Indian IT giants worry about employees sharing their trade secrets

• moonlight has become a major problem in the IT industry.
• Companies now fear that employees will work for their rivals and share trade secrets.
• Moonlighting has led companies to offer services to track employees by moonlight.

Moonlighting has become a huge problem in the IT industry, with several of the best companies in the country getting involved and having different opinions. While a few companies have accepted it as the new normal, Rishad PremjicWipro’s Executive Chairman,
called it’s “just plain and simple cheating”.

Companies have raised concerns about undeclared work, where one person works for more than one company. According to a Financial Times
reportAn increase in employee moonlighting has led to new companies popping up, offering “intermittent background checks” to employees to find out if they’re moonlighting.

“It’s a concern for pretty much everyone here in India right now because the problem exists and it’s big,” Ashok Hariharan, chief executive officer of IDfy, an identity verification company, said in a statement to the Financial Times.

Different views on moonlight

Moonlighting has become a hot issue, with Milind Lakkadhead of human resources, TCS calls it an ethical issue. infosys, on the other hand, has softened its stance on moonlight after resisting it. The software giant has allowed its employees to take gigs with the prior approval of their manager and BP-HR in their day and for companies that do not compete with Infosys or its customers.

Companies that offer background checks

As the moonlight reigns supreme, IT companies are concerned that their employees are working for their competitors. “What the IT industry really cares about is whether they work in competitive companies. The risk increases significantly because your data can get out and your own methodology can get out,” Hariharan added.

IDfy uses machine learning software to find employees who are extinguishing as part of its background checks. One of the methods the company uses to verify this is the provident fund database, in addition to social media, job boards and other public records.

Companies have also reportedly used income tax returns to catch employees. Companies reportedly check income tax returns and see if employees have separate sources of income.

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