High levels of staff turnover at Indian IT companies are being fuelled by an increasing tendency for candidates to lie on their CVs.
A reported study by staff vetting firm First Advantage found that “education discrepancies” and other misinformation increased in the first quarter by 80% on last year.
Explaining the rise to the Financial Times, which saw the study, WiPro Technologies said candidates were trying to look like they were in a narrowing talent pool.
A common deceptive tactic in applications to the outfit or its rivals, Infosys or Tata Consultancy Services, was to claim to have already worked for one of the big three.
Even if the total population of untruthful applicants was just 1%, Nasscom told the paper that the reported rise was still significant, given they were after “trust-based work.”
The software body’s National Skills Registry, which would vet staff credentials, is tackling the problem, but staff have privacy concerns about the voluntary database.
Figures from WiPro show that in the January to March period, staff turnover leapt a reported 18.5 per cent, of which three per cent accounted for weeding out CV liars.
