Verification of Security Personnel


Companies that are in the business of security services (agencies) and/or cash management might have come across the PSAR Act 2005 as part of the update in regulations. If not, then it is necessary to be aware, align and adapt to it. Under this Act, the law has made it obligatory for security agencies to verify every security personnel hired under them.

There is no argument when it comes to verifying the people hired to protect lives and guard one’s priced possessions. Providing security to people is one of the most responsible jobs. Carrying this out diligently could not only result in forming a good reputation but steady in-flow of clients as well. Thanks to the announcement of a vigilant Background Screening Procedure, security agencies can now provide their clients with a trustworthy service.

While candidates applying for security personnel jobs need not have high educational qualifications, it is still crucial for the HR department to perform detailed background verifications on both current and future employees to supply trustworthy security personnel to their clients.

Character: Employees should be verified for behaviour in past work experiences to avoid issues in the future like theft and rage incidents.

Health: The personnel need to be alert at all times requiring mental and physical stability to be ready for any kind of emergency.

Criminal Checks: Employees undergo verification for any criminal history or court records. This avoids hiring a dangerous candidate who might get involved in theft or more serious crime that can pose a threat to the company and its client’s security as well.

The best practices that HR of security agencies and cash management companies can adopt:

  • Keep track of all the information (addresses, photographs, salaries) of security personnel, client names and their addresses too. This helps avoid identity issues and ensures that the HR department is prepared at all times, for when the Controlling Authority carries out an inspection on the agencies’ compliance with the Act.
  • Issue and maintain photo identity cards for all employees. Security personnel must also prepare themselves for any surprise checks that are going to take place.
Non-Adherence to Statutory Requirements – Leads to Cancellation of License of Security Agency.

  • Issuing licenses to any security personnel without proper background screening, leading to fabricated facts of identity like photo and documents.
  • Failing to provide promised services to the client for the contracted period.
  • Involving in any act of violation of court or the provisions of the PSAR act.
  • Not providing the requirements when demanded by the police.
  • Also, if the hired personnel is found under the below situations more than once:
  • Failing or ignoring to provide security to the clients.
  • Misusing their access to clients property.
  • Indiscipline during the hours of duty, especially alcohol intake.
  • Involving in any kind of theft or criminal actions against the client.
More than any other business, the security agencies are required to conduct rigorous background screenings of all their employees. Employing unverified candidates could result in necessary violations of law. Not only will the agency need to repeat the hiring process but also the damaging reputation that accompanies the unfortunate incident could ruin their credibility forever.

The best way to ensure that a security agency adheres to the norms and keeps up its credibility is to have a professional background verification partner on board, who can verify the facts thoroughly. iCrederity, having pan-India presence, offers its clients a comprehensive suite of pre-employment and employment screening solutions which include verification of address, education, identity, employment history, court/criminal record check and drug-use test.

About iCrederity
iCrederity is a leading provider of employee screening and background verification services to prevent identity and credential fraud through a verification and certification program, enabling individuals and businesses of integrity to stand apart while safeguarding them against fraud. iCrederity provides a comprehensive suite of essential HR services through its Employee Lifecycle Management platform. For more information, log on to www.icrederity.com or write an email to media@crederity.com.


The Cost of Background Verification


In today’s day and time, the highly competitive business market is bustling with ambitious job seekers and equally alluring job offers from competitors. The time and effort multiplied with hiring costs play a major role in placing your bets on the competence of a new employee.

Why Background Verification?

Be it the humble beginnings or a well-established enterprise, due diligence is a wise asset for any business. In simple terms, verification done by Background Verification Companies is like a guarantee card for the time and investment put into creating a job position. However, many businesses are still clouded in the skepticism of how far is all the labor truly worth, or is it just market hype? If utmost clarity is the priority – how can a thorough verification save costs for a company?

This post will oust that hovering cloud!

What costs will be saved?

Any job position comes with the price tag of the costs summed up from an employee’s tenure.

  • The hiring process starts by posting the job vacancy on job portals, social media, print and consulting/recruiters all of which engage Pre-Hiring Costs depending on the level of the position.
  • The HR department then puts in the effort and time (Screening Costs) to short list the apt candidates from the submitted resumes.
  • Interviews, depending on the number of rounds and level of the job position flare up the Interviewing Costs.
  • Once the suitable candidate is chosen, the expenses - Administration Costs - include paperwork and work space allotment for the new employee.
  • Based on the job requirement the company has to provide software, domain and other skills training for the new employee that add up to the Training Costs.
  • When the employee leaves the company, Employee Attrition Costs - direct costs (overtime paid for workload distribution to other employees) and indirect costs (the entire cycle of hiring and termination of the employee) come into the picture. It includes the tedious process and cost of finding a new hire that again fires up the entire cost cycle.
What are the costs involved?

