REFERENCE CHECK PROCESS

Published on May 2016 | Categories: Documents | Downloads: 63 | Comments: 0 | Views: 333
of 72
Download PDF   Embed   Report

REFERENCE CHECK PROCESSPROJECT REPORT

Comments

Content

COGNIZANT TECHNOLOGIES
SOLUTIONS

REFERENCE CHECK PROCESS
PROJECT STUDY REPORT
SUBMITTED IN FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENT
FOR
POST GRADUATE DIPLOMA IN MANAGEMENT
(PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT & HUMAN RESOURCES)

PROJECT GUIDE: Ms. SHWETA SHUKLA

BY
TRIPTI GHOSH
PM & HR

SYMBIOSIS INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT STUDIES
2nd MAY - 7th JULY 2006

0

Sr.No
1.

Subject
Certificate

Page No.
2

2.

Acknowledgement

3

3.

Executive Summary

4

4.

Cognizant at a glance
4.1 Passion with focus
4.2 The best of both the worlds
4.3 Key ingredients of success
4.4 Commitment to excellence
4.5 Management and governance

5.

Objective of the project

26

6.

Career model at Cognizant

27

7.

Hierarchy of Global Resource Management
Group

28

8.

Lateral recruitment system
8.1 Job description
8.2 Algorithm
8.3 Flowchart

29 -38
29
33
35

9.

Introduction to reference check
9.1 Certain cases
9.1.1 HSBC case
9.1.2 WIPRO case
9.1.3 Other cases
9.2 Few facts

39 -49
42-46
42
43
45
46

10.

Reference check process at Cognizant
10.1 Algorithm
10.2 Flowchart
10.3 Format of the reference check report
10.4 Points to remember
10.5 Problems faced

50 -70
51
53
58
69
70

1

5 -25
5
8
11
13
18

2

2. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Company project study is meant to provide a student with hands on experience
and to acquaint those with the actual work culture. Project at CTS provided me
with a lot of exposure to the resourcinig cycle of the company which included
the lateral recruitment process and the reference check process.
I have gained immensely from my project in terms of experience and expertise
and take this opportunity to extend the warm thanks to all those people who
have devoted their valuable time and extended support as and when called for.
I would like to convey my sincere regards to Mrs. Nivedita Naithani (Hr
Manager GRMG) and Mrs.Shweta Shukla (my mentor) for their guidance and
encouragement.
Working at CTS has been learning and a worthwhile experience, thanks to
culminated efforts of many.
I feel a deep sense of gratitude
To Miss Rachna Ramachandra, Mr. Vikas Kanwar, Mrs.Hitu Garg, Miss
Gauri Sathe and Mr.Kulbeer for being patient to my queries and concern.
To Miss. Kavita Rao for providing me the necessary information for
carrying out my work efficiently.

3

3. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

My project aimed at streamlining the entire process of Reference Check which is
an important part of the whole Recruitment cycle and is a relatively new concept.
Initially the process of Reference check in Cognizant was very concise, only limited
to the Criminal check and Current Employment check and hence it was carried out
internally by the recruiters themselves. This system however wasn’t very efficient
.There were a lot of irregularities.
Later the spurt of Fake CVs in the market and the demand of the foreign clients as
well as the SOX certification promoted Cognizant to initiate a thorough Background
check which include Education check, Employment check and Criminal check.
Due to recruitment in outsized numbers and time crunches Cognizant had to
outsource this activity to a third party which takes about 12 – 15 days to complete
the entire process of Reference check of an individual and should be completed
before the person joins the company.
This new method of Reference check was made applicable to all the Joiners from
November 2004.Since this new method started in the end of 2005 there was a
huge Backlog that had to be cleared.
My function was to clear this Backlog and to ensure that for every joiner from
November 2004 to till date, we had their Reference check report ready and filed. I
also had to propose a systematic method so that from henceforth, for all the new
joiners we had their Reference check done and their status updated in the
database and their reports filed. I was asked to propose an action plan to deal with
employees who had Negative reference check report.
My profile also included the analysis of the entire Lateral Recruitment cycle starting
from Resource Request to Resource Allocation.
I was obliged to see my recommendations and proposals regarding Reference
check process being implemented by the company.

4

4. COGNIZANT AT A GLANCE
1994: Incubated as the technology arm of The Dun & Bradstreet Corporation.
1996: Started looking at third-party clients and began servicing the best across
industry segments.
1998: Became the first IT company leveraging India to get listed on NASDAQ.
2002: Became the first company to be assessed enterprise-wide against mature
industry process certifications such as P-CMM level 5, BS 7799, SEI-CMMi Level
5.
2004: Acknowledged as a leading provider of IT services by industry analysts such
as Gartner, Forrester, AMR and IDC.
2004: Added to the prestigious NASDAQ 100 Index among companies that defined
newer business paradigms
2006: Became the fastest IT Services company globally to clock a $1 billion run
rate in nearly 12 years.

4.1 PASSION WITH FOCUS
Cognizant’s single-minded passion: dedicating our global resources, industry
intelligence and systems expertise to working with our clients to make their
businesses stronger.
One Goal
Every application Cognizant develop, every challenge Cognizant embrace, every
investment in new resources, every recommendation Cognizant make - is
dedicated to one goal:
Making our customers' businesses stronger by empowering them to be more
responsive to their customers and to the competitive environment.

5

Cognizant will achieve this by focusing on the intersection of their clients' emerging
needs and the acceleration of business and technological change. Their
commitment to innovation keeps them focused on the future and being ready at
every level to service change.
More than 29,000 people working together to serve their clients.
Cognizant has the passion for:
4.1.1 A Passion for Strategic Partnership
As their clients increasingly recognize the business value of the Global Delivery
model, they are taking a more strategic approach to outsourcing. They are evolving
from a tactical focus to the power of a more strategic partnership.
What makes an ideal strategic partner? It begins with leadership and always
results in delivering the highest quality work. Cognizant understands the key
components of partnership: from sufficient scale and a strong financial profile to
technology leadership and strong client management by the best teams.
While the early days of outsourcing were about performing functional tasks more
cost-effectively and productively, the future is about partnering on a global scale to
meet strategic goals and win market share.
The future is about partnerships and they have been defining that future with their
clients.
4.1.2 A Passion for Specialized Expertise
To meet the specialized needs of these industries, Cognizant has continued to
invest in deepening their vertical organization. Cognizant has added team
members with distinguished track records in key sectors, who can serve as subject
matter experts to provide clients with valid insights and viable solutions into
particular industry issues. And, Cognizant has focused on developing
competencies in the service areas that will be essential to each industry, be it
supporting clinical trials for pharmaceutical companies, or integrating point-of-sale
systems in retail.
Their team members have distinguished track records in every industry that it
serves.

6

4.1.3 A Passion for Leadership & Innovation
Cognizant understands that leadership and innovation go hand in hand. That's
why they have taken a pioneering role in the following areas:
• Vertical Business Process Outsourcing (V-BPO). Manage entire business
processes end-to-end.
• Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP). Make global supply chains more
productive
• Customer Relationship Management (CRM). Optimize the value of every
customer relationship.
Cognizant also has a growing foothold in Business Intelligence (BI), webinterface/web-deployment, remote infrastructure management and testing
programs.
For them, leadership means innovation that solves problems.

4.1.4 A Passion for Seizing Global Opportunities
More and more businesses around the world are seeking the competitive
advantages of IT outsourcing.
To serve the growing demand, they are extending their geographic reach across
the globe. Last year alone, Cognizant broadened its global delivery capacity by
adding or expanding centers in India , China , Europe and North America .
Cognizant now have team members on the ground in the United States, Canada,
the United Kingdom, Ireland, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Switzerland, the
Czech Republic, India, Australia, Singapore, Malaysia, Japan and China .
Their geographic reach allows their clients to follow the sun.

4.1.5 A Passion for Embracing Change
Another critical technology trend is the movement toward service-oriented
architectures, which will allow their clients to achieve new business value by
seamlessly and efficiently integrating disparate legacy IT systems. RFID
technology, which uses radio frequency transmissions to track and manage
products in real time as they move through the supply chain, is another
groundbreaking technology, especially for retailers, manufacturers and distributors.
Cognizant is uniquely positioned to build the solutions that will deliver the
maximum benefit.
What allows Cognizant to stay ahead of change? Cognizant Academy. Their inhouse university offering educational programs in a broad range of disciplines, the

7

Academy keeps their employees updated in their areas of competency and
maintains consistently high performance standards. This year, Cognizant Academy
offered over 3 million hours of courses both on-site and on-line.
Change is not an obstacle. It's an opportunity to grow.

