New Delhi, February 18 Companies are facing challenges related to hiring, with the discrepancy rate in resumes reaching as high as 5 per cent for recruitment in the first half of fiscal 2025-26, according to a report.
The report, titled 'Workforce Fraud Files – H1 FY26,' by business intelligence firm AuthBridge, is based on an analysis of background checks. The firm says it conducts 15 million monthly verification checks. Background checks were conducted for various factors, including identity, address, employment history, education, criminal records, and CV validation.
White-collar workers reported a 4.33 per cent discrepancy rate, while gig workers reported a 5.6 per cent discrepancy rate in background verification, the report said.
"Despite faster and more digitized hiring processes, we continue to see gaps in fundamental checks such as employment history, address, and education. These are not minor inconsistencies; they have direct implications for organizational risk, compliance, and trust," said AuthBridge Founder & CEO Ajay Trehan.
Among white-collar hires, employment verification emerged as the most impacted check, with a discrepancy rate of 11.15 per cent, followed by address verification at 7.68 per cent.
Education checks recorded discrepancies of 4.49 per cent, while reference checks stood at 4.17 per cent. Although lower, discrepancies related to drug screening and criminal record checks were also observed.
The on-demand workforce showed higher vulnerability across specific checks. Address verification discrepancies were recorded at 9.70 per cent, while identity (NID) discrepancies stood at 2.53 per cent, the report said.
Criminal record check discrepancies in the on-demand economy (ODE) were observed at 2.23 per cent.
An industry-wise analysis revealed that address discrepancies were prevalent across IT (12.02 per cent), banking & BFSI (10.23 per cent), pharma (11.21 per cent), retail (10.64 per cent), and telecom (15.42 per cent).
Employment verification discrepancies remained significant across retail, telecom, banking & BFSI, and pharma.
Education-related discrepancies were particularly notable in retail and telecom, while CV validation discrepancies were observed in IT and banking & BFSI, indicating inconsistencies between submitted resumes and verified information, the report said.