Worried About TCS Background Check? How to Handle Verification When a Previous Employer Shut Down

Hi, I have worked for 3 years in BPO, out of which 2 years were spent at HSBC EDPI in Kolkata. Prior to HSBC, I was at Desconsoft for 15 months before it shut down. Now, my questions are:

i) Does TCS verify an employee before or after joining?

ii) Since my previous company has shut down, how will TCS verify it? (I have all the pay slips, appointment letter, and stamped resignation letter.) If TCS cannot verify it due to the closure of the company, what impact will it have on me?

iii) I have the contact numbers of senior managers from Desconsoft. Will that assist in verifying my employment there?

It's very urgent as Dell Hyderabad mentioned they couldn't verify it. So, please help if anyone knows the procedures of TCS.

Hi Smriti, though I don't know about TCS, I'm sure they will have a policy for background checks. Once you have all the documents, I don't think that can be a threat to your employment. You didn't mention the Dell Hyderabad situation. As they could not verify, did you lose the job or not get the offer? I'm sure some of our members will let you know about the procedures TCS follows.

Thanks for replying, Archana. What Dell does is they verify the information (background check) first and then ask you to join. So, I sent them a scanned copy of all the documents I had via email.

The thing with Dell is that they also wanted the release letter from Desconsoft. But Descon did not provide me with that. However, I had all the pay slips and a stamped copy of my resignation (which HSBC EDPI accepted). So, I don't know whether they even tried to verify that or not. The last I heard from them and the consultancy (Manpower), they said that "it could not be verified." I'm completely at a fix here.

I just don't want to lose TCS. I have the number of my ex-manager and also the company address and phone number.

Dear Smritilekha,

TCS employs Matrix for their background verification. Please communicate with the HR from the hiring team, sharing every detail of the information that is available and the ones that are missing. Please substantiate the missing ones with the manager's contact and reference. Note that the HR needs to agree on this. I had managed a case where an employee had a degree from a college that was closed down. The employee shared this with us, and we verified it with the agency and allowed the employee to join.

In your case, please do the same. Once the HR acknowledges your gap, write an email to them, copying your former manager.

Hope this works out. In the meantime, I will request experts from the background agency to discuss this further.

Wish you all the best!

Regards,
Cite Contribution

Dear SmiritLekha,

Here's the expert advice for you, as received from Sachin Agarwal. We thank him for his contribution.

(Cite Contribution)

Thanks for your email and reaching out to me regarding this case. This is an interesting scenario but fairly easy to resolve.

Smriti Lekha Chakraborty is facing a very common problem, and she has almost answered her own question in the 3 points she mentioned.

1. TCS does checks before hiring employees and also after. So it depends on when they actually end up doing the verification. But I am assuming in this case this is before the actual hire.

2. Even if the last two companies have shut down, she needs to provide 3-4 references from past companies (both HSBC & Desconsoft) and provide contact details (phone and email address) - they should be managers if she knows them. Ask TCS HR to directly contact these references. This is called a Supervisory check. We do this check quite often in cases like such.

3. If companies in INDIA shut down, then there is proof that a company has shut down (Ministry of Corporate Affairs) has a listing of all companies. The background check agency should be able to prove that the company has shut down.

Click on this link: Ministry of Corporate Affairs

MCA21 : Company Master Details

This website can be used to check basic information on any company and its current status. Please see the attached PDF file. I just did a quick search on TCS It Limited. You will see a tag as Status = active at the end of the page. You can also see a similar output on my company.

In addition, Smriti just needs to work directly with HR and explain the situation. She has all the documentation. I don't see a reason why she should face any problem if she is able to get a good supervisory check.

Many background check companies do not go the extra mile in such cases. It is up to the background check company how they represent the facts. Since a company has been employed by TCS, they will follow all the advice by a background check agency.

I hope this helps.

Thanks for reaching out.

With regards,
Sachin Aggarwal

Thanks (Cite Contribution) for replying to this post and thanks a ton for getting it clarified with Mr. Sachin Agarwal. You see, HSBC EDPI is not closed; it's my last to last company, Desconsoft (the call center of Descon Limited), that is closed.