4.2 THE BEST OF BOTH WORLDS
Cognizant brings your organization the best of both worlds: offshore development
with a local consulting presence that integrates business strategy with execution.
4.2.1 Fourth Generation Offshore Outsourcing
"Offshore Goes Mainstream"
Offshore Outsourcing has come a long way from its origins as a tactical source of
inexpensive talent. It is now easy to use and to adapt to many business
challenges. Cognizant is pioneering 4th Generation Offshore Outsourcing, services
that combine the best of both worlds: the economics and "Follow the Sun"
advantages of offshore development with industry experience, advanced
technology expertise, cultural compatibility and a local consulting presence that
integrates business strategy with execution.
Today, Cognizant's clients are benefiting from 4th Generation services. Operating
as their technology partner, Cognizant provides the expertise to help our clients
realize their objectives.
4th Generation Offshore Outsourcing provides seamless integration between the
customer and Cognizant. They go far beyond the established onsite/offshore
model by offering in-depth local consulting presence, onsite teams focused on the
customer's business applications, and the management depth that partners closely
with their clients.
Cognizant provides:
• Vertical industry domain knowledge. They know their customers' businesses
and have industry knowledge that is a powerful combination with their
technology expertise.

8








State-of-the-art technology expertise. Their core competencies range from
legacy platform integration and major enterprise applications to emerging
technologies such as Java, .NET, and XML web services
State-of-the-art tools to manage technology deployment
Business transformation. They know how to help their clients rapidly
achieve their business transformation goals
Highly disciplined program management and change management. Their
robust management processes eliminate the hurdles of managing complex
offshore deployments along with managing change issues at the customer
location.
Organizational agility. They have the speed and flexibility to marshal local
consulting support and offshore development resources into a cohesive
team that quickly delivers time-to-benefit.

Cognizant excel at helping their clients through the complex transformation
projects that not only deliver real ROI, but true competitive advantage.

1st Generation: Offshore services originated as a tactical solution for importing
high-quality, low-cost services in a staff augmentation mode. Typically, offshore
professionals were brought onsite with temporary visas and were paid at lower
hourly rates. In most cases, this approach was limited to application maintenance

9

or development projects that were already highly defined. However, the potential
for labor savings was limited because of the need to import talent.
2nd Generation: This was the pure "Offshore Production" phase where secondgeneration offshore outsourcers established small regional marketing offices near
major clients, while sending work offshore. Although more cost-effective than 1st
generation offshore, this approach was suitable for less complex engagements
with well defined functional specifications that did not require extensive project
management.
3rd Generation: The "Onsite/Offshore" model emerged, adding local project
management and liaison staff to improve day-to-day coordination and problem
resolution with projects sent offshore. With onsite project management, projects of
slightly more complexity that required frequent change could be handled.
4th Generation: The "Seamless Integration" phase, 4th Generation Offshore
Outsourcing provides the best of both worlds: the low-cost of offshore development
coupled with critical management presence. This allows our clients to interact with
us on a regular basis, forming meaningful partnerships. The client is free to focus
on the business, while Cognizant focus on the technologies necessary to support
it. This approach to outsourcing is suitable for projects of high complexity and
large-scale transformational outsourcing. The 4th generation offshore outsourcing
provider is the ideal partner for helping enterprises undergo profound business
transformation.
They are a pioneer in Offshore Outsourcing. They bring their clients the economic
advantages, with the industry experience and the local expertise.

4.2.2 Local Decision Making
Cognizant's decision making authority is located closer to the client than other
offshore providers with their executive management team based in the US, Europe
and India.
Accessibility and accountability are key parts of our business culture. Our practice
leaders are always available to our clients, and our team leaders are empowered
to make decisions. The result is that our clients tell us that they are impressed by
our responsiveness and ability to make decisions quickly.
When you're close to your clients, it's easier to respond quickly and collaborate
effectively.

10

4.2.3 Value Added Services
Cognizant has an industry-leading technology architecture and strategy group,
program management capabilities, and stronger capabilities in business analysis
and business process in our key verticals and horizontals than other offshore firms.
Cognizant also have expertise in change management, portfolio analysis,
research & development, as well as proof of concept.
From vision to action, Cognizant have the processes in place to perform better.

4.3 KEY INGREDIENTS OF SUCCESS
4.3.1 Business Culture




Cognizant’s business culture is neither India-centric or exclusively Western
in style, striking the best balance of all the offshore firms. Most of
Cognizant management team has extensive US or European experience,
and understands their clients' culture.
In India , Cognizant is considered a 'local' player with a very strong
reputation for excellence. Their clients benefit from Their non-hierarchical,
responsive "can-do" approach to business.

4.3.2 Domain Expertise






Cognizant is the only major offshore company organized around verticals
and horizontals rather than just regions and development centers. With
their deep domain expertise in key verticals and large-scale horizontal
solution, Cognizant is a highly project-oriented firm that can take complete
responsibility for large development and integration projects, and for
delivering bottom line results from application management.
Cognizant have a strong track record of successfully executing very large
scale, complex, transformational development and integration projects
offshore. These are the kinds of projects that have not been traditionally
considered "off-shorable".
Cognizant have also developed proprietary CMM-Level 5 processes to
successfully manage and deliver these projects offshore. Their level of
success has not been matched by any other major offshore player.

11

4.3.3 Technical Expertise


Cognizant has deep technology expertise across a wide range of
competencies. Technology competency and the quality of their people are
the highest-rated attributes in our Customer Satisfaction Survey.

4.3.4 Quality of Client Base



Cognizant has a blue chip client base with many industry leaders that they
are proud to partner with and to contribute to the growth of their businesses.
Their clients go to extensive lengths to serve as references and champions
of their growth and innovation.

4.3.5 Cognizant never lets you down




Their client testimonials say Cognizant people go to extraordinary lengths to
solve problems, or just help out. Their people model attracts talented, highly
motivated, client- focused individuals with a "can-do" attitude.
Cognizant have never had a termination for project failure or for nonperformance. This fact is reinforced by all of their customers in the annual
customer satisfaction survey conducted by a third-party.
Their flexibility, responsiveness, ownership and the assurance that they will
never let their customers down is core to their delivery model. If problems
arise, Cognizant swarm around the challenge and quickly work to get the
job done without arguing about who's at fault. Their people are proud of
their track record and work hard to contribute to their stellar service
reputation.

12

4.4 COMMITMENT TO EXCELLENCE

4.4.1 Program Management
Cognizant brings a strong project culture to every engagement. They did not start
as a staffing company, but instead as the development arm of Dun & Bradstreet.
Their development heritage has given them an edge on delivering larger, complex,
end-to-end projects. Their project expertise is reflected in a strong methodology
and the development and use of their proprietary tools.

They track the progress of projects and programs with eCockpit, their proprietary
engagement management tool that is available to all of their clients. eCockpit
provides a graphic representation of project-related status, such as productivity,
effort, cash flow, and defects density. It also looks at personal metrics such as
targets and individual progress.
eCockpit benefits include:
• Analysis. Conduct effective business analysis and decision making through
targeted reports.
• Standardization. Set uniform standards across an organization and build a
repository of information for estimation and project monitoring.
• Action. Understand project status and progress so you can easily make
decisions and take action.
• Continuous improvement. Identify strengths and potential areas of
improvement.
• Comparisons. Look at performance comparisons against set benchmarks to
predict a future course of action.
• Indicators. Set indicators to warn when metrics are non-conformant with
established benchmarks.
• Quality. Track project quality and trace deviations as well as to assess
continuous project improvements.

13

PMO
The Program Management Office (PMO) is a strategic management structure
designed to reduce the risk of project failure and ensure successful project
deliverables. A PMO can deliver high value by integrating project management
objectives with the business drivers of an enterprise. PMO can also help balance
the project stakeholders' interest in the projects.
The Cognizant PMO draws on the Networked Knowledge Assets of the
Competency groups at Cognizant. Their PMO keeps abreast of the latest
technology choices and emulates the best practices demonstrated in all of
Cognizant projects.
Cognizant focuses on delivering true business value to their clients and going
beyond simply executing projects within boundaries of time, scope, cost and
quality.

PMI
Savvy clients demand more, better and faster services. Time-to-market pressures
force greater efficiency and professional project management skills play a key role
in today's competitive, global business arena. The Project Management Institute
(PMI®) is the organization of choice for project management certification and is the
leading nonprofit professional association in the area of Project Management.
Cognizant encourages its associates and managers to earn a PMI certification and
assists them in this goal through the Cognizant Academy.
Their heritage is in development. Their drive is to deliver.