Employee Background Verification wards off the cost-cycle by helping hire a dependable candidate after a set of credible background checks. Some of the significant ones are:

  1. Experience Verification:
    A thorough verification of an employee’s professional background – past experience, companies, designation and others – is crucial for any company to ascertain whether or not to hire him/her. What if he/she has experience working for multiple companies across different cities? The costs incurred earlier for verification done locally have now raised multi-fold. What’s the save? By partnering with a verification company that has its reach all over the country, it becomes quite cost-effective.
  2. Address Verification:
    A field officer does a firsthand check of the validity of the address by verifying the ownership or rental details, period of stay, and a genuine neighborhood check. The cost for this differs upon the distance and accessibility of the locality.
  3. Education Verification:
    A high priority check that validates the hired candidate’s resume against the details provided, in this case, educational background. Only a few universities maintain an online database of student records while a majority of them are yet to update their systems, making it difficult to verify academic details. The cost varies with the distance and the fees tagged in retrieving the records at the university.
  4. Criminal Verification:
    The task gets tougher at this stage, once again, due to the absence of centralized database systems (except for the National Crime Records Bureau), and especially in India where there are no felony or misdemeanor courts. A field officer needs to put in a request for criminal verification of the candidate to cross check records that are predominantly maintained manually at state and district level Police departments.
How does it benefit the business?

The advantages of performing extensive background verification have a lot more to it than just the monetary savings. Some of them:

  • Reduces the risk of a range of hiring disasters - saving cost, time and effort.
  • Shrinks Employee Turnover by helping acquire dependable employees.
  • Brings this aura to the company that discourages any unethical activities both from outside (fake resumes) and within the organization (internal fraud).
  • Allows the HR to focus on core work and see no discrimination claims or mishandling of regulatory compliance policies.
  • Rules out the trauma of “negligent–hiring lawsuit” (when you unknowingly hire a candidate with drug/violence history).
  • Assures workplace safety and peace by running intensive checks to identify any negative records- drug usage, theft, criminal history, and past workplace behavior.
  • Enhances the brand value that speaks for the overall work environment and company policies.
In today’s competitive world, getting a small edge over your competitor can be a big bonus. So employee background verification plays a tremendously important role. Your business heavily relies on your internal stakeholders, as much as it does on the external ones. Employees are the pillars on which your business stands and if these pillars are strong enough, then no matter how heavy a structure rises to, they would stand strong and tall, always.

About iCrederity
iCrederity is a leading provider of employee screening and background verification services to prevent identity and credential fraud through a verification and certification program, enabling individuals and businesses of integrity to stand apart while safeguarding them against fraud. iCrederity provides a comprehensive suite of essential HR services through its Employee Lifecycle Management platform. For more information, log on to www.icrederity.com or write an email to media@crederity.com.


Pre-Hiring Verification vs. Post-Hiring Verification


Is it time again to go through that taxing process of filling the position of the fabricated resume that has just been fired? This isn’t one situation where a written word is not to be believed in entirety. Today’s market is full of aggressive job seekers waiting to grab at any opportunity to get through those the glass doors, even if it means risking with a fake resume.

Hiring employees without appropriate validation leads to the process of re-hiring, along with that comes the word about incompetence of a company as a result of hiring fraudulent candidates. Ignorance of a smart move to rely on proficient third party background verification companies will directly jeopardize a business’s reputation that is bundled up with good employees, brand name protection, cost, time, and a lot more.

The best way to see no such untoward events happen – pre-hiring verification; more emphasis must be put on ensuring a candidate’s details are verified even before hiring him/her. This favors companies to not only hire right people but also verify further facts to be sure of his/her background with post-hiring verification.

Pre-Employment Verification

Candidates at times submit resumes that have been edited to match specific job requirements of a company. The HR personnel in most cases don’t often realize that they are putting in a lot of effort with such manipulated job resumes that is filled with:
  • Exaggerated job credentials.
  • False dates to cover up unemployment period (and sometimes prison time).
  • Made up reasons for leaving the past job.
  • Unreliable recommendation letters.
  • Fake past work experience.
  • Eligibility of rehiring.

What it means?

