Crederity Labs » News http://www.crederitylabs.com Shaping the future of Crederity: News, thoughts, and new ideas for Crederity Wed, 05 Aug 2009 08:30:18 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.2 en hourly 1 Background checks: its many boons! http://www.crederitylabs.com/2009/08/background-checks-its-many-boons/ http://www.crederitylabs.com/2009/08/background-checks-its-many-boons/#comments Wed, 05 Aug 2009 08:30:18 +0000 priyad http://www.crederitylabs.com/?p=96 A dwindling economy, clubbed with an inverse relationship between the job openings and job seekers, has made the job search scenario quite competitive. In the race to grab the few options open to them, seekers tend to pose themselves as what they really are not—and what they never might become, either.

The exaggeration in the résumé [...]]]> A dwindling economy, clubbed with an inverse relationship between the job openings and job seekers, has made the job search scenario quite competitive. In the race to grab the few options open to them, seekers tend to pose themselves as what they really are not—and what they never might become, either.

The exaggeration in the résumé might vary from a small adjustment in the marks, to an experience they never had, to a designation in a company that never existed! Sometimes they might not lie; instead, might just hide a few details of their professional past. These little things will matter—and matter in the biggest way to companies who hire them!

Hiring an employee involves a lot of investment to the employer—from facilitating the recruitment and training, to the initial learning curve period. Such huge investments on the wrong candidate will reflect very badly on the company. The money and efforts invested turns out to be futile and the company’s reputation is also affected.

A global workforce makes it all the more important to focus more into your manpower. It is ultimately the main strength of the company and flaws would affect the company negatively. The growing instances of cab-drivers crimes and the involvement of  some IT people in scandalous crimes have given shocks to the world. A decade ago, reputed companies were trusted blindly, but with their lack of proper employee screening, stand-alone incidents have led them to loss of public trust.

It is best to insulate your business from potential liability through proper pre-employement screening of potential candidates. It is most likely that applications may consist of fabrications. Only a thorough check will bring out the exaggerated resumes and the discrepancies involved.

Again, don’t stop at just verifying the current job/designation status of a candidate. Go in deeper; do a thorough check on: criminal background, references (the referee should be a valid person!), testimonials from collegues / teachers / clients, etc. A proper background screening, will help you hire the right candidate. Once this is done, you can be assured that the qualifications and achievements claimed in the résumé are not manipulated. This ensures that the person coming for the post is aptly qualified for it.

Do the following to avoid a bad hire…
Avoid Turnover: It will also help to avoid turnover rates in companies. One of the main financial problem faced by the companies today are increase in turnover. Proper employee check will let you know if the employee is a constant job-hopper or has misappropriated data in any manner which will lead to his/her termination in the near future.
Crime check: A detailed check into the employees past will help to avoid problems like theft and other malpractices within the office. There are various instances where the company has lost its reputation because of its employees’ involvement in crime. Such situations can be avoided.
Employee Morale: A proper employee check will boost the employer’s morale, as he can be confident of his own workforce. And it is equally assuring for the employees as it would assure them of a safe work place with trustworthy peers.
Productivity: Hiring the wrong candidate involves a lot of loss, including the productivity disruption that occurs during the person’s training, to his learning stage and again during his replacement. A perfect candidate would help a company avoid all such problems.

Hence a proper scrutiny is always a better option than blindly believing your prospective employee’s cooked up résumé. Falsifications, no matter how minor they seem to be, will always prove to be disastrous later. It is better to be equipped with a stronger work pool, of whom you can be confident.

How we can help

At Crederity, we verify information regarding identities, background check, pre-employment screening, education and employment verification, online checks, legalities, criminal checks, references, experiences, employment status… We also gather information from references directly and authenticate even them! If you are hiring through a recruitment agency, we will verify them as well!

If it’s a résumé that has the Credulity Seal, you can trust it with your eyes closed! And if the resume lacks one, we can verify and seal it for you!

Invest in Crederity. Invest in trust!