4.4.2 Elite Talent
They are proud of their teams and their talent. Here are just a few of the reasons
that their teams consistently outperform the competition.
Cognizant has some of the highest campus rankings in India.
Their training and development capabilities are the best in the industry and stress
process and methodology, as well as client management.
They have consistently received the highest employee satisfaction among Indian
software companies.
Cognizant has extremely low turnover (10% voluntary).
They offer equity ownership and have had a consistent stock performance.
Behind their performance are the best people in the industry.

14

4.4.3 Research & Development
Their R&D takes place in focused research centers and technology labs where
engineers identify the technology, tools and methodologies which are most
appropriate to solve specific customer challenges. They work closely with their
clients to develop proofs of concept.
The R&D team also regularly develops re-usable frameworks and components to
solve generic industry problems. They are continually looking at new technologies
from leading vendors and developing alliances with industry leaders. They are a
certified Microsoft developer, and a Java and Sun Solaris development partner for
Sun Microsystems. IBM maintains a developer connection with them, along with
serving as a framework partner and providing free evaluation software, support
and training.
They also focus on consultation with industry specialists such as Gartner, Inc.,
Forrester Research, and IDC. They maintain research alliances with India’s
premier academic institutions such as IIT Madras and IIT Kanpur. They are also
part of the Membership of Standard Bodies which includes ETSI, IEEE, UMTS and
IETF. They regularly participate in technology conferences and publish research
papers in both academic and industry journals.

Typical R&D to Business Application Solution Lifecycle

15

4.4.4 Cognizant Academy
Their greatest strength is their people: their expertise and their ability to
consistently deliver outstanding work. They are committed to continuous learning,
and giving their associates the opportunity to stay current with leading-edge
technologies and to develop communication skills so that they can perform their
roles effectively and efficiently.

4.4.5 Training Programs
Cognizant conducts all their learning programs through Cognizant Academy , their
in-house training center. Through this dedicated center, they offer many
conventional and leading-edge educational programs for employees at all levels.
Last year, the Academy offered over 46,000 person-hours of technical training, and
an array of programs to advance the personal, managerial and cross-cultural skills
of their associates.

Four Key Educational Programs:
1. Continuing Educational program offering training on a need-to-know basis
and for continuous knowledge and upgrading skills.
2. Role-based Training program.
3. Executive Training program which includes Effective Personal Productivity,
Time Management, Acculturation programs, and language programs.
4. Certification programs which are both external certification programs offered
by Microsoft, Sun, PMI, etc., and internal certification programs such as IBM
WebSphere, DB/2 and software engineering.
In addition to the internal training programs, they also send their software
professionals across the globe for technology or management-specific training.
Notable universities and colleges where they send their professionals include
Harvard University, Indian Institute of Management, and the Indian Institute of
Technology.

16

Training Methodology
Cognizant uses conventional and leading-edge learning methodologies. In addition
to the formal learning in classrooms, Cognizant Academy takes learning to their
employees' desktops. They use multi-mode learning, as well as Technology-Based
Training (TBT) material.
They encourage their associates to get certified across key technologies. They
provide assistance through formal training and mentoring, and access to all
certification material through their dedicated Learning Server. More than 1500 of
their employees have formal external certification across technologies, including:








Microsoft
Oracle
Lotus
Sun
Cisco, Novell network management
Project Management Institute
Quality Assurance Institute

Cognizant Certified Professionals
Apart from external certification programs, Cognizant have an internal certification
program, where employees become Cognizant Certified Professionals. This allows
us to systematically evaluate competencies.
The following is the list of internal certifications included under the "Cognizant
Certified Professional" program:









Certification in IBM Mainframe
Certification in IBM Web Technologies
Certification in AS/400
Certification in Telecom
Certification in e-Business
Certification in Software Engineering
Certification in Quality and Process Management
Certification in Business Development and Client Management

17

Partnerships with Academia
They have strategic partnerships and alliances with several premier institutions to
help its associates get trained in a variety of areas, and also obtain higher degrees.
Here are a few of the institutions that Cognizant have alliances with:








British Open University for distance education MBA program
Birla Institute of Technology and Science (Pilani) for MS and Ph. D
programs
Project Management Institute for Effective Personal Productivity and
Effective Leadership programs
Venkateswara College of Engineering, Chennai
Mepco Schlenk Engineering College, Tamilnadu
Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur
Indian Institute of Technology, Chennai

4.5 MANAGEMENT AND GOVERNANCE

4.5.1 Executive Team
Lakshmi Narayanan - President and CEO
Francisco D'Souza - Chief Operating Officer
Gordon Coburn - Executive Vice President and CFO
Chandra Sekaran - Executive Vice President and MD

18

4.5.2 Powerful Partnerships
Cognizant’s partnerships are market-driven. They partner with organizations
whose products and services complement their own service offerings. Their
strategic alliances with some of the best companies in the world give them the
ability to provide its clients with complete solutions to their IT challenges.
Cognizant is the preferred partner for 10 of the top 50 Life and P&C insurers in
the USA..

SOME OF OUR PARTNERS INCLUDE:

19

20

4.5.3 Client List

With more than 29,000 employees and growing, Cognizant serves its clients with
the breadth and depth of capabilities to deliver on the most complex business
challenges. Their combination of vertical industry expertise and technology
innovation brings their clients the insight to move forward strategically and the
experience to move quickly. Some of our clients list in different sectors involve:

Banking & Financial Services:









Wells Fargo
Rabobank
Lehman Brothers
Chicago Board Options Exchange
Automatic Data Processing
Citi Group
CompuCredit
Union Bank of California

Healthcare:
• Aetna Inc
• AMERIGROUP Corporation
• Blue Cross Blue Shield Florida
• Blue Cross Blue Shield MA
• Blue Cross Blue Shield Michigan
• Blue Cross Blue Shield Premera
• Blue Cross Blue Shield Regence
• Blue Cross Blue Shield Association
• Blue Cross of N/E Pennsylvania
• Blue Shield of California
• Boston Medical Center HealthNet Plan
• CareGain, Inc.
• Central Benefits
• Fidelis Care
• HealthNet
• Healthnow Newyork Inc
• Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield
• Intermountain Health Care
• Intervalley Health Plan
• John Deere Healthcare Inc.
21









Molina Healthcare
Multiplan, Inc
Network Health
PacifiCare Health Systems, Inc
Rocky Mountain
TMG Health
Trizetto Group

Manufacturing & Logistics:
• United States Cold Storage
• CNH
• eGM
• The Schwan Food Company
• Swire Group
• Vauxhall
Telecommunications:
• Orange
• France Telecom
• Telepak Networks
• Nokia
• Cox Communications
• KPN
• Dish Network
• Focal
• MCI
• QuantumShift
• TellerX
• Covad
• CoreComm
• Looking Glass Networks
Retail:
• AC Nielsen
• Ace Hardware
• Brinker International
• H.E. Butt
• LVMH's DFS Unit
• RadioShack
• Darden

22



ESB Retail

Insurance:
• MetLife
• CSAA (AAA affiliate in Northern California)
• Farmers
• Royal & Sun Alliance
• Liberty Regional Agency Markets
• Mercury

Information Management, Media & Entertainment:
• AC Nielsen
• Arbitron
• Intrum Justitia
• Dataplace
• Cadmus Communications
• OTX
• United Business Media
• PCF
• Pearson
• Maritz
• Viacom/MTV
• CBS Corporation
• Macrovision
Technology:
• World's largest online advertiser
• World's largest online marketplace
• ADP Dealer Services
• AMD
• Autodesk
• Computer Associates
• E*TRADE Financials
• Earthlink
• Intuit
• Ingres
• Network Appliances
• SAP Lab
• Serena
• SpikeSource

23

4.5.4 Services
From the depth of Cognizant’s domain expertise and the proprietary intellectual
property to their onsite/offshore delivery model, their work is not finished until
there's a solution that meets the challenge.














