Wow!” After Zhang Yanru’s colleague screamed, he bounced up from his chair, surrounded by the bang-bang sound of something falling. Colleagues who were busy making phone calls or catching up on reports looked over. Usually used to speaking Mandarin, he blurted out a dialect of Datong: “The candidate transferred 5,000 to me.”
Zhang Yanru is an investigator – belonging to the forefront of the background investigation company’s position, responsible for communicating with job candidates, references, to investigate the authenticity of the resume. Bribes, in the background investigation industry is not uncommon. Annual salary of 3 million jobs, job seekers are willing to take out 500,000 to bribe investigators, anyway, after getting the job, they can soon return the capital.
In principle, investigators communicate with candidates by mail, and private contact is not allowed, unless approved by the supervisor. Even if the one-on-one communication, each call is recorded, and once the keywords are retrieved to pay bribes, the system will automatically issue an early warning.
How did the red envelopes arrive in the hands of colleagues? It turns out that the candidate added the investigator’s WeChat on the grounds that he was not comfortable using a computer, hoping for an accommodation. Against all expectations, his bribery record was included in the investigation report.
In China, the Internet industry has the highest rate of resume forgery, with the rate of forgery reaching more than 30% in the initial exams of top-tier headquarter companies. The number one falsification is job history, followed by education.
According to the “2018 China Workplace Integrity Current Situation Research and Analysis Report” released by the well-known recruitment websites Hire and MileagePlus, as many as 89% of personnel and 74% of job seekers believe that the current integrity of the workplace is poor, and recruitment is still the hardest hit by the breach of trust in the workplace, with resume falsification accounting for more than 50% of the cases.
When asked “whether they have done something against the integrity of the workplace because they are not in charge of themselves”, up to 23% of the interviewed job seekers said “have done something against the integrity of the workplace”.
Education, resume, proof of separation, social security, salary flow, official seal …… in the gray industry chain of counterfeiting almost all can find the corresponding “service”, pay a high price can also buy a tailor-made “private customization services “. The background investigation agency “panoramic view seek to be” partner Li Shuang said, many EMBA is even fake, “the most imitation certificate in the public academic information search site can be found.”
According to Workers’ Daily, Yu Qiuyai, a 2018 graduate of Liaoning University of Technology, spent 26,000 yuan to buy a full set of curriculum vitae certificates including English Level 6 certificates, internship certificates of large enterprises and honorary certificates of sales champions, and bribed personnel to testify for him, so as to enter a large private enterprise, which later turned out to be wrong because of the certificate number.
The Qianjiang Evening News reported that a man surnamed Ren, falsely claiming to be a master of business administration from Tsinghua University, was recommended by a headhunter to join a well-known enterprise in Xiaoshan, Hangzhou as a senior executive, with a monthly salary of 70,000 yuan after tax. However, because the business ability of “Ren” was found to be inconsistent with his identity resume, the company conducted a background investigation on him, and eventually “Ren” admitted to having only elementary school education.
Although the employment contract “cheated” by falsifying the work history is invalid, the falsification often does not bring other penalties than dismissal to the job seeker, and does not even affect their search for the next job; but the enterprise has to bear the immeasurable and therefore unclaimable losses.
In 2018, an employee of a famous domestic used car trading website chose to jump to his death because he owed a large amount of online loans that he could not repay. The company paid a large sum of money in compensation for this. Subsequently, this company obtained authorization from all employees and launched a backdating screening. The results showed that among the 38,000 employees, more than 2,000 people had the problem of non-payment of debts, and some of them were also included in the list of defaulted executors; more than 400 people had bad records.
March 17, 2015, Hangzhou Peace Exhibition Center, the opening of the spring talent exchange conference, a steady stream of applicants.
The investigator’s day was spent by the phone.
“Hello, I’m an investigator from Backtalk and would like to talk to you about ……,” is how Li Ke Xin usually begins, her voice polite and gentle.
“No need.” These three words often come up on the other end of the line, or just hang up. The investigator’s number is labeled as a sales pitch, harassment or even a scam, making similar scenarios a recurring part of Li’s work. She is used to being misunderstood and rejected, and it is common for investigations to go badly. One morning, only four of the 20 calls made were connected. Looking at the thick pile of candidate reports to be completed on the desk, she almost collapsed.
Li Ke Xin had an internship in a headhunting company, which was exposed to background checks. Headhunter for the company to recruit talent, after the success of the commission, based on the background checks done for this purpose, sometimes inevitably for the resume retouching some. Headhunter for the resume touch-ups, and back adjusters are the people who remove the filter. “Background checks done by a third party are more realistic and objective, right?” With such a perception, after graduating in 2020, Li Ke Xin changed careers to become an investigator.
Investigators are a labor-intensive job. Through formal channels, they can check the identity of the candidate’s household registration, degree and education, adverse records, litigation records, professional qualifications and other information. Work history, work performance, depth of ability to the candidate to provide references, self-referred references, human resources circles to inquire, if necessary, door-to-door visits. Finally, the investigation will be organized into a report.