]]> http://www.crederitylabs.com/2009/08/background-checks-its-many-boons/feed/ 0 Résumés: Whats, Whys and Hows. http://www.crederitylabs.com/2009/07/resumes-whats-whys-and-hows/ http://www.crederitylabs.com/2009/07/resumes-whats-whys-and-hows/#comments Wed, 22 Jul 2009 03:21:32 +0000 priyad http://www.crederitylabs.com/?p=73 Résumé, a French word that means “summary”, is every professional’s first point of contact with a prospective employer. True to its meaning, a résumé is supposed to present a brief but relevant summary of one’s skills, qualifications and employment details. A résumé should ideally be contained in one side—two, at the most—of an A4 sheet. [...]]]> Résumé, a French word that means “summary”, is every professional’s first point of contact with a prospective employer. resumeTrue to its meaning, a résumé is supposed to present a brief but relevant summary of one’s skills, qualifications and employment details. A résumé should ideally be contained in one side—two, at the most—of an A4 sheet. Ideally, it should not list one’s education and qualifications in detail (including year, institution, etc.) but should highlight just the specific skills, presented in a customised way to target the job description.

A good résumé:

  • contains bulleted information
  • is written in the third person
  • is objective and formal
  • contains, in this order, a brief Summary of Qualifications, Areas of Strength or Expertise, Professional Experience (in reverse chronological order), Professional Affiliations, Computer / Technical Skills and Education
  • gives maximum focus to the most recent job (prior experiences are summarised)
  • provides the reader a balance of responsibilities and accomplishments for each designation held.

Unarguably, your résumé forms part of the first impression your potential employer gets of you. In this economy, with a massive down turn of jobs, most employers have to face a stack of such résumés. What does it take, to ensure that of the whole lot, your résumé piques your employer’s interest?

A résumé has become the key to your dream job…but it gets just 10-15 seconds before the employer decides between his desk and the dustbin as your résumé’s final destination.

Specific job applications can be more targeted. It is always good if you know the company before-hand and enhance your résumé, customising it to their requirements. That way, you can present your qualification, experience and achievements in the way that suits the recruiter and the needs best. To the maximum extent possible, make it as brief, concise and to the point—like a capsule that is quickly edible, rather than as a 5-course meal! This will make it easy for the employer to sort through the résumés. A covering letter would ideally help you project your achievements and your suitability to the position offered, in a much concise and customised manner.

While writing your résumé…

If you intend to submit your résumés in online job portals, do it only after making sure that your Résumé has all the necessary industry-specific keywords. Search engines should be able to pull out your profile every time an employer is out there seeking for potential employees.

Consider your résumé as a marketing tool…and make the most of it to market a very invaluable product—You!

Dos

  • Customise it, as much as possible, to the job in question.
  • Fonts like Times New Roman, Arial, Verdana and Palatino Linotype would be good choices—since they are the ones popularly used and available on every computer these days. Fancy fonts might look good on your system—but if the recipient does not have it installed in the receiving system, your résumé could boil down to squares and dots and illegible symbols! Not to mention your employer may not share your taste in fonts.
  • Restricting the font-size between 10 and 12 and formatting the text with bullets and margins will help enhance readability. As in all things, simplicity is the key here: so keep the language and format basic and easy to comprehend.
  • Author it powerfully and substantially.
  • There are a lot of employers who use online technologies to sort résumés. Hence, it is safer to make it as neat and as presentable as possible.

Don’ts

  • Avoid stuffing too much of personal data that is of no interest to the employer.
  • Avoid padding—adding elaborate words and decorating it with unnecessary sentences will only irritate the employer!
  • Never fabricate experiences, education, references, and other credentials. Not only is this unethical, but most employers routinely conduct verification and checks. Once false information is uncovered, consider your job goodbye.

Social media sites like Linkedin, Facebook and MySpace have become very popular among industrial bigwigs in searching for, and finding, potential employees. Hence, when you are in the lookout for a job, you can use all your web profiles to show why you are an ideal candidate. The greater your visibility, the better your chances–assuming you use your web presence to your advantage.

With a wounded economy, scarce vacancies, and a multitude of applicants, the situation becomes extremely competitive and frustrating. To surface as the perfect choice from a plethora of résumés is a challenging task–remember that the employer reviewing your résumé is probably furstrated as well. So, create a résumé that works best for both parties—you and the employer.

As in all matters of life, reliability and trust is very important when seeking a job. Employers carry out various checks—pre-employment screening, identity verification, reference verifications, etc precisely because trust can be very difficult to attain during these early interactions, and even if trust exists, verification must accompany it.  A ‘seal of verification’ in your résumé which affirms that your credentials have been verified and which allows the resume viewer to review the verification records will save the employer a lot of trouble! Here at Crederity, we’ve found that over 85% of hiring employers would prefer to review such resumes. If you’re curious, you should try out Crederity.