Advanced Solutions Delivery
Business Process Outsourcing
Business Technology Consulting
Customer Solutions Practice
Data Warehousing & Business Intelligence
Enterprise Resource Planning
Information Security & Privacy
IT Infrastructure Services
Portals & Content Management
Program Management
Software Applications Services
Supply Chain Management
Testing Solutions

4.5.5 Awards & Recognition
Cognizant is proud of being recognized by leading industry analysts and by the
press. Their most important recognition comes from serving the clients and
knowing that they are a partner in growing their businesses.
Cognizant named ranks #16 among Business Week's 100 Hot Growth Companies
for 2006.
Cognizant ranks among 100 Fastest Growing Tech Companies.
Cognizant ranks among top IT services companies in Healthcare.
Cognizant ranks among the best new issues of the past 20 years in Forbes' study
of post IPO stock performance
Cognizant named one of the best 5-year stock performers in WSJ's "Shareholder
Scoreboard"
Cognizant one of the most shareholder-friendly companies in America
Cognizant Technology Solutions is named the "Public Company of the Year"

24

Cognizant is the Top IT Services Company in the Forbes 200 Best Small
Companies List
Cognizant founders chosen for "Entrepreneur of the Year" award
Cognizant Selected as the 'Best U.S. Company in India' by Indo-American
Chamber of Commerce
Cognizant is Top U.S. Outsourcing Firm on Business 2.0 Magazine's Annual "B2
100" Ranking of The Fastest-Growing Technology Companies
Cognizant named best small company in America
Forbes, October 2004
Cognizant is Top Tech Firm in Business Week's List of "Hot Growth Companies"
Top IT Services Company in 25 fastest-growing tech companies 2003
Forbes, April 2003
Cognizant is the Top Tech Company in the Forbes 200 Best Small Companies List
Cognizant Technology Solutions named one of "Americas Fastest Growing
Companies"
Individual Investor, November 1999
Cognizant Technology Solutions is named the "Public Company of the Year"
New Jersey Technology Council, 1999
Cognizant Technology Solutions is named one of the top 25 technology IPOs of
1998
Red Herring, July 1999

25

5. OBJECTIVE OF THE PROJECT
• To study the process of Reference Check in the company
• To identify the loopholes in the existing system and
recommend suggestions
• To streamline the process of Reference Check
• To assist and analyze the Lateral recruitment at Cognizant

26

6. CAREER MODEL AT COGNIZANT

Senior Manager
(14 + years)

Manager
(10 + years)
Assistant Project Manager
(7 + years)
Senior Associate
(6 + years)

Associate
(3 + years)

Programmer Analyst
(2 + years)

Programmer Analyst Trainee
(Fresher)

27

7. Hierarchy- Global Resource Management
Group

V.P (GRMG)

DIRECTOR (GRMG)

SR. MANAGER (GRMG)

MANAGER (GRMG)

ASSISTANT MANAGER (GRMG)

SENIOR EXECUTIVE
(GRMG)

JUNIOR EXECUTIVE
(GRG)

JUNIOR EXECUTIVE
(GRMG)

TRAINEE (GRG)

TRAINEE (GRMG)

GRMG-Global Resource Management Group
GRG- Global Resource Group

28

8. Lateral recruitment system
8.1 Recruitment –Job Description
In order to understand the recruitment process and analyze the same for its
efficiency, it is imperative to understand the basic skills and competencies required
in employees forming the Global Resource Management Group (GRMG) at
Cognizant.
The primary roles that GRMG plays are:
Sourcing resumes
Scheduling interviews with relevant technical experts
HR interviews
Induction
Candidate management/ Pipeline management

Job Description: Manager (GRMG)
Job Summary:
The Manager manages the recruitment team (recruiters and resource
management group) to achieve the demand targets and decide a suitable
approach to meet them efficiently.
Key Responsibilities:
Strategic:
Define and set the recruiting strategy for specific skills based on the recruiting
targets and budget and ensure that it is in line with the company’s business and
marketing strategy.
Create and refine the recruiting plan as needed.
Manage contact with the external vendors /agencies and contract negotiations.
Focus on external marketplace and internal availability of candidates befitting the
requirement.
Ensure that the recruitment processes are effective, recommend and implement
process improvements.
Manage the company’s image in the marketplace
Contribute to the strategy for building competitor intelligence
Identify and analyze the potential of new recruiting practices. Influence decisions
made affecting the sourcing/recruiting organization.
Participate in strategic projects impacting the sourcing and recruiting.
29

Operational:
Manage team and/or execute recruiting plan and meet recruiting targets.
Maintain database of internal resources and allocate them appropriately to meet
the skill demands.
Allocate targets and resources to meet them.
Take daily updates from the recruiters on the status of their respective pipeline
movement
Report on status, effectiveness and quality of recruiting efforts, team member
productivity/activity and issues and recommend action.
Provide external market place intelligence and trend analysis to GRMG leadership.
Handle issues like level mismatches and delivering training to recruiters
Policies for weekend recruiting event and final interviews
Interviewer empanelment process
Interviewer training
Supervision:
Manage a small to medium team of recruiters who are responsible for all activities
related to management of the CV pipeline.
Facilitate teamwork, identify issues affecting team progress and recommend
solutions, coordinate workload and establish priorities.
Coach the team on the relationship and communication with their stakeholders to
understand resource plan and specific needs.
Select recruiters.
Cooperation and communication:
Develop communication strategies for educating stake holders and other recruiting
professionals on pipeline management directives.
Act as interface between the recruiting team, management and project managers.
Provide regular status updates
Cooperate and share knowledge with other pipeline managers.
Knowledge and Skill Requirements:
Strong understanding of the company’s business needs and organizational
structure
Strong understanding of company’s position in the market place
Strong knowledge of sourcing strategies and channels
Strong understanding of and expertise in analyzing external marketplace trends
Strong understanding of recruiting and sourcing market industry skills.
Strong understanding of recruiting and sourcing processes and organization,
processes, systems and tools

30

Strong understanding of the local recruiting market
Strong understanding of marketing concepts and image promotion
Strong understanding of recruiting resource and marketing plan.
Deep negotiation and relationship management skills
Strong communication and interpersonal skills

Job Description: Recruiter (GRMG)
Job Summary:
A recruiter is responsible for administering the recruiting process and meeting the
demand targets for a small to medium sized recruitment plan or share the
administration of a large recruitment plan.
Key Responsibilities:
Operational:
Understand the recruiting demand and skills profiles within an area of
responsibility.
Estimate the resources required to close the requirement.
Responsible for small to medium sized recruiting pipeline.
Meet the recruiting targets and provide regular status report.
Coordinate the process from screening CVs , arranging appropriate panel ,
conducting HR interviews, making an offer and final acceptance.
Participate in recruiting events and sourcing activities.
Ensure all documents and paperwork is received and complete according to policy.
Coordinate skill requirements with consultants.
Act as a single point of contact for a designated skill.
Update and utilize database effectively.
Ensure that the candidate is reverted to regarding an offer or rejection.
Identify issues relating to a particular skill and recommend actions
Each recruiter is the owner for a certain skill and a backup for others
Each month responsibility for various skills is assigned depending on the targets.
Supervision:
May coach or direct a small team of schedules or recruiters or delegate work.
Cooperation and communication:
Serve as a single point of contact for client group, project manager and for issues
related to that skill.
Cooperate with the team members and provide regular status update to the
manager.
Communicate with the candidates and the interviewers to fix schedules.

31

Knowledge and Skill Requirements:
Deep understanding of the recruitment profiles
Strong team player
Analytical and problem solving skills
Deep negotiation skills and relationship management ski
Strong team player
Analytical and problem solving skills
Deep negotiation skills and relationship management skills
Proficiency in MS Word, Excel
Good understanding of pipeline management
Ability to streamline distribution of skills and demand
Good people skills

Job Description: Candidate Pipeline Management (GRG)
Job Summary:
Pipeline management coordinator can be better understood as a transition
coordinator, who coordinates with the candidate the formalities of joining from the
time he/she accepts the offer till joining so as to enable smooth transition.
Key Responsibilities:
Operational:
Getting in touch with the candidates and confirming their joining date
Sorting out their issues and getting them on board
Maintaining information regarding the joinee pipeline
Maintaining information regarding the transit accommodation, inform the candidate
and update the database
Cooperation and coordination:
Establish and maintain relationships with the people recruited
Communicate with the candidates and answer their queries
Regular communication with Manager (GRMG) regarding the status of transition of
joinees

32

8.2 Brief summary about the Process:
The recruitment team in cognizant is known as the Global Resource Management
Group. It is divided into two parts :
RMG: Resource Management Group, which is the internal resourcing group. It tries
to close the demand for a resource on bench.
RG: Resourcing or Recruitment group, which is the external resourcing group. It
tries to meet the demand for a resource through recruiting fresh talent from various
channels as discussed below:
A demand sheet is prepared by GRMG with the help of various Project Managers
to ascertain the resource requirement for a particular period and accordingly a plan
is formulated to recruit candidates with the desired skills.
However due to the dynamic nature of business, several unplanned, unforeseen
requirements also arise. In such a case, the project manager raises a resource
request to GRMG and the steps in the recruitment process followed are the same
thereafter.
A sample of the resource request is as under:
Total number of resource required
Project Manager
RR# requested by
Offshore/ Onsite
Designation
Location
Project ID/Name
Required Start Date (mm/dd/yyyy)
Billability
Description
Skill Sets
RR#

One
ABC
XYZ
Offshore
SA
Pune
X
8/2/2006
Yes
6-7 years of experience
Oracle,Pl/SQL ,MDX,MS OLAP,good
communication skills
043176

GRMG checks from amongst idle resources and allocate the same to meet the
requirement. In case that no resource matches the profile required, a recruitment
request in turn raised to the GRG.