It ensures the reliability of the job applicants resume. The field officers from the background verification company carry out a set of checks that certify the credentials and details of the candidate’s resume. Everything from education qualifications, employment history, criminal records, and past experiences are all scrutinized with thorough validation. Also, additional facts like salary slips, recommendation letters, and reasons for leaving the previous job are cross-checked.

Why is it important?

  • Makes the hiring process less tedious.
  • Helps take accurate decisions.
  • Saves cost and time.
  • Helps acquire dependable employees.
Post-Employment Verification

It’s not over until it’s over. Prior to having a new employee on board, all necessary measures must be taken. Employees holding higher job positions sometimes can be a threat to the company’s reputation as they have easy access to confidential information. Mishandling of such sensitive information can prove to be costly for any organization. Employees at any job level might:

  • Manipulate databases.
  • Leak future plans.
  • cheating/fraud with help of confidential files.
  • Damage company’s reputation.
What it means?

It keeps track of the activities of employees during their tenure with the company. Timely evaluations are carried out on employees by the background verification company to ensure unhindered business flow. If and when an employee is involved in unethical actions like cheating, internal fraud, theft, and so on, it is instantly brought into the concerned authorities notice to avoid damage to the business.

Why is it important?

  • Prevents misuse of confidential information.
  • Avoids unnecessary costs.
  • Prevents Copyright violations.
  • Guards the company’s reputation.
  • Stops internal fraud from happening.
Both Pre/Post Employment Verifications are vital to avoid ending up with a bunch of misfit employees eventually ruining the business. However, Pre-Employment Verification is an inevitable plus of a smart business as it does justice to, “prevention is better than cure”. When you hire a reliable candidate with an honest resume its most likely you have attained a valuable asset for your company. It not only maintains integrity, but also shows how ethical and well-organized your business is, and who wouldn’t want to work with a business of such reputation?

About iCrederity
iCrederity is a leading provider of employee screening and background verification services to prevent identity and credential fraud through a verification and certification program, enabling individuals and businesses of integrity to stand apart while safeguarding them against fraud. iCrederity provides a comprehensive suite of essential HR services through its Employee Lifecycle Management platform. For more information, log on to www.icrederity.com or write an email to media@crederity.com.


Fake Educational Qualifications vs A Company’s Productivity


The HR personnel are often found going through the trauma and turmoil of the hiring process, dealing with fake profiles. The pile of resumes slopping with a major stack of fake details is not only infuriating, but the fact that even a slight wink of the eye can cost the company its reputation and productivity exacerbates the stress. A genuine educational background does always make for a better hire, it’s a plus! But employing someone with fake details means inviting potential risk for the company.

Certain resumes have fudged data that include exaggerated work experiences, false employment dates, and most critical of all, phony educational credentials. It comes as a close runner up to hidden criminal history, so it is known how integral it is to verify a candidate’s educational qualifications.

What if the HR, for some reason, turns a blind eye towards background screening and hires a candidate with unverified educational credentials? Is it really such a huge deal?

As simple as one can put, there is no point hiring a plumber to be a carpenter. The plan just wouldn’t work.

  • Loyalty
    A bogus resume is an instant trigger that the candidate has the capacity to be dishonest when working for the company. And, such hires can cause ethical issues that will not only put a dent on company’s values but will affect its work environment and question its integrity.
  • Sustainability and Consistency
    Even if a candidate manages to find his/her way initially, the eventual fallout is inevitable during the core phase(s) of a project, which requires real skills, knowledge and understanding amassed from college education. Hence a wave of inconsistency surges, failing to meet project deadlines. A candidate with fake educational background wouldn’t be able to sustain long enough with a fabricated resume and will only hamper the project’s outcomes on a long run.
  • Quality
    By neglecting to focus on the facts while choosing the right candidate, one may miss out on the few good ones that can deliver top-notch quality work which can boost productivity of a company. More importantly, it is quite obvious that a person with a real degree is genuinely passionate towards their work and is always the better choice.
  • Cost
    Lack of skills that have been overdrawn on the resume result in loss of time, and in due course, hike the cost of the project. This, apart from hiring till termination of inefficient candidates, builds along a moss of costs that could have been clearly avoided.
  • Reputation
    Altogether, the said reasons can lead to losing clients for a company. Clients who have invested time and cost in the project but haven’t been fairly happy with the shape it has taken can raise litigation issues, which can put a company’s reputation at stake, and soon the word spreads out amongst the market of such inefficiencies. Not to forget, the company is perceived to be incompetent.
  • Re-Hiring Process
    Having gone through everything that can go wrong, companies often have to tread through it again – the cycle repeats. Hiring process, interviews, work hindrances, time, failing to meet deadlines, and a myriad of such problems. The HR personnel will most certainly be held for lack of due diligence, ultimately questioning their job position apart from the monetary and repute loss incurred to the company.
Indubitably the above reasons are substantial enough to tie up with an efficient background screening company like iCrederity, which carries out a robust verification process in assisting the company to hire the right candidates with verified educational qualifications along with other credentials as well too.
About iCrederity
iCrederity is a leading provider of employee screening and background verification services to prevent identity and credential fraud through a verification and certification program, enabling individuals and businesses of integrity to stand apart while safeguarding them against fraud. iCrederity provides a comprehensive suite of essential HR services through its Employee Lifecycle Management platform. For more information, log on to www.icrederity.com or write an email to media@crederity.com.


