EmployeeScreenIQ Blog

We’ve just posted a guest article on EmployeeScreen University about the efficacy of resumes in today’s marketplace authored by Kevin W. Grossman, Chief Marketplace Evangelist at Fisher Vista, LLC and HRmarketer.com Check it out.

Okay, it’s not dead yet, but I want it to die.

I understand that there’s still a huge part of the career management industry keeping it alive, making it better and making it work for you, the job seeker. To all my friends in this industry, please forgive me, as I also understand it’s probably not going anywhere for years to come.

But I still want the painfully ubiquitous resume to die a horrible death.

Why? Because it’s a self-serving piece of inconsistently formatted and fudged professional drivel that really doesn’t help me hire true quality of fit. Just ask any background screening firm that does employment and education verifications. For example, EmployeeScreenIQ’s research yields a 52% discrepancy rate between what an applicant claims about their education and work experience and what they find when they verify such information.

Fifty-two percent. Sure, the resume helps me sift and sort to the short list, but a short list that’s almost half fabrication on the average. And if you as the job seeker take that risk and blatantly lie or embellish on your resume, and my background screening firm uncovers it, you are out of luck at a time of high unemployment where you really need a little luck.

Yes, embellishing the truth is fabrication. It doesn’t make it any better than an outright lie, especially if you’re telling me you’ve been programming native iPhone apps for the past six months and you really only took an online course six months ago and made one farting app, one that isn’t very good anyway because it sounds like a Yorkshire Terrier barking.

So what then do we put instead of this black magic resume full of lies and deceit?

Your professional online profile, of course. Like the one you better have completely up to date on LinkedIn, where thousands of recruiting professionals are scouring and sourcing every day. (And I’m not even talking about the majority of recruiting pros who search for online information about you across the internet and other social networks.) And by the way, much of the same advice you may get about building your resume applies to the online profile as well.

However, I get the fact that anybody can fudge an online profile just as well as they can a resume. But, there’s a peer pressure element of keeping one another honest in an online community where your professional history is available to everyone you’re connected with, many of whom you‘ve worked with or for at one time, if not currently, as well as the portion that’s available for public consumption if you so choose.

Read More

Continue Reading

Employers beware.  The Iceman cometh. Last week the Obama administration announced that it would audit another 1,000 employers throughout the United States to determine if they are have illegal workers on their payrolls.

The Wall Street Journal reports that this wave of ICE audits now brings this fiscal year’s total to 2,388 (beginning Oct. 1) which has already eclipsed last year’s total of 2,196.

The Journal warns, “For employers, the audits can lead to both civil and criminal penalties. The possibilities range from fines and being barred from competing for government contracts to criminal charges of knowingly employing illegal workers, evading taxes and engaging in identity theft.”

See WSJ Article

The best way for an employer to stay in compliance with federal regulations is to be vigilant in their I-9 practices. Every employee must have an I-9 form on file.

Many employers are moving towards the use of the government’s E-Verify system or other third party systems which allow for the complete electronic automation of the I-9 process; preparing and signing the form, submitting the form to the Social Security Administration, and auto archiving.

Everyone get the image of Top Gun’s Iceman, Val Kilmer?

Continue Reading

A former NASDAQ employee, Donald Johnson recently pleaded guilty to defrauding investors of over $750,000.  In this day and age, that amount is child’s play compared to some of the high profile fraud cases we’ve seen over the last couple years, but that’s really here nor there.  The thing that has left one Forbes blogger scratching her head is that this crime was totally avoidable.

All NASDAQ had to do was to conduct a thorough background check and they would have known that Johnson’s past would have provided a clear snapshot of what his future tenure with the company might hold.

According to Joelle Scott, “Nasdaq hired Johnson in 1989.  Three years prior, the Virginia Board of Nursing commenced an investigation into Johnson.  He had been working at Fairfax Hospital and, as a result of the investigation, according to the records from this department, Johnson admitted he had not only consumed Schedule II drugs while on duty as a nurse but also falsified hospital records in order to steal these drugs from the hospital.  Johnson was discharged from the U.S. Army Reserves where he was a captain and served as a nurse.”

Surely, a Professional License Verification with the Virginia Board of Nursing would have revealed information that would have raised red flags about Johnson.

NASDAQ claims to have conducted a background check on Johnson at the time of his hire, to which Scott reserves comments which should be shared over and over again with the myriad politicians and government agencies who seek to limit or ban the use of these vitally important employment screening practices.

“As we have explained to clients (both potential and existing) for over 20 years, comprehensive background checks are designed to uncover this sort of information to protect investors, board members, corporations and others.  Contacting licensing departments and appropriate regulatory bodies is an essential component of background checks.  This includes not only identifying any sanctions or disciplinary actions filed by the major regulatory agencies (SEC, FINRA, etc.) but also independently reaching out to government bodies that oversee the professions in which an individual has been involved from OSHA to the Departments of Nursing. These agencies provide critical information about an individual.

Johnson is one of many.  We have seen numerous people lie about degrees received from Ivy League schools and certifications received (yes, people still lie about this stuff!) and, like Johnson, people who voluntarily do not disclose their troubled pasts hoping no one will check.”

Click here for more information about what employers in the financial services industry should consider when screening potential candidates.

Continue Reading

Our partner in the UK, Verifile has released their second annual Accredibase™ report into diploma and accreditation mill activity has revealed an astounding 48% increase worldwide in the number of known diploma and accreditation mills in the last year. As the Internet is the primary home for these bogus education and accreditation providers, little action is taken to stop them from helping unscrupulous candidates deceive unsuspecting employers.