33

GRG runs the profile through the existing database of skill profiles to close the
demand. The various channels available to build the database are:
Employee referral
Walk ins
Resumes received in response to advertisements.
Resumes posted through CTS website.
Job Portals
In case the resource requirement is of urgent nature or is in large volumes, the
consultants are contacted to furnish resumes to close the demand.
The resumes are then screened to shortlist those that meet the skill profile and
telephonic interviews are conducted. If the candidate is found suitable after this
round; an appointment is fixed for a face –to-face technical interview. The number
of technical interviews varies from case to case.
On clearing the technical interview, the candidate’s HR interview is taken to
resolve fitment issues. Various forma and documents are filled and submitted by
the candidate if found suitable after the HR interview. Subsequently, an offer is
made, negotiations performed and consensus reached.
Upon acceptance of the offer, a joining date is confirmed and the candidate is
considered an offer accept. In case the candidate does not join though he/she had
accepted the offer and a joining date had been confirmed upon, he /she is
considered an offer renege.

34

8.3 The Recruitment Process
START

Manpower Requirement Analysis

Raise Resource Request

Check availability
of resource
internally

Allocate the resource to
close the demand

Raise a requirement request

Check availability
of CVs in internal
job site & job
portals

Contact consultants

Screen the CV

35

1.

Is the Resume
Screening clear?

Reject

Conduct telephonic interview

Is telephonic
interview
clear?

Reject

Conduct face to race technical
interview

Is technical
interview
clear?

Reject

Conduct HR interview

36

Is HR
interview
clear?

Reject

Make him fill up the Application
form

Position the candidate

Make the final offer

Has the
candidate
accepted the
offer?

Offer reject

Send his application form for
REFERENCE CHECK

Wait for the report

37

Report
Positive?

Offer revoked

Make him join the company

Has the
candidate
joined?

Offer Reneged

Candidate is confirmed

STOP

1.

38

9. INTRODUCTION TO REFERENCE CHECK
PROCESS
EVEN as India Inc continues its hiring spree, it has to cope with the growing
menace of smart alecks fudging their CVs. The problem is not restricted to the IT
and BPO industry, which adds about 1, 00,000 new staff every year, but has
spread across retail, banking, insurance and other sectors. These sectors hire
about 2, 00,000 employees a year. According to industry estimates, 10-12% of
the recruits submit fake CVs, fake reference letters, fake certificates or are
simply overstating skills and experience.
The IT industry spends an average of Rs 25,000 in recruiting a candidate. The
average spend on 1, 00,000 recruits comes to Rs 250 crore a year. Overall, for the
2,00,000 jobs in the hot sectors, the industry spends over Rs 400 crore a year in
hiring candidates, and there are quite a few bad apples among the lot. Fresh
recruits to replace those who forged documents only adds to the cost. Most of the
cases are among those with one-to-three years of experience.

The rising trend in fake certificates pertaining to education and employment
has spawned a new industry in India: Background screening. Estimates put
the industry size currently at about Rs 250 crore and it is growing AT 30 %
annually.

About one in five resumes contain discrepancies. This could often be minor such
as non-explanation of a few months' gap between various items in the resume. But
it may also contain false claims relating to the study/completion of courses or work
experience in companies or projects.
While security, detective agencies and a couple of audit firms have done
background screening earlier, a few multinational firms, specializing in this
field, such as Quest Research and Hill & Associates, have now begun to
consolidate their presence.
And the business has been good for them. Quest Research seems to have grown
five-fold over the last year. Yogesh Bhura, Managing Director, South Asia, Quest
Research Ltd, says, "We are doing in excess of 15,000 background checks a
month now."

39

Vivek Aggarwal, Senior Manager, Marketing and Corporate Strategy, Hill &
Associates, says they are now doing about 1,200 checks a month compared to
700 checks a month last year.
These checks can cost companies anything from $80 dollars to $300 per person
(Rs 3,487 to Rs 13,078).

US firm First Advantage Quest Research receives 45,000 employee screening
requests a month. About 35% are from the IT and BPO industries and the rest from
banking, retail and insurance. The background screening business, which was
non-existent till a few years ago, is now estimated to be about Rs 75-100 crore a
year, thanks to large number of fake resumes. First Advantage, Verifacts, KPMG
and Global Screening Services offer employee background check services.

When asked about the problem, Yogesh Bhura, MD, FAQR told ET: “Potential
recruits are fudging past employment and education credentials. Usually, fakes
look better than the original. Companies want us to check that the people hired
have the qualifications they claim.’’ Throwing light on the issue of fake CVs,
Achuthan Nair, V-P, strategic sourcing, Wipro Technologies, said: “There are
certain organisations which see demand for candidates in specific sectors, and
play consultants to them, often fudging their CVs to make a quick buck.’’

Seeing the boom in recruitment, over 1,500 HR vendors have sprung up across
the metros in past couple of years.
Initially, it was other multinational companies that provided business to these
companies. Now, local companies are also opting for background checks on
employees, both existing and potential.
The background screening industry received a fillip in the aftermath of the
September 11 WTC attacks in the US. Many companies, especially those in the
information technology and financial services sector, began to opt for such
practices, as part of the security requirements laid down by clients overseas.

Bhura says, "More and more professionally managed companies are initiating
background screening practices. It is business logic which is driving the
growth of the industry and not legal requirements, as was the case earlier."

40

Indian companies benefiting from the off shoring wave are doing a bit of sleuthing.
They are making sure their US clients' data is safe by screening potential
employees.
As US companies send more business to Indian companies here, a
significant chunk of data that is critical in nature is getting offloaded here for
processing.
The responsibility of making sure that this data is not misused lies with the
Indian companies or the vendors in this instance. In the absence of proper dataprotection laws, these vendors have started taking steps to prevent leaks in
manpower-related security.
As a first step, companies have begun background checks on their potential
employees. Employee screening, considered critical in emerging markets due to
lack of criminal databases, involves hiring an external agency to conduct personal
and background checks.
As the industry witnesses a significant churn in employees because of high attrition
rates, screening the background of potential employees becomes imperative
considering the fact that quite a chunk of potential employees lie about their
education, experience, and so on to gain jobs.
A study of 3,000 screenings by risk management consultancy firm Hill &
Associates (India) Pvt Ltd has revealed that 30 per cent of the candidates had
falsified their resumes.
Pre-employment screening has started gaining ground with Indian vendors too,
says Ashish Sonal, country manager, Hill & Associates. "At present, about 30 per
cent of the requests we receive for pre-employment screening are from Indian
firms," says Sonal. Global firms that carry out pre-employment screening and that
have been operating in India include Kroll, ChoicePoint and Intelysis.
Indian firms such as Globe Detective Agency also carry out pre-employment
screening. The monthly volumes of all the players operating in the pre-employment
screening could be in the range of 8,000-10,000 screenings,

41

9.1 CERTAIN CASES.

9.1.1 HSBC CASE AND COMMENTS
After employee fraud last year at MSource, an Indian BPO centre in Pune in the
western part of India another one has come to light and this time it is in Bangalore.
An HSBC employee has been charged with stealing confidential data of the bank’s
customers in UK to illegally transfer their money without their knowledge.

The complaint was lodged by the HSBC shared services centre—HSBC Electronic
Data Processing India (HDPI), against its employee Nadeem Kashmiri with the
Cyber Crime Police Station in Bangalore on June 22.

The company has alleged that Nadeem has “accessed personal information;
security information and debit card information” of some of its customers in the UK
and has passed it to “co-fraudsters”, for conducting “fraudulent transactions
through ATM, debit cards and telephone banking services at the behest of
Nadeem.”

The loss was estimated at 233,000 pounds.

