Knock, knock, knocking on heaven's door...

MOLE'S EYE VIEW

What are his future prospects?
Is he well-behaved?
Is he popular on the campus?

These questions are tell-tale signs of anxious parents alright, but these questions are not being asked at a typical school or college campus, nor are they being asked by the boy's parents. These are questions which are regularly thrown at HR (human resource) managers of infotech companies by parents who are prospecting to become in-laws of the boy in question. And you know what... they are getting answers too.

"I process a few such requests every week," says the HR head of a US company which has a large outsourcing operation in Hyderabad. "A few every week? That must be quite a drain on your resources?" I ask.
Clearly it is.

These gentlemen are often asked to confirm the educational qualifications of a prospect, the income, the age, the designation, the prospects of promotion and even diseases, among other things. With tens of thousands of young employees of marriageable age working in the infotech and outsourcing industry, one can safely presume HR teams end up spending a considerable part of their time working as matrimonial referees, though no-one will confirm that on record. All that is conceded is this: "People have a tendency to overstate (remember fudged resumes?)... and this percolates to the matrimonial market too," according to Tarun Singh, director of hiring and retention solutions firm, Kenexa.

The official line "" "We do not share personal information relating to our employees" "" contrasts sharply with what actually happens when such references are sought through official and sometimes, non-official channels (the friends of friends network). Some HR professionals feel that this is a "welfare" function, and hence clearly part of the job of the HR team, which is all about welfare (did you think otherwise?). There are also those evolved souls who feel that such assistance renders them eligible for "punyam" (credit for good deeds) in the next world.

With India's population skewed towards the younger end (more than half is under-25 years), there is clearly lots of punyam to be collected not only from facilitating marriages in the infotech sector, but in other sectors too. Now if only there was some way to avoid the curses that come the managers' way when such marriages do not work out, one could expect to bump into a lot of HR professionals in heaven.