Below screenshot from my email box is just one example of type of response which we receive on regular basis from various educational institutions across the globe. In order to maintain the data privacy and to restrict PII, most of the candidate identifiable information and the source information has been retracted.
Source and candidate details are not important in the above example. It is just to highlight the importance of Education Verification or Degree Verification.
What is Education Verification ?
Education verification verifies the certification or educational claims of an applicant. Education background checks confirm the applicant’s type of degree or certificate, graduation date, attendance dates, and any grades. Education from GED, high school, college, university, technical school, or any other educational agency or institution can be verified.
Today most of the IT/Finance organizations conduct degree verification/Education verification or have some sort of background screening programs. Industries such a manufacturing or FMCG companies do not conduct background checks as aggressively as others. Though major multinational companies do have extensive background screening programs but such programs are low on priority list.
We are currently processing a bulk verification for an auto parts manufacturer who is hiring graduates from ITI – Industrial Training Institutes across India. As per our process about 25% results are FAKE. With such results the parts manufacturer have decided to expand education verification process on employees across all plants in India.
It clearly shows that organizations realize the value only when problems are highlighted. This is being re-active instead of being pro-active.
Organizations should be more pro-active in conducting education verification on there current and prospective employees.
It is widely believed that Education Verification are expensive and add cost to the company. Though it does add cost to the company but the actual cost per employee for a background check ranges from USD 20 – USD 100 depending on type of background check. In majority of the cases this cost is not even 1% of the total yearly cost of the employee to the organized during the financial year.
The current economic downturn has created tremendous strain on the job market as unemployment rates rise and competition stiffens. As a result, an increasing number of individuals vying for positions, may be inflating their academic credentials in an effort to stand out.
Organizations need to look at background checks such as Education verification as long term benefit and not a short term cost.
Other than cost, most common issue with HR Managers is the turn around time for Education Verification. It is important to realize that majority of education records are still in form of paper records which needs manual research. Though there are databases which are available through third party or from educational institutions but still not all records are online.
This process flow layout the process for education verification. This process is true for all countries in perfect world.
In above image – red boxes highlight the issues faced by your background screening company in processing education verification. These breakers are common across the globe.