The fraud came to light after 20-plus UK customers of HSBC realized that money
was suddenly missing from their accounts and subsequently lodged a complaint
with the bank stating that funds were “transferred without their knowledge,”
between March and May this year and that they “did not know, who transferred the
monies.”

In the first information report (FIR), HDPI has stated that the bank conducted an
internal investigation and found Nadeem to be the main culprit. “He has accessed
the customers’ account without any business requirement and changed the

42

personal information, security information and debit card information. He did not
log his access on the front end of the business application, as is the mandatory
procedure,” the FIR stated.
The backend system logs indicated that Nadeem accessed the information. Later,
his accomplices called and cleared the procedural security requirement and
“requested him for the balance information and conducted the fraudulent
transaction. Nadeem facilitated his accomplices to impersonate the actual
customers to enable them to cheat the HDPI and HSBC customers,” the FIR
stated.

In the process of investigation, the HSBC also found that Nadeem joined
HDPI on December 12, 2005 using “false records and misrepresentation.”
He omitted to mention his employment with Accenture and provided false
references for conducting reference checks.
The bank has alleged that Nadeem joined HSBC “with the intention to deceive and
cheat the bank and its customers. He accessed customers’ accounts without
authorization from the day he was deputed on the processing floor, on February 6.”

ÆLast year in April five employees of Msource, the BPO arm of MphasiS BFL
(now acquired by EDS) were arrested for allegedly pulling off a fraud worth nearly
$425,000 from the Citibank accounts of four New York based account holders. The
case is under investigation.
ÆA couple of months later, the Sun tabloid in a sting operation purchased the
bank account details of 1,000 Britons for about $5.50 each from one Karan
Bahree, an employee of Gurgaon-based BPO company Infinity E-Search, who
allegedly sold the information to an undercover reporter. The case was registered
in London.
The reason for such lacunae in the system is the fact that BPO firms are
feverishly recruiting and there is not enough time for inadequate employee
verification.
According to a verification company, an interview for a candidate lasts an average
of about 5 minutes. “How well can you verify that candidate in that time frame? It is
critical to get a proper verification of candidate’s education, employment and other
details done but most companies are willing to let that pass – because it costs

43

about $ 200 per employee and they are not willing to foot that” says a CEO of a
verification firm.

In the HSBC case, the employee had furnished false information about
himself. As per the police complaint, he had not mentioned his previous
employment with Accenture and had provided false references for
conducting reference checks. But HSBC appears to have overlooked all of
this.

“After the MSource fraud, employee verification has become a serious issue and
companies have put in place stringent rules for security and employees providing
false information have been fired in some BPOs,” said Nasscom president Kiran
Karnik.

NASSCOM is building a national skill registry for IT employees to create a
database of employees that employers can access. But till these steps are
implemented, experts advise firms to strengthen their own security systems,
especially in the absence of a data protection law.

9.1.2 WIPRO CASE AND COMMENTS
Corporate India was under attack and this time, the attack is from within. Much to
their horror, companies are discovering a large number of their workforce has
made its way in on the back of forged documents for experience and other
qualifications. Some estimates say every third curriculum vitae, CV that is coming
in, could be fake or forged. Many employees are now being sacked and at least
two leading IT companies have filed criminal complaints.
But the malice may run much deeper and corporates have reason to worry. On
March 22, 2006, Wipro, one of the biggest Indian IT firms sacked 25 employees.
But this had nothing to do with their performance. A day later, Wipro lodged
police complaints against not just the employees, but also the placement
agencies that were responsible for them being there in the first place.
44

Wipro found to its horror, that in some cases, employees had shown in their work
experience records, having worked for companies that did not even exist.
Vice President, Strategic Sourcing, Wipro Technologies, Achuthan Nair had never
expected a routine internal audit to turn this ugly. The human resources, HR
department at Wipro was checking its CVs of employees. Suddenly, Nair noticed a
pattern among the CVs.The language and the kind of education backgrounds they
had, their work experience and even the companies where they had worked everything was similar.

So much so, that even the spelling mistakes in many resumes were the same. It
was enough to make Nair suspicious and he dug deeper. The trail led him to over
30 placement agencies from whom Wipro had hired some of its employees.

Further investigations revealed the entire plot. The organisations from where these
employees had claimed to have worked for two years did not even exist. What's
more, Wipro had been relying on these very agencies for its pre-employment
background checks. The placement agencies had created these fake software
firms, which existed only on paper. And for a price, they were accredit ting the work
experiences of the employees.

9.1.3 FEW MORE CASES

Æ Valencio more than met the requirements for the job of vice-president
(marketing) of a multinational IT company in Hyderabad. His resume boasted
many years of experience with some of the best companies and an excellent track
record. His overwhelming presentation and communication skills, and the
company’s urgency to get him on board, landed him the coveted position.
Ten days into the job, Valencio disappeared. And with him confidential information
of the company. The company soon realized that every information he provided
was fake. His name, address and contact numbers. It was concluded that Valencio
was a corporate spy from a rival company.

45

Æ In another case, Brinda Anthony submitted a forged degree certificate to one of
the top five BPOs in India. A background check with Mumbai University revealed
that the certificate was forged. When this was communicated to Brinda, she
submitted another document: this time a verification letter on the university’s
letterhead authenticating that she was a graduate. Later, it was found that even
this was forged. When Brinda was asked to be present at the University along with
the company representative she did not turn up.

Æ Shrinivas Sastri of Covansys India got the shock of his life when Wipro sent him
a copy of a letter submitted by a candidate claiming to have worked at Covansys.
Said Sastri, "The forgery had been committed with elan. I could not believe
someone could imitate my signature so well."
Sastri cited an instance when a candidate applying for a job at Covansys falsely
claimed that he had worked with a Mumbai-based BPO. "Operational pressures
forced us to hire him immediately but a few weeks later we found that he had faked
his experience. I checked with the Mumbai company only to find that such a
person had never been on their pay rolls," he said. "When I asked the candidate to
leave, he had the gall to make me a counter offer saying we could demote him to a
lower level and salary scale but let him continue at the organisation."

9.2 FEW FACTS

With IT-enabled services and business process outsourcing (BPO) generating an
employment boom, companies are discovering a staggering vulnerability to
malpractices by applicants. This, in turn, has led to the growth of an ancillary
industry that conducts background checks on prospective employees, verifying
their identity, education, pre-employment status and even past criminal records.
Industry sources say that a major demand for pre-employment screening comes
from industries like banking, insurance and financial services.

The cost of a bad hire far exceeds the amount of money you pay to conduct a
background check. Most companies apply this business logic. The size of the
46

market in Asia is $6 million and projections show it will grow to $10-15 million in the
next two years.
On an average, depending upon each company’s recruitment practices, 10-20 per
cent discrepancy is found in the claims made by applicants and our findings. The
disparity could range from overstating qualifications, salary and designation to
presenting fake certificates and giving false references.In some cases, one even
finds a complete fudging of the CV and the names of universities and companies
that do not exist.

The screening industry in India is at a nascent stage, but with 100 per cent growth
estimates in the next couple of years, a background check could well be the norm
rather than the exception. More and more companies are now recognizing the high
dividends of going through a stringent screening procedure. "We deal with
international customers and data security issues are of utmost importance to us.
We take no chances and outsource pre-employment screening for everyone at all
levels," said Milind Jadhav, vice-president (Human Resources) of Patni Computer
Systems. "It has paid off. Many cases where serious attempts to hide
information and people misrepresenting their employment or academic
history have come to light.

The level of screening a few years ago was limited to report-writing and internal
HR policies were not comprehensive enough for a sound background check. Even
today, many companies limit screening to a phone call. Also, the time, effort and
overhead costs involved in creating a separate team for background checks
seemed unaffordable. But once the companies started conducting the screening, it
was an eye-opener. The levels of falsifications by job applicants in the industry are
alarming."

Soma Jeevan, HR head of the Chennai-based Electronic Data Systems
Corporation, looks at screening as an elimination procedure. "We conduct preemployment screening only while recruiting for our BPO centres since we hire in
large numbers. For the rest of our employees, we have a reference check that
includes a medical examination as well. It is better to be safe than sorry," he said.

KPMG released its India Fraud Survey Report 2006, that had covered over a
thousand organizations across India. The findings of the KPMG report and the
47

Wipro incident confirmed the reality on ground zero. Scrutiny revealed that close to
24% of CVs comprised forged documents, outright lies about previous employment
and incomplete degrees.