Background of Desconsoft

The story of Desconsoft is that its parent company, Descon Limited, is mainly a power company, and that is their main line of business. About 7-8 years ago, they wanted to open a call center. So, under Descon Limited (the parent company), they opened Desconsoft - their call center. That is where I worked for 15 months (June 06-Sep 07). The parent company is still there, though it has gone through some mergers. It's their call center (Desconsoft) which has shut down. Now, since they (Descon Limited) have shut down their call center division, I don't know if they'll still have the data of their call center's workers. Or even if they have it, whether they'll give it out or not...

Anyways, I don't have the numbers of 4-5 supervisors because it's like half a decade back. I have the number of my Line Manager (Operations Manager) though. So, I don't know if that's enough in case they can't verify through Descon Limited.

I also wanted to post Descon's website address, but CiteHR is not letting me do that. I also wanted to put up my employment documents' attachment for you guys to look at, but I can't find how to do it here.

(I don't know if I'm over-burdening myself with concern...!)

Dear Smritilekha, Please share these details with the TCS HR. Mergers can disrupt employee data, so kindly inform them along with the reference you have. Please feel free to share all your queries. However, I would request you not to upload your documents in this thread. If you wish, you are most welcome to communicate personally with any experts in this community.

Regards,
(Cite Contribution)

Thank you for replying again. I actually notified the recruiter of TCS (Bishal Sharma) about this situation, and he said, "it's ok." I mentioned this also to the documentation officer of TCS, Mr. Anoop Pal. Now, I have detailed almost the entire situation to you. What do you think I should do? I don't want to join a company and later be asked to leave.

Also, I can't figure out the fact that if my company's closed down, how am I to be held responsible in this situation? If you could guide me through this and give me a suggestion on what I should do, I would surely be grateful.

Hi, Sir/Madam.

Can you let me know if TCS will recruit a guy who passed his B.Tech in 5 years, which has to be completed in 4 years, although he has 4 years of work experience after his graduation?
Will TCS conduct education and employment verification for contract employees? Do they visit colleges?
Please, can someone help with this? You can also email at kothapatireddy@gmail.com.

Issue with Offer Letter from TCS BPS Kolkata

Kindly help me with this. I have cleared all rounds of interviews at TCS BPS Kolkata. After documentation, they ignored providing the offer letter due to my University, MU. Now, they have verified my degree documents and confirmed them as clear. However, they are claiming that my relieving letter from my previous company, HDFC Bank, is false or illegal. I have submitted my offer letter from HDFC Bank, but they are not considering it. I have work experience in three companies: HDFC Bank as my first company, Indusind Bank as the second, and HSBC Bank as the last. They have stated that they have no issues with the last two companies, but HDFC Bank is a concern for them.

I have also reached out to the HR at HDFC to verify my relieving letter, but they are unable to do so. They mentioned that the sector in which I worked has been closed and merged into another sector within HDFC, hence the verification difficulties. I have even spoken to my former HDFC manager, but they have moved on to another company.

Please advise me on what steps to take. You can contact me via email at [Email Removed For Privacy Reasons].

Thank you.

Hi, can someone provide details for my doubt, please? I was working with TCS, and now I have joined another company. I filled out the BGC form in my current company on my joining date. For employment details, they asked for the previous company's address and phone number, my designation, employee number, and name. Then, they asked for three references who worked with me. In that case, how will agencies retrieve my details from TCS since I didn't provide any HR details, as there were no such fields in the form? Please tell me the procedure in such cases.

In my experience, one of my close relatives had a similar issue to what you are facing. Although my relative did mention the issue to the recruiter and documentation officer, they said it was okay. However, when my relative joined the organization, there was a third-party verification. During this process, his background check came back negative despite him informing TCS about it at the time of joining. Now, they are asking him to resign due to a lack of documentation, even though he had already notified them about it.

Therefore, in my view, please do not join an organization that could harm your career. Organizations that behave in this manner should be taken to labor courts, as this does not align with employee benefits and unfairly impacts employees without any fault of their own. It is very disheartening to hear this. His entire family has been affected by this situation. Until now, I was proud of TCS's ethics, but now it is truly heartbreaking to see how it is negatively impacting employees' lives without justification.

All the best