducted to help multinational organisations better understand the screening trends in India.

“A background check unveils frauds, thus, avoiding any unpleasant consequences. It helps find the right person for the right position and delivers insights that enable better, faster hiring decisions and improves the quality of the hire. Background verification helps manage attrition, improves safety and security at the workplace, minimises the risk of a negligent hire,’’ he added.