Image courtesy: fotolia.com

]]> http://www.crederitylabs.com/2009/07/resumes-whats-whys-and-hows/feed/ 0 Trust, reputation, and the Internet for companies http://www.crederitylabs.com/2009/07/trust-reputation-and-the-internet-for-companies/ http://www.crederitylabs.com/2009/07/trust-reputation-and-the-internet-for-companies/#comments Wed, 22 Jul 2009 03:04:45 +0000 priyad http://www.crederitylabs.com/?p=80 Social media marketing has hit the mainstream. Irrespective of a preference, you evolve an online identity as soon as you establish yourselves with your customers. Branding today is not what it used to be. Perceived brand is the word of the day. Consumers can now air their opinions more easily and word-of-mouth now spreads faster [...]]]> Social media marketing has hit the mainstream. Irrespective of a preference, you evolve an online identity as soon as you establish yourselves with your customers. Branding today is not what it used to be. Perceived brand is the word of the day. Consumers can now air their opinions more easily and word-of-mouth now spreads faster and stays longer.online deal

All these facts make reputation management important for brands. Search engines pull up all information related to the brand once customers hit a search. These portals do not see whether the information pulled up is accurate; algorithmically-calculated relevance is the only factor in consideration. If potential customers have access to positive information, it serves the brand best…but vice versa also applies.

Online reputation management is built on establishing trust online. Search engines like Google and Yahoo have become the sacred book for customers who are confused with the number of brands ruling the consumer world. Until your brand earns their trust and positive news is spread, you are doomed.

Manage online reputations…
There are several ways to do this:

  • Try and build trust among customers
  • Try to be a name that they feel they can rely on
  • Be accessible (when people feel that they can reach you at any given point of time, there is a feeling of security that sets in)
  • Use client testimonials (it will ultimately act as word-of-mouth publicity for your customers; that, your brand has been used and is preferred by others, assures them to a certain extent about your quality and credibility)
  • Publish photographs—be it of your organisation, key leaders, the CFO or the team, photographs are a face to the name online. With the increasing number of impersonators in the cyber world, customers are not to be blamed for doubting your credibility, if you have not taken the trouble to build that essential rapport with them.
  • Make yourself easy to contact–provide phone numbers, email addresses, physical addresses

In this new age of customer reviews and blogs—about almost all things in the world—it is highly necessary for you to manage your reputation by constant monitoring, analysis and influencing of online content. Statistics prove that only the first two pages of what search engines pull out is viewed by the average searcher. Hence, if you can monitor negative news or complaints about you or your brand within this space, you’ve already gone a long way in safeguarding yourself.

The ideal way to tackle negative content is to respond promptly and address the issue—either through an apology or through an explanation. This way, you can create enough positive content to push these negative comments down the line. As a rule of thumb, avoid any kind of defensive attitude while on the Internet—this will only let loose a tornado of negativity your way.

Active participation helps propagation of good news of your brand–do not think you are above the level of being an active participant in social media. Reviewing  the stream of blogs and customer reviews written in response to you helps to have a clear understanding as to how your brand is perceived by your customers and allows you to take informed, effective steps to handle the situation. Google alerts, Technorati and Twitter are real-time tools that help in monitoring online content. Technology today demands brand owners to invest in their online identity and maintain a stable credibility with their online customers for the company’s existence.

If you have an online business, your online credibility is one of the most important matters that you should give due consideration to. It is this factor that makes  people register for your services, click on ads or just keep coming back to your site—and to your services. It is almost synonymous with the idea of a successful business.

How Crederity helps…

When you have a Crederity verified seal on your web page, you demonstrate that you are a verified, reliable and credible company or person. Crederity verifies a plethora of information regarding a person or a business: identities, background check, references, experiences, and much more. This is all information that, when verified by a trusted third party authenticator like Crederity, puts your audience more at ease, helping them to initiate or participate in a relationship with trust and confidence, both online and offline! We encourage you to join Crederity to invest in yourself, and to invest in trust!

Image courtesy: fotolia.com

]]> http://www.crederitylabs.com/2009/07/trust-reputation-and-the-internet-for-companies/feed/ 0 Give me my identity back! http://www.crederitylabs.com/2009/06/give-me-my-identity-back/ http://www.crederitylabs.com/2009/06/give-me-my-identity-back/#comments Wed, 01 Jul 2009 04:09:49 +0000 priyad http://www.crederitylabs.com/?p=67 It is the age of the web. People thrive online and virtually live there! Naturally, online identity has become as important as real world identity. With the onset of the increased interaction enabled by the Internet and e-commerce, identity fraud and crime have reached a new level of significance.