KPMG survey found the IT, financial entertainment and telecom sectors face the
highest risk and as is the case with Wipro, the largest exposure to fraud was from
their own employees. In 13% of the cases observed, the fraud risk was because no
background checks had been conducted on the employees.

Anil Roy has spent over thirteen years as an expert in fraud management and
forensics. He says only 20% of the industry is doing proper background
checks. Practice director, forensic services, Grant Thornton, Anil Roy says, "The
top firms are doing their checks but fly-by-night ones are cutting costs. They open
up 'mom and pop' shops and then work on background checks using a team of two
people. How can it be possible, that two people are doing background checks for
two hundred employees? These agencies performing checks for low costs, do not
do due diligence."

But the past has a way of catching up with people - criminal pasts, forged
documents, loan defaults - all skeletons come tumbling out of the closet, as
background check agencies investigate employees' pasts.

While requests for background checks are still trickling in, corporates need to
realize the danger of having within the system, someone who's very fundamentals
are forged. Today, the industry should realize the threats of hiring people with a
criminal past.
A national database of BPO employees launched by Nasscom and
depository NSDL. An employee would have to add himself to the database
after a mandatory background check organized by NSDL. He would then
have to reveal his records to every new employer. The success of the database
depended on participation, which is something that has not yet happened.

There will actually be two parallel lines for employing people for the industry. One
from the database and one from the open market. Those people, who are fudging
48

their databases will go to the organisations who are not making it mandatory for
people to become a part of this database. So there will still be fake CVs floating
around.

Sources in the industry reveal that, many software firms are silently firing
employees with problem CVs and yet Wipro and IBM are one of the few
organizations that have taken the first step to bring an end to this racket. But
what's to stop employees from the rest of the organisations, who have been fired
from quietly slipping into their next job?
Corporate India will need to nip what seems to have already become a problem
that is fast spiraling out of control. Otherwise, industries that are heavily dependant
on human capital, could be facing anything from malpractice to a lot of
embarrassment.
The HSBC BPO scam has brought back the need for a proper check on the
credentials of the employees hired by BPO companies in India. Last year, another
Mumbai-based BPO firm — Intelenet’s employees were arrested for stealing
information from the office.
After that Nasscom along with the industry decided to have a centralised database,
which would contain information about BPO employees’ professional and
educational background.
The database service called National Skill Registry was launched in January
’06, but it seems that BPO firms are not utilising it to check background for
its existing employees. The database works only if companies give details of
both their existing employees and past employees. The HSBC scam has
exposed that this is not taking place at all. The irregularities in background
checks done at the time of hiring agent level employees continue.
But Background checks are not standard across all companies. There are some
companies who do not conduct any checks due to the sheer volume of candidates
and costs involved at the agent level.
Furthermore, considering the attrition at the entry level, some companies do not
see any value in this procedure

49

10. REFERENCE CHECK PROCESS AT

COGNIZANT TECHNOLOGIES SOLUTIONS
In Cognizant, we have three types of checks.
Education check
Employment check
• Current employer
• Employer 1
• Employer 2
Criminal check
As early as November 2004, we have introduced background checks, conducted
by an external agency, for all new lateral joiners - right from Programmer
Analyst to Vice President level(s); (in fact, we started this on an experimental basis
in August 2004 for those above Senior Associates).

As soon as a candidate expresses his intent to join our organisation (after
successful interviews), we send an Application Blank where the candidate fills
out details of his employment history, academic background and also suggests the
names of at least two referees. In this application blank, the candidate also
formally gives his assent for Cognizant to conduct background check by a thirdparty.

Based on the data given by the candidate the reference check is initiated with the
previous employers and the academic institutions to verify the veracity of the
information and documents provided by the candidates. However the reference
check with the current employer cannot be carried out until the candidate comes
on board. For levels of Senior Associates and above, criminal background
check (with the police department) is also carried out.

If there is any adverse report pertaining to either professional background or
academic qualifications, the Recruitment team immediately calls the associate and
initiates action. If there is additional information to be furnished for reference check

50

(E.g Roll number for the Degree exam..), it is gathered. However if there is a case
of faking work experience or academic qualifications, the case is referred to HR for
appropriate termination action. The same applies to any adverse report from the
police.

File usedMASTERSHEET OF REFERENCE CHECK

10.1 Algorithm for the Reference Check process1) The application form filled by the candidate after he clears the HR round is sent
to the third party for thorough check if he accepts the offer.
2) The report is awaited from the third party.
3) When the Final report of the candidate is obtained, check if the report is positive
or not. If the report is positive, check if the candidate has joined the organization or
is he still yet to join.
If he has joined the organization, update his reference check status in the master
sheet of reference check as POSITIVE. Maintain the filing status.
The candidates who are yet to join, when finally join the company, their names and
status needs to be appended on the master sheet of Reference check file. This
check is done at the end of the month.
4) If the report is negative, check if the candidate has joined the organization or is
he still yet to join.
If he has not joined the organization, revoke his offer.
If he has joined the organization, update his reference check status in the master
sheet of reference check as NEGATIVE. Maintain the filing status.
5) When the status is Negative, drop a mail to the concerned person as well as his
Project Manager. Ask him to meet up ASAP.
6) Meet the person and discuss the issue with him. Make him realize the
seriousness of the issue.
7) Check if the case can be closed with the help of an apology letter. It would be
accepted only if the mistake was unconditional typographical error.

51

If the case can be closed with an apology letter ask the concerned person to
submit the same and close the case after updating the reference check status as
POSITIVE in the master sheet of Reference check file.
8) If the case cannot be closed with an apology letter ask him to submit necessary
documents at the earliest to prove his ingenuousness within a given deadline.
Documents would include Salary Slips of the previous company or ,Form16 or ,
Relieving letter of the previous employers in case of Negative Employment check
and Mark sheets or College leaving certificates in case of Negative Education
Check.
9) Keep following up till he doesn’t submit the documents .Keep the Manager
informed.
10) After receiving the supplementary documents send them to the third party for
re-verification.
11) Check if the final supplementary report received from the third party is
POSITIVE or NEGATIVE.
12) If the supplementary report is Positive, inform the project Manager and the
concerned person about the same and close the case after updating the reference
check status as POSITIVE in the master sheet of Reference check file.
13) If the supplementary report is Negative, inform the project Manager and the
concerned person about the same , make him resign from the organization and
update the reference check status as NEGATIVE in the master sheet of Reference
check file.
14) Keep following up till he is actually relieved from the organization and close the
case only after he has resigned and being relieved.

52

10.2 FLOWCHART

START

Application form filled by HR
round selected candidate

Send offer

Offer
Accepted?

Offer Reject

Send the application form to
the 3rd party for Reference
Check.
1

Get the final report of the
candidate from the 3rd party.

53

Final
report
Positive
?
Candidate
joined?

Mark his reference check
status as POSITIVE.

Append his name & status in
the master sheet when he
joins the organization.

Maintain the filing status.

Candidate
Joined?

Mark his reference check
status as NEGATIVE.

Offer revoked

1
Maintain filing status.
54

1

Concerned person asked
to meet. The Project
Manager kept informed.

Meet the concerned
person.

Can the case
be closed
with Apology
letter?

Ask him to submit an
Apology letter.

Update the reference
check status in the
master sheet as
POSITIVE.

Ask him to submit the
necessary documents
to prove his
innocence.

Has he
submitted the
documents
within the
deadline?

1.

55

Follow –up with the
person & his Project
Manager.

Get the documents.

Send the supplementary
documents to the 3rd party.

Get the documents from the 3 rd
party.

Suppleme
ntary
report
Positive?

56

Update his reference
check status in the
master sheet as
POSITIVE.

Inform the person as well
as his Project Manager
about his status.

Inform the person as well as
his Project Manager about
his status.

Make him Resign.

Keep following up till he is
Relieved.

Case Closed.
1

STOP.

57

10.3 FORMAT OF THE REFERNCE CHECK REPORTS-

A POSITIVE REFERENCE CHECK REPORTTHIRD PARTY

Education & Employment Check Report
AB
Feb 21, 2006/ Ref No.Feb06/EdEmC/096

Background Profile
Subject Name
AB
Date of Birth
Father’s Name
Phone Number

CD

Executive Summary

Check

Status

Remarks

Education Check



Positive

Employment Check I



Positive

Employment Check II



Positive

Criminal Check



No Adverse Remarks

Education Check Report
Respondent Name

Ms. X

58

Respondent
Designation

Staff Member - Placement Office

Feedback

Institute Name
Year Passed
Qualification Gained
Remarks (if any)

Candidate’s Claim

Feedback

Engg.College
2003
Post Graduate Diploma in
Industrial Management
Nil

Confirmed
Confirmed
Confirmed

Employment Check Report

HR Feedback: Employer I
Respondent Name
Ms. B
Designation
Assistant Officer - Human Resources

Organization Name
Employment Dates
Last Position Held

Candidate’s Claim
Company A
June 2003 – January 2006
Senior Business Analyst

59

Feedback
Confirmed
Confirmed
Confirmed

Remarks (if any)

The respondent informed THIRD PARTY that: •


The subject worked in the organization from
November 2002 - August 2003.
The subject worked as a Senior Business Analyst.