Before opening a background check, get authorization from the respondent and ask the respondent to provide references such as superiors, peers and subordinates. Private background investigation may violate the privacy of citizens, but also may touch the criminal law, suspected of illegal acquisition of citizens’ personal information crime.
Investigation process has a detailed service standard agreement to regulate, sometimes seemingly mechanical, as if you just need to follow a discourse mind map to operate, such as asking the reference “whether the candidate is working”, the answer “yes” will trigger the question “Has the candidate submitted a separation application”. The questions are carefully designed to quantify the candidate’s situation as much as possible.
A reference usually talks for 5 to 8 minutes; for the more chatty ones, it can be 10 to 20 minutes.
Some of the references were impatient when they received the call, and their answers were brief and stiff. In order to achieve the completeness of the report, Li had to break down the questions and squeeze them like toothpaste to collect small pieces of facts, while being anxious in her mind about taking up the other party’s time. She still remembers the apprehension she felt before she made the first call, and she decided to apologize first. During the training, the instructor repeatedly said, “If the other person scolds you, listen.”
Li Ke Xin followed up with more than 30 candidates at the same time, the average daily completion of three to four surveys – the thinnest six pages, the candidate has only two paragraphs of work experience, five days to complete the survey; thicker is up to sixty or seventy pages, the survey time has increased exponentially. From 10 yuan a bank security report, to 300,000 yuan a report on the vice president of finance of an e-commerce platform; from a monthly salary of 3,000 yuan of customer service, to an annual salary of tens of millions of executives, are in the back of the scope of the investigation.
Wang Zhouzhou, who joined the company at about the same time as Li Kexin, had been writing copy for two years in an advertising company. In the job site with a job opportunity, she was attracted by the “investigator” job title. After joining, the annual salary of several million resume on the desk, and from time to time chat with executives of famous companies, the president. In the interviews, she released her curiosity about various industries, but also to grow in knowledge, “want to become a better person.
Qualified back checkers in addition to curiosity and curiosity, but also like the detective in the TV series, with strong logical thinking skills, sensitivity to suspicion, and the insight to peel back the threads.
Professional background checks originated in the United States in the 1980s. At that time, companies used detective agencies to verify the background information of candidates. By the 1990s, labor arbitration cases increased, companies became more cautious about hiring, so a number of pre-employment investigation companies emerged in the market to provide multi-dimensional verification of information about the workplace, for the employer to screen the potential risks of employment.
In 2008, the U.S. backchecking industry came into maturity, with more than 6,000 backchecking companies. They are “very powerful” and sometimes even receive orders from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
In 2017, Li Shuang left his job at Grand to join the background investigation industry. When he first joined the industry, the annual output value of the background investigation industry in the country was only 100 million yuan; as of 2020, it has expanded to more than 500 million yuan. Especially after the epidemic, domestic enterprises began to “retaliatory” recruitment, the entire back investigation industry in the state of explosion single, there is a trend of becoming a “windfall”. But at the same time, he said: “mentioned background checks, about 90% of domestic small and medium-sized companies have not heard of, or think it is to check the junior and run away.”
Combining the situation learned from visiting human resources and social security bureaus around the country and his own observations over the years, Li Shuang believes that the four major industries in China, namely the Internet, medicine, finance and real estate, are the most recognized for backdating, “and represent the industries that can provide the most high-paying jobs.”
The most recognized region is East China, mainly Shanghai, Hangzhou as a supplement; followed by Shenzhen in South China and Beijing in North China; again Chongqing and Chengdu in Southwest China. In addition, other regions are almost in the “desert area”, companies rarely use the backing to avoid risk. For example, the recruitment of a monthly salary of 100,000 directors, once the resume falsification, even if three months later found that its ability to work with the position does not match, the company has paid more than 300,000 yuan in costs. However, making a report of one or two thousand will reduce this type of risk.
Fraudulent candidates for senior positions often mean a more elaborate layout. One counterfeiter impressed Li Shuang.
Up front, the investigator spent about two weeks calling references for each resume paragraph without finding a problem. At the end of the investigation, when it was the turn to contact the “superior references,” the phone call came with the phrase “The dumplings are in the pot and you’re not coming.” The background voice. Although the volume is faint, but the investigator’s suspicion – as the level of a large company executives, but at 3 or 4 p.m. in the dumplings?
Investigators re-checked the identity of several witnesses, made a deduction, and then after multiple checks, and finally found solid evidence – the “dumpling” witness turned out to be the candidate’s mother. He used a false identity to apply for a job, in order to round up the lie, collusion around the family and friends, and carefully designed testimony to corroborate each other.
This matter is not over. After the falsification was uncovered, the candidate tried to bribe the investigator again. Eventually, his investigation report was judged to be a red light.
