After Accenture Layoffs, Cognizant Sacks Nearly 6% Employees Over Failed Background Checks: Report

After forged documents and fake experience letters led to the layoffs at Accenture India, a similar event has reportedly led to sacking of employees at Cognizant India. As per an ETNow report, Cognizant India has said that it had a 6 per cent involuntary attrition in Q2. 

The report adds that attrition in this sense can be thought of as a euphemism for sacking. Even Cognizant India’s head Rajesh Nambiar said that there was high involuntary attrition due to failed background checks, as per the report. 

The numbers of layoffs due to failed background checks and moonlighting have increased over the last few months. As companies resume work-from-office, background checks are increasing, making such incidents more common. 

Recently, before Cognizant’s case came to light, Accenture India also reported huge layoffs after it found that the employees had forged their documents. In a statement, it said, “We have taken action to ensure that there will be no impact on our ability to serve our clients.”

However, on the backdrop of these layoffs at Accenture India, the company reportedly also clarified that it will continue to hire and honour existing offers for qualified candidates. Regardless of the scenario, many experts do believe that the cases of people getting jobs with the help of fake documents have risen during and post the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Beyond fake letters and forged documents, mass layoffs have also been seen in other companies like Twitter, Meta and so on. While the companies have sacked employees primarily to cut down on costs, they have affected thousands of workers as they went out of jobs in no time.