The IT sector is the top job creation machine in India’s corporate ecosystem with 61 per cent incremental positions in the country open for techies. India’s leading IT firms were also able to generate 500,000 jobs in FY22, although they are facing rising attrition as an aftereffect of the west’s great resignation in India. As tech firms struggle to make sense of trends such as moonlighting or employees with side gigs, Accenture India has unearthed another scam involving forged experience.
Thousands may have been caught
The global IT firm’s Indian arm has fired employees after finding out that they had used experience letters from fake firms to land jobs at the company. Although it isn’t known how many from Accenture’s staff were involved in the scam, buzz on Twitter is suggesting that thousands may have been caught. The firm confirmed these sackings in a response to The Hindu, and also added that it has taken measures to make sure that services aren’t affected by the exit of employees with fraudulent certificates.
Scrutiny of documents
The company is moving forward with hiring activity for qualified candidates, while maintaining that non-compliance will not be tolerated. A large number of human resources managers in the industry are now going through experience letters and other documents of employees.
One of many issues for tech firms
The uncertainty during the pandemic also led to techies opting for side gigs that snowballed into a moonlighting crisis for the IT sector. After mass layoffs over working for rival firms and much back and forth, companies such as Wipro and Infosys have softened their standby allowing workers to hold side jobs after taking permissions. But apart from that these firms have recently slowed down hiring, and even delayed onboarding of freshers.
Accenture Responds
Responding to the scam, an Accenture statement said, "We operate under a strict Code of Business Ethics and have zero tolerance for any non-adherence.
We have discovered an effort to use documentation and experience letters from fraudulent companies to obtain offers of employment from Accenture in India. As a result, we have exited people who we confirmed took advantage of this scheme. We have taken action to ensure that there will be no impact on our ability to serve our clients.
We are continuing to hire, and honour existing job offers for qualified candidates.”
