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Background Checks Human Resources

A Murder that May Have Been Prevented

But in these cases, what no one ever seems to want to admit is that this horrible act might have been prevented by a simple background check.

We found this recent story on Security Pipline

India Offshoring Industry Tightens Security After Murder Of HP Employee

BANGALORE, India (AP)–Police on Friday announced a series of security measures intended to protect women working in Bangalore’s high-tech industries after a cab driver hired to take a Hewlett-Packard Co. employee to work raped and murdered her this week…

The crime has shocked the city’s high-technology and back office industries, which employ 250,000 workers to do everything from writing computer programs to handle calls from American credit card users. Nearly half the workers are women…

That has long raised concerns in India, where the streets of many cities are dangerous for women after dark.
The driver, Shiv Kumar, was arrested and confessed to killing her, police said. An autopsy performed Friday indicated she was raped before being slain….

Cab companies contracted to take the workers to and from their jobs were also asked to give photos and work histories for their drivers, he said….

“Many rapists are opportunists and we are trying to see how we can minimize those opportunities,” Sial told The Associated Press. “Companies will be instructed that there can be no first pickup and last drop-off of a lady.”

Bangalore accounts for a third of India’s outsourcing export revenues of US$17.2 billion (euro14.33 billion). The city’s offshore outsourcing industry works round the clock and depends on hundreds of cab companies to transport employees to work…

That’s led to a high demand for drivers and background checks are often cursory, at best…

Kiran Karnik, president of India’s National Association of Software and Services Companies, the main outsourcing trade body, described the killing as “terrible news,” and said: “We will immediately talk to all the companies so that we can improve our systems and ensure that such a crime is not repeated.”…

Many companies in Bangalore have started reviewing their transport arrangements in the wake of the killing…

It almost always takes a tragedy to get things rolling. In this case a female executive who was only trying to do her job was raped and murdered. Typically, everyone remarks about how her death is so tragic. Predictably, such a horrible event besmirched the mostly positive press on India’s attempts to modernize its infrastructure and strive for a more socially progressive society. But in these cases, what no one ever seems to want to admit is that this horrible act might have been prevented by a simple background check.

Here we have formidable companies and multinationals kicking around millions and billions. The taxi services, as the main form of transportation for domestic and foreign executives who work for these companies, have profited mightily from the increased business. Yet with all this money floating back and forth no one can find the few bucks to conduct preemployment background checks on the thousands if not tens of thousands of drivers who work for the different taxi companies. And now a woman is murdered, and everyone tells how they wish to “review” the situation.

There is nothing arcane or complex about conducting preemployment background checks. There are hundreds of companies that perform this service. Corra is one of them. We do it with the understanding that while most people are pretty decent the world is rife with assorted zealots, terrorists, criminals and garden variety sociopaths. For whatever reasons that float in their minds, these people mean others harm. They will do harm if given the opportunity. And what is a better opportunity than to gain proximity to people they are jealous of, fear, hate, or resent because of political, social, cultural or relgious differences.

The time has come when it should be deemed unconscionable for any company not to conduct pre-employment background checks. Even in foreign countries, where American enterprise is outsourced or exchanged, where diligent executives are living and working, it is incumbent upon the relevant companies to check out even their most meager of job candidates. Here we have myriad corporations spending collectively billions of dollars on all sorts of security devices, and yet some remain negligent when confronted with the most basic elements for safety. They save a few bucks and someone dies. It doesn’t make sense.

By Gordon Basichis

Gordon Basichis is the Co-Founder of Corra Group, specializing in pre-employment background checks and corporate research. He has been a marketing and media executive and has worked in the entertainment industry, the financial, health care and technology sectors. He is the author of the best selling Beautiful Bad Girl, The Vicki Morgan Story, a non-fiction novel that helped define exotic sexuality in the late twentieth century. He is the author of the Constant Travellers and has recently completed a new book, The Guys Who Spied for China, dealing with Chinese Espionage in the United States. He has been a journalist for several newspapers and is a screenwriter and producer.