5 Mistakes in Background Screening That Can Affect a Business


Along with the goodie-bag that comes with Employment Background Verification, there comes a puddle that companies often find themselves stepping onto. Inevitably, this makes way for scepticism if whether or not background screening is worth every penny spent against the results promised.

Business that’s fairly new to the background screening fold have come to realize the importance of it and its benefits: lowered hiring costs and employment of dependable, genuine and proficient candidates. But being new, they are, sometimes, bound to be at the receiving end of the mistakes of their verification partner. This has direct effect on their business.

Let’s look into what can go wrong and a low-down on how to steer clear of these puddles.

Lack of Standardized Procedure for Background Screening
Background checks, like the game Chinese whispers, move along between verification companies, the HR, and recruiters resulting in it getting redundant which ultimately lacks consistency. As time passes, it is prone to become less diligent with more and more loopholes surfacing. This has direct effects on a company’s business with volatility of hiring “verified” employees.

  • Solution
    Background screening must be standardized based on the type of verification request with due diligence and regulations taking centre stage against all factors that are being considered. This will help in attaining optimum results that ultimately avoid discrepancies, discrimination, and inaccuracies.
Negligence to Vendors, Contractors, Partners, and Temporary Employees
When suppliers, vendor-employed workers, contractors have access to databases, systems, and other facilities which when handled inappropriately can trigger security issues. This slackness will cost the business more than one can imagine as they play a crucial link in retaining a company’s reputation. Confidential information, sensitive documents, and passwords can fall into the wrong hands, or to immoral candidates, who can misuse it against a company and dent its credibility.

  • Solution
    When verification is mandatory for permanent employees, who logically tend to be more loyal to the company, temporary and third party employees get past the screening process leaving a huge hole of vulnerability. Companies must ensure its verification partner never neglects to address such small, but critical loopholes which can prove disastrous otherwise.
Relying on Manual Verification Procedure
Background verification companies need to have efficient automated screening process to evade these costly mishaps. However, at times manual intervention becomes inevitable, so it is best to establish an efficient verification procedure that integrates both automated and manual screening. Thus saving cost, time, and effort involved in the hiring process.

  • Solution
    Background verification companies need to have efficient automated screening process to evade these costly mishaps. However, at times manual intervention becomes inevitable, so it is best to establish an efficient verification procedure that integrates both automated and manual screening. Thus saving cost, time, and effort involved in the hiring process.
Ignoring to Verify Executive-Level Employees
From the hiring process to the entire tenure of the employee, background screening needs to be conducted for all job positions. Candidates hired need to be verified even after being on board and at regular intervals for consistency, and to update records of any change of address, qualifications and so forth. This will avoid any legal concerns.

  • Solution
    It is necessary that the verification companies take the necessary precautions to avoid crossing any personal intrusion, they must also be sure not to step on confidential private information of current employees.

Companies need to hire verification partners who are not just reliable but also smart and proficient with their work procedures to avoid a pile of problems, including legal issues, which come with inadequately organized background screening processes. iCrederity is one such verification partner that has pan-India presence and follows due diligence and helps its clients save on cost, time and effort while hiring right candidates.

About iCrederity
iCrederity is a leading provider of employee screening and background verification services to prevent identity and credential fraud through a verification and certification program, enabling individuals and businesses of integrity to stand apart while safeguarding them against fraud. iCrederity provides a comprehensive suite of essential HR services through its Employee Lifecycle Management platform. For more information, log on to www.icrederity.com or write an email to media@crederity.com.