Professional Reference: Employer I
Respondent Name
Mr. C
Designation
Project Leader

Organization

Company A

Feedback
Mr. C, the subject’s previous supervisor (as per the
application form) informed THIRD PARTY that: •








The subject reported directly to him.
The subject worked as a Business Analyst.
The subject had sound technical knowledge
primarily in Software Testing tools, Excel and SQL
technologies.
The subject was hardworking and dedicated.
The subject had commendable analytical skills.
The subject had average communication and
interpersonal skills.
The subject got along with his colleagues and had
no major disagreements.
The subject could be considered for reemployment.

60

HR Feedback: Employer II
Respondent
Mr. D
Name
Designation
Incharge - Administration Department

Organization
Name
Employment
Dates
Last Position
Held
Remarks (if
any)

Candidate’s Claim
Company B

Feedback
Confirmed

September 1999 Confirmed
July 2000
Maintenance
Confirmed
Engineer
The respondent informed H&A that: •


The subject worked in the
organization from September
1999 - July 2000.
The subject worked as a
Maintenance Engineer.

Professional Reference: Employer II
Respondent Name
Mr. E
Designation
Area Manager
Organization
Company B

61

Feedback
Mr. E, the subject’s previous supervisor (as per the
application form) informed THIRD PARTY that: •








The subject worked as a Maintenance Engineer.
The subject reported directly to him.
The subject administered his responsibilities
impressively well.
The subject was regular to work and had
commendable grasping abilities.
The subject was hardworking and dedicated.
The subject had well developed communication
skills.
The subject got along with his colleagues and had
no major disagreements.
The subject could be considered for reemployment.

62

Criminal Check Report

Longest Stay Address
Police Station Name
Contact Person in Police
Station
Feedback from Police
Station

No Adverse Remarks

A NEGATIVE REFEERNCE CHECK REPORT-

THIRD PARTY

Education & Employment Check Report
AB
June 21, 2006 / Ref no. May06/EdEm/637

Background Profile
Subject Name
AB
Date of Birth
Father’s Name
Phone Number

CD

63

Executive Summary

Check

Status

Remarks

Education Check



Positive

Employment Check I



Negative

Education Check Report
Respondent Name
Respondent
Designation

Mr. A
Controller of Examination

Feedback

Institute Name
Year Passed
Qualification Gained

Candidate’s Claim

Feedback

College of Engineering,
2003
Bachelor of Engineering –
(Computer Science)

Confirmed
Confirmed

64

Confirmed

Employment Check Report

HR Feedback: Employer I
Respondent Name
Mr. B
Designation
Executive - Human Resources

Organization Name
Employment Dates
Last Position Held
Remarks (if any)

Candidate’s Claim
Company A
October 2004 - March 2006
Technical Associate
The respondent informed that: •



Feedback
Confirmed
Negative
Confirmed

The subject was working in the organization from
August 2005 – April 2006.
The subject worked as a Technical Associate.
Please Refer Annex A

Professional Reference: Employer I
Respondent Name
Mr. C
Designation
Project Manager

65

Organization

Company A

Feedback
Mr. C, the subject’s previous supervisor informed that: •








The subject worked as a Technical Associate.
The subject was directly reporting to him.
The subject’s main obligations involved
developing, testing and coding.
The subject was proactive, flexible and had the
ability to handle the given responsibility.
The subject had fine communication and well
developed interpersonal/social skills.
The subject was honest and trustworthy and had
not been involved in any disagreements.
The subject got along well with his colleagues and
supervisors.
The subject could be considered for reemployment.

66

Annex A: Confidential.- Cannot be disclosed
A POSITIVE SUPPLEMENTARY REPORT FOR A NEGATIVE CASETHIRD PARTY

SUPPLEMENTARY REPORT
AB
June 29, 2006 /Ref No. May06/EdEm/637

Background Profile
Subject Name
Date of Birth

AB
14 September 1979

History: The subject claimed to have worked at Company A from
October 2004 - March 2006. However Mr. B, Executive – Human Resources
(Company A) informed THIRD PARTY that: •

The subject worked in the organization from August 2005 – April 2006.

67

Deleted: EDUCATION/PROFESSIO
NAL BACKGROUND

EMPLOYMENT CHECK
Result
Employment check
Organization Name Company A

Dates Employed

Last Position Held

Comments

October 2004 March 2006



Technical Associate



Later the client asked THIRD PARTY to
reverify the same and new documents
from an outsourcing agency –Company
X were sent which was earlier not
included in the application form.
Mr. C – Human Resources &
Administration (Company X) was
contacted on the number provided in
the new documents and he confirmed
that: •






Annexure A
Confidential.Cannot be disclosed.

68

The subject worked from 25th
October 2004 to 3rd August
2005.
The subject was deputed by their
agency at Company A.
The subject was working as
Junior Programmer.
From August 2005 onwards the
subject became a permanent
employee of Company A and
was designated as Technical
associate.
Please refer Annexure A

Deleted:

10.4 POINTS TO BE KEPT IN MIND
1) Proper filing status has to be maintained. All the reports have to be
arranged in serial order of their respective IDs.
2) At the end of the month master sheet of reference check should be updated.
Names of all the new joiners of the month and their reference check status
should be appended and updated.
3) Reference check process should start immediately after offer acceptance by
the candidate to avoid any unnecessary delays.
4) Third party should complete the background check in the given time frame
of 12 – 14 days .Necessary follow up should be done.
5) Aim should be to have the reference check reports of the new joiners before
they join the company to have better clarity, lesser confusion, and hurdle
free execution of the project to which the candidates would be allocated.
6) Reference check process and the reports (especially the Negative reports)
are highly confidential because we do not want to betray the trust bestowed
on us by our clients. Moreover from the team’s perspective also it could
affect the team cohesion.
7) In the master sheet for all the negative cases we should always have an
update of their current status. So we need to maintain a “comments” field in
the master sheet just for negative case. The comments usedƒ

Action to be taken- When the case is new and the concerned person
hasn’t been called for verification.

ƒ

Reviewed and awaiting documents- The concerned person has been
asked to submit necessary documents to prove his innocence.

ƒ

Supplementary awaited- The documents submitted by the concerned
person has been sent to the third party for re- verification and we are
awaiting the final supplementary report.

ƒ

Supplementary received- The final supplementary report has been
received by us from the third party and the necessary action has
been taken.

8) A late negative report causes problems to the project teams and it is tough

to replace quickly.

69

9) If there is any indication of a possible negative report, the Project Manager
should be sensitized upfront so that contingency measures can be planned
before the formal, detailed report comes.

10.5 SOME COMMON PROBLEMS FACED
1) Third party sometimes is not able to revert back on time. This could happen
when•









The subject is not contactable on the numbers provided by him.
The professional references are not contactable.
Companies do not exist any more.
Insufficient information provided by the candidate in the Application
blank - E.g they may not remember the exact dates in regard to the
previous employments or the exam roll number for their degree is
incomplete.
Some of the organisations where the candidates have worked take a
longer time to respond to the reference check request by our agency.
Some of the MNCs have a clear policy of refusing to give reference
check (apparently it is the practice in NA and most of Europe).
Universities, Govt agencies (police..) also take longer to respond and
there is repeated follow-up required especially if it is in a remote
location.
Spike in volumes (e.g after an advertisement campaign..)

2) The challenge lies in creating a higher level of awareness about this
business and consolidating relationships with various sources of information like
universities and employees.
A background screening outfit has to continuously build relationships with
universities over a longer time frame to ensure timely response

3) We do not have online systems for public record searches and education and
employment verification. Therefore, we have to rely on manual processes. The
problems could get accentuated if human resources departments do not have
processes in place to reply to verification requests quickly.

70

71

Sponsor Documents

Or use your account on DocShare.tips

Hide

Forgot your password?

Or register your new account on DocShare.tips

Hide

Lost your password? Please enter your email address. You will receive a link to create a new password.

Back to log-in

Close