News »Browse Articles »
Set benchmark for background screening of employees
0
Set benchmark for background screening of employees
I remember receiving at least 2,000 resumes in sealed envelopes after we released a print advertisement for two junior manager roles in American Express Co. (where I was working then) in the late 1980s.
Some of the respondents were general managers of state owned banks who had probably not read the prescribed upper age limit of 28.
Cut to post-liberalization India . Candidates don’t show up at interview venues after repeated advertisements in print, television and radio by potential employers. Some of these employers are information technology (IT) and operations service providers of the best and the biggest banks in the world, including American Express, Bank of America Corp. and Citigroup Inc. India’s democratic dividend seems to have run out of steam, with jobs far exceeding aspirants.
In the closed economy that we experienced up until 1990, the dominant provider of jobs was the government and affiliated public sector units. These jobs were characterized by a stringent selection process (it would be more appropriate to call it an “elimination” process) and an equally rigorous verification process spearheaded by the police force.
Ahead of State Bank of India offering me a probationary officer’s job in 1979, I was visited at home by the local SHO (station house officer), who put me through an inquisition to assess my “character”.
A friend who coordinates police verification requests for multinational IT companies recently confided in me that police officers in Kolkata tersely asked him to produce an introductory letter from a cabinet rank minister if he expected their cooperation.
Before Prime Minister Manmohan Singh freed us from the shackles of confused socialism, private sector jobs were as rare as an oasis in a desert. Products of the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) were, of course, snapped up by the Hindustan Levers (now Hindustan Unilever Ltd) and Citibanks, but the less academically evolved had to have boardroom access to find even a modest job with any Indian group.
It was almost inconceivable then that a private sector employee would be from an “unknown” milieu. The IITs and IIMs had their own methods to screen out anyone who was remotely criminal in intent. And the less privileged, who had to settle for modest jobs, had their family trees documented by the personnel departments of the Birlas, Goenkas, Singhanias and Modis.
But IT and business process outsourcing, or BPOs, have introduced a whole new paradigm in terms of hiring. The focus of hiring is now clearly on skill sets and far less on softer and perhaps more controversial cultural adaptability.
The demand for talent by the technology, retail and real estate industries has compelled recruiters to look beyond our top cities and tap the tier II and III destinations, which is fantastic, as youth from these cities were denied most of the options that city slickers grabbed with impunity.
Chiranjit Banerjee is general partner at PeoplePlus Consulting.
Some of the respondents were general managers of state owned banks who had probably not read the prescribed upper age limit of 28.
Cut to post-liberalization India . Candidates don’t show up at interview venues after repeated advertisements in print, television and radio by potential employers. Some of these employers are information technology (IT) and operations service providers of the best and the biggest banks in the world, including American Express, Bank of America Corp. and Citigroup Inc. India’s democratic dividend seems to have run out of steam, with jobs far exceeding aspirants.
In the closed economy that we experienced up until 1990, the dominant provider of jobs was the government and affiliated public sector units. These jobs were characterized by a stringent selection process (it would be more appropriate to call it an “elimination” process) and an equally rigorous verification process spearheaded by the police force.
Ahead of State Bank of India offering me a probationary officer’s job in 1979, I was visited at home by the local SHO (station house officer), who put me through an inquisition to assess my “character”.
A friend who coordinates police verification requests for multinational IT companies recently confided in me that police officers in Kolkata tersely asked him to produce an introductory letter from a cabinet rank minister if he expected their cooperation.
Before Prime Minister Manmohan Singh freed us from the shackles of confused socialism, private sector jobs were as rare as an oasis in a desert. Products of the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) were, of course, snapped up by the Hindustan Levers (now Hindustan Unilever Ltd) and Citibanks, but the less academically evolved had to have boardroom access to find even a modest job with any Indian group.
It was almost inconceivable then that a private sector employee would be from an “unknown” milieu. The IITs and IIMs had their own methods to screen out anyone who was remotely criminal in intent. And the less privileged, who had to settle for modest jobs, had their family trees documented by the personnel departments of the Birlas, Goenkas, Singhanias and Modis.
But IT and business process outsourcing, or BPOs, have introduced a whole new paradigm in terms of hiring. The focus of hiring is now clearly on skill sets and far less on softer and perhaps more controversial cultural adaptability.
The demand for talent by the technology, retail and real estate industries has compelled recruiters to look beyond our top cities and tap the tier II and III destinations, which is fantastic, as youth from these cities were denied most of the options that city slickers grabbed with impunity.
Chiranjit Banerjee is general partner at PeoplePlus Consulting.
