{"id":18677,"date":"2024-04-05T00:51:50","date_gmt":"2024-04-05T00:51:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/04\/05\/cos-enlist-firms-to-run-moonlighting-checks-india-business-news-times-of-india\/"},"modified":"2024-04-05T00:51:51","modified_gmt":"2024-04-05T00:51:51","slug":"cos-enlist-firms-to-run-moonlighting-checks-india-business-news-times-of-india","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/04\/05\/cos-enlist-firms-to-run-moonlighting-checks-india-business-news-times-of-india\/","title":{"rendered":"Cos Enlist Firms To Run Moonlighting Checks | India Business News – Times of India"},"content":{"rendered":"
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BENGALURU: Four years after it became a rage during the pandemic, the Indian IT services industry is still grappling with moonlighting, forcing companies to enlist background verification firms to conduct dual-employment checks before onboarding new hires.
While moonlighting \u2014 where employees take on external paid gigs while being full-time staff of a company \u2014 was as high as 4-5% of employees in an IT firm during Covid, it\u2019s now pegged at 1-2%.This decrease is attributed to companies ensuring employees are back in office for at least a few days a week, making it harder for them to moonlight. Wriju Ray, chief business officer of identity verification platform IDfy, said that eight out of 10 clients are running moonlighting checks on their employees in the IT sector.<\/p>\n
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Still, many employees find ways to beat the system. Background verification firm Authbridge recently uncovered an IT employee working simultaneously for \u201c78 companies\u201d, with all the firms crediting her PF into the same account. The woman employee, a data analyst working remotely, was caught when one of the employers triggered a dual-employment check using an AI algorithm to check for moonlighting for all employees.
\u201cA person can have multiple employees crediting PF into the same PF account. Many companies don\u2019t run dual-employment verification for their employees. They will conduct a basic background screening,\u201d said Ajay Trehan, founder and CEO of Authbridge. \u201cThe only logical explanation is she must have been running a mini BPO setup at her home with multiple terminals and enrolled people to work on a project basis. We only run a check on PF credentials for dual employment. The employer, in this case, wanted a dual employment check on all their employees. That is when we busted this case,\u201d he said.
In another instance, Authbridge found an employee with \u201c15 jobs” at a given point in time. These incidents have come to light within the last six to 12 months.
Most companies have strict rules prohibiting employees from taking up external work without mutual agreement. Another background screening firm, OnGrid, encountered a case where an individual started moonlighting in 2021 with two firms but had secured \u201cemployment with 15 firms\u201d by 2023 end. The case was tracked using the individual\u2019s PF details. According to AuthBridge\u2019s data, one in every 1,000 IT employees has more than three jobs simultaneously.
Companies conduct moonlighting checks regularly, mostly once a quarter, unlike in 2021, when verification checks were done only during onboarding. Quarterly checks are mostly done by companies that operate in a hybrid mode. Firms are moving towards employment history verification, which involves ascertaining the period of employment using PF data and ensuring there has been no overlap of employment at any stage, in contrast to employment verification where previous employers are contacted.
In 2021, Wipro\u2019s chairman, Rishad Premji, disclosed that the company had fired 300 employees in the past few months for working for direct competitors while being on Wipro\u2019s payroll. This disclosure came after he described moonlighting as \u201ccheating \u2014 plain and simple\u201d in a tweet.
Infosys had sent a stern email to its employees, stating that disciplinary action, including termination, would be taken if anyone was found to be moonlighting.
Authbridge employs a rigorous process to detect dual employment scenarios using the Universal Account Number (UAN). By leveraging the UAN, the company can access ex-employer details and initiate verification procedures based on the provided information. Once clients furnish the UAN numbers, Authbridge cross-checks for any concurrent employment during the client\u2019s current tenure. <\/div>\n