Thousands become victim to identity thieves every [...]]]> It is the age of the web. People thrive online and virtually live there! Naturally, online identity has become as important as real world identity. With the onset of the increased interaction enabled by the Internet and e-commerce, identity fraud and crime have reached a new level of significance.

Thousands become victim to identity thieves every year throughout the world. Often, the fraudsters trick innocent web users into providing personal information and then use the information illicitly. Forged identities are also quite common.

Credit card thefts and unauthorized credit accounts opened without one’s knowledge are another typical example of identity theft. The victim’s identity is misappropriated and used for making expensive purchases or opening new accounts. The potential for such frauds have become a major hurdle for e-commerce.

Many of the reported identity crimes have been cases where the rich and famous are exploited. Money, power and the sheer thrill of the risk involved seemed to have attracted many towards such identity crimes.

Internet danger words displayed on monitorChristopher Rocancourt shot to fame by conning many  rich and famous personalities in the US by pretending to be a Rockefeller heir, a movie producer, a global financier, the son of Sophia Loren or the nephew of Dino De Laurentis. Rosario Poidimani (an Italian Businessman) impersonated the King of Portugal and sold imaginary aristocratic titles and fraudulent diplomatic passports, with the support of imaginary offshore bank accounts and an elaborate throne room.

Through sites like snopes.com and truthorfiction.com, many such scams have been bought to our attention. For instance, the Nigerian scam mails requesting the transfer of a huge fortune to the recipient’s bank account, in return for which they assure a percentage of the fortune to the recipient. There are certain others who claim that you have won a lottery worth billions. In all such cases, they ask for your account details and use this information for illegitimate actions. Phishing is where the fraudster poses as a legitimate organization, bank, etc., and asks the user to update their personal information. Their website will be almost similar to the original one, and it is hard to spot the difference.

One of the safest ways to safeguard one’s identity online is to establish an indisputably authentic identity verified through trusted sources. Online reputation management involves monitoring your identity online, analyzing and influencing it. If you are an individual, get verified and show that you are who you claim t obe through your website / blog / online pages. If you run a company, odds are high that your customers will have voiced their opinions about you via the Internet. When potential customers type your company name in search engines, the first two pages are the most likely to be viewed by them. It is your responsibility to monitor this space and see whether it contains positive or unwarranted negative news about your company or products. You can keep constant track of what is being written about you by subscribing to Technorati, RSS feeds, Google alerts, etc.

Life on the web has become intertwined with normal life, and our identity and reputation online are immensely important for us to safeguard.

It is our hope that Crederity can help you with helping to establish a credible identity online. With a dedicated team entirely focused on fraud issues, Crederity can help safeguard you against online identity thieves, providing an additional hurdle over which would-be thieves must surmount. We invite you to invest in Crederity, and invest in Trust.  We also invite you to contact us with any suggestions you have for improving Crederity, as we value your feedback and fully intend to do the best job that we can in helping to safeguard and enhance your identity online.

Image courtesy: fotolia.com

]]> http://www.crederitylabs.com/2009/06/give-me-my-identity-back/feed/ 0 Don’t get lost in the crowd, get noticed! http://www.crederitylabs.com/2009/06/dont-get-lost-in-the-crowd-get-noticed/ http://www.crederitylabs.com/2009/06/dont-get-lost-in-the-crowd-get-noticed/#comments Fri, 26 Jun 2009 11:23:10 +0000 gurupanguji http://www.crederitylabs.com/?p=64 For more info, click here.

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For more info, click here.

]]> http://www.crederitylabs.com/2009/06/dont-get-lost-in-the-crowd-get-noticed/feed/ 0 Crederity and Twitter-id verification http://www.crederitylabs.com/2009/06/crederity-and-twitter-id-verification/ http://www.crederitylabs.com/2009/06/crederity-and-twitter-id-verification/#comments Mon, 08 Jun 2009 09:27:16 +0000 gurupanguji http://www.crederitylabs.com/?p=24 Danny Sullivan of Daggle writes a very interesting post on an easy way of twitter-id verification.

We believe that there are some really interesting points mentioned in the post that we at Crederity have been looking at for some time. One of the experiments we are trying using the Google Social graph code is to help [...]]]> Crederity hearts Twitter.png
Danny Sullivan of Daggle writes a very interesting post on an easy way of twitter-id verification.