October 10, 2020, Shenzhen Convention and Exhibition Center, 2020 The 10th Seafarers Job Fair was held in Hall 5 of Shenzhen Convention and Exhibition Center.
Companies recruit more people, personnel will not turn over the report one by one, but directly look at the “lights”. Red light represents serious falsification. Yellow and blue lights are the next best, representing bad records, business conflicts of interest, academic fraud, credit problems, resumes and other information and the real situation is different, just to different degrees. A green light is optimal, indicating that the candidate is virtually clean. When you see a report with a red light, unless the company has its own special considerations, it is generally eliminated directly.
Each company’s model for awarding lights varies widely. A head Internet company believes that candidates with a criminal record or bad record, if they come forward in the interview, and I am good enough, you can still be hired; another one provides that as long as there is a criminal record or bad record, not hired. There is also a unicorn company recruiting programmers, do not look at these at all, as long as the candidate is good technology, work experience is true.
A state-owned real estate company a vice president of marketing, annual salary (before tax) would have been only 2 million yuan, but on the resume to write “annual salary (after tax) 5 million yuan. The difference is so large that the investigator believes that the red light should be awarded. When the report was submitted to the private real estate company that commissioned the investigation and the candidate was going to jump, the human resources manager said that the industry culture is like this, “we do have to give such high compensation.” They wanted to change the red light to a yellow light, but were denied. “The salary doesn’t match, and the red light definitely can’t be changed. It’s the ethical bottom line.” Li Shuang said.
Companies in different countries have different standards for awarding lights. Developed countries have a high degree of recognition of the backing, and the principle is very strong. China is too humane and relatively flexible. The term “work gap” is popular in China, and it is normal to go out and suspend work for a month after leaving. Companies generally consider the difference between resume and actual work time in two months, the yellow light can be. But Japanese companies can’t even accept a discrepancy of two days. They feel that a candidate who hides a two-day gap in his resume and does not put it on his resume is an obvious lie and a dishonest act, and should be given a red light and no chance to appeal.
Hiring executives, in particular, cannot rely solely on word of mouth. “There are people with strong leadership skills who parachute in from Company A to Company B, or bring their own team with them. But his management style is likely to be a mismatch with Company B.” Li Shuang said.
Like some star-level managers, they are surrounded by friends who are executives and have a good relationship. The backing company spends two months and finishes interviewing people who know him, but doesn’t learn much real information. When this happens, Career Backdrafting will extend a whole set of consulting services program – the candidate’s leadership style, leadership, forward thinking, management tools, management style and management philosophy are all included in the survey.
On August 7, 2020, outside an Internet company office building, off-duty beat workers.
For four months in a row, Zhang Yanru had at least eight red lights out of the half dozen or so reports she made each month, an average of two per week.
She has seen people who “turn themselves in. One candidate’s resume matched another person’s exactly, as if she had just changed her name. When questioned, the person who had been plagiarized was contacted. He had a bad conscience and confessed that they were classmates and that he had given the candidate his entire resume to copy out of favor.
Another candidate, who was undergoing a company orientation, called to admit that he had falsified his resume because the company’s training was on Confucianism and the candidate couldn’t stand the “condemnation of conscience” after thinking about it.
There are also cases where candidates have successfully fooled all investigators. A candidate was given the green light all the way, until after joining the company found that his ability to work with the excellent performance of the interview was judged to be two. Puzzled, the back investigation company reopened the investigation to confirm that all the information he provided is true and credible, and finally distinguished from the nuances of the photo, then went to the enterprise interview, is his excellent twin brother.
Gather real information, find the hidden facts, and surround yourself with sentimental or deceptive kind …… machines are not yet up to such a task. When I meet the provers speak: “I myself have not reached his (the candidate’s) level, you have really picked up a treasure by recruiting him.” Whether the words are complimentary or sarcastic depends on human intuition. Some people lie, the tone or mood immediately changed, but the machine can not determine.
Li Ke Xin once met a friendly attesting person who answered all questions. Moved, she vaguely felt that something was wrong. Putting down the phone, Li Ke Xin carefully searched for this “executive” certifying person and found that there were many reports of him on the Internet. However, using all kinds of methods, she was unable to match the executive’s name with the phone. Li Ke Xin relayed the situation to the master who “brought her into the business”. Together, they analyzed the video and the voice on the phone, even the executive’s habit of using auxiliary words. After repeatedly comparing, the initial judgment was that it was not the same person. Through personal friendships with the company’s leadership, they asked for the executive’s own contact information, and finally confirmed that the witness on the phone was an impostor.
When Li Ke Xin screened a problematic candidate, she will miss her former colleagues: “headhunters can not get money, it will not hate us, right?” At the same time, she enjoys the sense of accomplishment that comes from “solving the case. In future investigations, she paid more attention to the other party’s words in the traces and logical gaps. Sometimes, the witness said in busy, call later, she became nervous: “that person is not a string of words to go?” The whole person is suspicious.
Recent Comments