As the year 2011 ends, the Indian economy does not have much to offer to make the businesses, consumers and the government happy. Interest rates have remained at high levels, currency depreciation has been brutal, inflation continues to remain high, consumers are not buying more goods and services and businesses are hedging their bets by sitting on cash. Most of the analysts are predicting a turbulent and gloomier 2012. While the predicted Mayan apocalypse of 2012 will not happen, the impact on the economy and markets will definitely not be very positive.
So what happens to the need for background verifications during such difficult phases? Many companies and HR professionals may start viewing background verifications to be an easy area to cut down on the costs. Under pressure from the finance heads and leadership, it is natural to view the cost of employee background verifications to be an overhead, which can be done away with during the tough times.
The important question is how the candidate behaviour changes during times when jobs are tough to come by. The incentive to falsify credentials is much higher when job markets are tough. There are lesser jobs, with greater number of candidates chasing them and what better way to beat the competition by adding a few more fictitious credentials here and there in the resume!
So cutting down on employee background verifications in this stage would mean taking a higher risk with candidates having potential discrepancies in their credentials. There is a higher likelihood that the great candidate whom you are just about to hire may have some skeletons lurking in their past. It is all the more important in tough job markets to do even more comprehensive background verifications. Another way to look at this – in these times, every position and new hire represents a critical investment on part of the company. So it becomes even more essential to ensure that the investment is being made on a worthy candidate.
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