We believe that there are some really interesting points mentioned in the post that we at Crederity have been looking at for some time. One of the experiments we are trying using the Google Social graph code is to help our users discover and verify their websites and online profiles. Twitter ranks high in our solutions to seek for.

So, here at Crederity, we are presenting you with the “definitive” twitter-id verification service. Our core competency is verification of credentials and we have come up with an innovative way of verifying an identity of a person fairly anywhere in the world.

We are rolling this out on a private beta currently. Please do sign up here if you want to be involved in the testing phase. We are offering our identity verification free for the people who are interested in test-driving this system.

Crederity – Trust Matters | Twitter Identity Verification Private ß signup

]]> http://www.crederitylabs.com/2009/06/crederity-and-twitter-id-verification/feed/ 0 Twitter id verification http://www.crederitylabs.com/2009/06/twitter-id-verification/ http://www.crederitylabs.com/2009/06/twitter-id-verification/#comments Mon, 08 Jun 2009 05:08:05 +0000 gurupanguji http://www.crederitylabs.com/?p=20 Verification is our game. At Crederity, we strive towards building a trusted community. Social networks are making major strides into building online communities today and it is only natural that Crederity would be looking to build trust there.

So, it is with pleasure that we announce that we are working on a Twitter id verification service [...]]]> Verification is our game. At Crederity, we strive towards building a trusted community. Social networks are making major strides into building online communities today and it is only natural that Crederity would be looking to build trust there.

So, it is with pleasure that we announce that we are working on a Twitter id verification service that we plan to roll out by the end of this week. We are in private beta test mode with some users. Please don’t hesitate to sign up here in case you are interested in being part of this unique service.

Test drive it, let us know your thoughts, and be a part of this unique service.

From all of us here at Crederity, thank you.

]]> http://www.crederitylabs.com/2009/06/twitter-id-verification/feed/ 0 Crederity requires some help in usability testing http://www.crederitylabs.com/2009/06/crederity-requires-some-help-in-usability-testing/ http://www.crederitylabs.com/2009/06/crederity-requires-some-help-in-usability-testing/#comments Mon, 08 Jun 2009 05:07:54 +0000 gurupanguji http://www.crederitylabs.com/?p=18 As we finalize our new technology stack and ISO-certified service, we need to ensure that we have met our valued customer’s needs when it comes to using our service. We are rolling out a new interface and we want you to test drive it for us.

Crederity is rolling out a usability testing survey that we [...]]]> As we finalize our new technology stack and ISO-certified service, we need to ensure that we have met our valued customer’s needs when it comes to using our service. We are rolling out a new interface and we want you to test drive it for us.

Crederity is rolling out a usability testing survey that we would love to get help from you. If you are interested in taking part in this survey, please feel free to hit me up – renganathan [at] crederity [dot] com. I will send you the link.

As a token of appreciation for helping us with the survey, we are providing you with a coupon code to get 2 credentials + identity verification for free. We really appreciate your feedback so far on making the product work better for you and we shall continue to make major strides in creating a superior product and experience for you guys.

From all of us at Crederity, thank you.

]]> http://www.crederitylabs.com/2009/06/crederity-requires-some-help-in-usability-testing/feed/ 0 Crederity Labs Launch! http://www.crederitylabs.com/2009/04/crederity-labs-launch/ http://www.crederitylabs.com/2009/04/crederity-labs-launch/#comments Sun, 19 Apr 2009 20:13:21 +0000 alex http://www.crederitylabs.com/?p=9 Hi, and welcome! Here at Crederity, we’re excited to announce the launch of Crederity Labs. We created Crederity Labs for you! Please share your thoughts on how you think we can use this site to help better interact with our users. We of course have some ideas of our own, but in the spirit of [...]]]> Hi, and welcome! Here at Crederity, we’re excited to announce the launch of Crederity Labs. We created Crederity Labs for you! Please share your thoughts on how you think we can use this site to help better interact with our users. We of course have some ideas of our own, but in the spirit of Crederity Labs we would love to hear your thoughts.

]]> http://www.crederitylabs.com/2009/04/crederity-labs-launch/feed/ 0 Hello world! http://www.crederitylabs.com/2009/04/hello-world/ http://www.crederitylabs.com/2009/04/hello-world/#comments Sun, 19 Apr 2009 18:56:21 +0000 admin http://www.crederitylabs.com/?p=1 Welcome to Crederity Labs! More updates to come soon.

]]> Welcome to Crederity Labs! More updates to come soon.

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