IT find new ways to spot fraud in virtual interviews
Background verification firms have already been tasked with conducting pre-onboarding background checks and now are getting additional mandates from companies to streamline the interview processes as well. Major IT firms like Accenture had let go of some employees in India late last year due to submission of fake documents. Others too have reported a spike in such instances.
“Impersonation during a virtual interview has been a new thing. This is when one person attends the interview and a completely different person joins the job. Google searches on the side, getting answers prompted on Bluetooth devices are other ways people have tried to cheat in interviews,” said Ashok Hariharan, founder & CEO of background verification firm IDfy.
The Mumbai-based company is using tools like geotagging or verification of addresses digitally, generally latitudinal and longitudinal coordinates, while the candidates are on the video call, Hariharan added.
Human resource experts say companies now insist on conducting at least one in-person round before selection and also having one common interviewer present in all the interview rounds to minimise such practices.
Top Indian IT majors Tata Consultancy Services, Infosys, Wipro and HCL Technologies had hired around 2,20,000 employees during fiscal 2022 amid concentrated demand for digitisation triggered by the pandemic. As most employees returned to their hometowns during the pandemic, virtual hiring of candidates had become mainstream to address the quick backfilling of vacancies. Employees also switched jobs more frequently than before to cash in on steep hikes and demand-supply gap for talent in the industry.
Discover the stories of your interest
Srikanth Karra, chief HR officer at Mphasis, acknowledged the red flags during the virtual hiring process and said the firm had “several measures” in place like software to prevent lip-syncing during video interviews and conducting a thorough background check to screen candidates with the objective of weeding out fake profiles at an early stage of an interview process.
![jobs jobs](https://img.etimg.com/photo/msid-42031747/et-logo.jpg)
In fact, many companies have made it mandatory for the interviewers to keep screenshots and video recordings of virtual interviews to cross-check if there is any cause for concern in the future. For instance, there have been multiple cases where managers realised much later that the person interviewed by recruiters was not the same as the one who finally reported on the job.
Ajay Trehan, founder and chief executive of AuthBridge, said these stringent processes for employee background checks are becoming critical for the IT services and banking, financial services and insurance sectors as well which allow a high degree of virtual work for technical roles. It is now becoming a norm in other sectors as well.
“Other industries are now feeling the need, largely due to trends like the great resignation, offer shopping, and more importantly moonlighting. From conducting one-time checks at the time of joining, companies are now adopting continuous compliance solutions that are implemented at a frequency of an employer’s choosing,” said Trehan.
For all the latest Technology News Click Here
For the latest news and updates, follow us on Google News.