More

Continue Reading

Our U.K. strategic partner, Verifile Ltd. has published their 2011 report on diploma and accreditation mill activity and reveals an astounding 48% increase worldwide in the number of known diploma and accreditation mills in the past year alone. As the Internet is the primary home for these bogus education and accreditation providers, little action is taken to stop them from helping unscrupulous candidates deceive unsuspecting employers. This year’s Accredibase™ report examines the current status of the diploma mill situation and considers what can be done to protect the public and businesses.

The Accredibase™ report identifies the following red flags that may help in the identification of diploma mills*:

• The institution does not have authority to operate or grant degrees from the education authorities where it claims to be based.
• Degrees are delivered in a very short space of time – sometimes just a few days.
• Degrees are granted based entirely on work or life experience.
• Contact details are limited to an email address and the institution is vague about its location.
• The institution will allow the student to choose his/her own course title and specify the graduation year to appear on the certificate.
• Sample certificates, transcripts or verification letters are available to view on the website.
• Institutions make over-complicated or misleading claims about accreditation or recognition.
• The institution’s name is similar to that of a recognised and respected education institution.
• Internet domain names are misleading – such as ‘.ac’ instead of the regulated ‘.ac.uk’ used by higher education institutions in the United Kingdom.
• The website is poorly designed, has poor spelling and grammar or it plagiarises copy from other institutions.

Verifile’s proprietary database of diploma and accreditation mills, Accredibase™, keeps track of the credential fraud industry. Verifile’s Accredibase™ has identified approximately 5000 suspect educational institutions and accreditors, including 2,615 known bogus education and accreditation providers. In addition to the huge number of confirmed mills known to Accredibase™, new suspect institutions are discovered on a daily basis – more than 2,000 are currently under investigation by Accredibase™ for inclusion in the database.

Download the full report

Continue Reading

Somebody didn’t do their homework…

A London man was able to gain employment as the Deputy CEO of a Middle Eastern bank after a headhunting firm located his fictitious resume online.  His resume claimed degrees from both Harvard and Oxford as well as long term employment at one of the world’s top financial institutions – J.P. Morgan.  The headhunters forwarded the resume to their client who promptly interviewed and hired the fraudster.  It was only after they had flown him to the Middle East to meet their wealthiest clients that they discovered his lies.

A few simple inquiries into this person’s past prior to a job offer would have saved this bank a little bit of money and a lot of embarrassment.

Fraudster conned his way to top bank job

A conman used a fake CV to trick his way into becoming the £165,000-a-year deputy chief executive of a City investment bank, a court heard.

By Paul Cheston, Courts Correspondent – London Evening Standard – 1/31/2011

Peter Gwinnell, 49, posted a résumé online which claimed he had degrees from Oxford and Harvard and had worked for JP Morgan for 20 years.

The fake was enough to convince City headhunters Connaught Partners to put him in touch with Ahli United Bank, which was looking for a new deputy chief executive, in the autumn of 2009. Gwinnell played the role of senior banker so well that after two interviews he was appointed to the job.

He worked for a month, flying out to the Middle East several times to meet wealthy clients and collecting £14,500 in salary. It was only when Ahli ran extra checks that it realised Gwinnell’s story was a lie.

In reality he was a convicted conman who had served six months in prison in the Nineties and had not attended either university, or worked at JP Morgan. Gwinnell, of Harrow, admitted a single count of fraud and was handed a 50-week prison sentence, suspended for 18 months, at Southwark crown court. Judge Geoffrey Rivlin QC spared him an immediate jail term after hearing he had already spent 12 weeks in custody on remand, and was suffering from serious depression.

The judge instead ordered Gwinnell to complete 100 hours of unpaid work, 18 months of supervision with a probation officer and to continue to undergo treatment for his depression.

He also banned him from uploading a CV onto the internet without the court’s permission. Sentencing, he told Gwinnell: “Somehow or other you managed to convince Connaught Partners that you were a suitable candidate for employment by the bank.

“This offence was deliberately planned, and it caused loss, but also no doubt much trouble and aggravation, and quite obviously embarrassment to the bank who determined that you were suitable for employment.”

The court heard that even after Gwinnell was questioned by police, he sent a fraudulent CV to a Swiss bank before withdrawing the job application.

Continue Reading

Bragging to your buddies about your days in the trenches doesn’t hurt anyone or anything, unless of course they find out you’re a big fat liar and your ego gets bruised.  Masquerading these lies as expertise and profiting from it, on the other hand, has a tremendously adverse effect on those supposed to benefit from your instruction – especially when those people are federal, state and local law enforcement agencies who need this knowledge in the event of an attack or disaster. 

This story can be added to our ever growing list of why you have to background check before you let someone in the front door.

Maryland Man Arrested for Allegedly Lying About Military Service

By Edmund DeMarche, FoxNews.com – 01/26/2011

Continue Reading

My wife and I saw an unbelievable movie last night called The King’s Speech which was based on the true story of British King George the VI’s (played by Colin Firth) determination to overcome a speech impediment.  Okay, that didn’t do the movie justice, but trust me it was a great movie that will likely sweep the Academy Awards this year.

Anyway, the main character has struggled with a debilitating stutter for his entire life and finally finds a speech therapist who is able to help cure his condition.  Immediately, Dr. Lionel Logue insists on being called “Lionel”.  After years of therapy, the prince is annointed to king and is to accept the throne in front of the public at Westminster Abbey.  The Arch-Bishop responsible for the ceremony is introduced to Dr. Logue and decides to look into his credentials.  Upon completion of the background check, he informs the king that Dr. Logue is not,  in fact a doctor.  Now, he explains that he never claimed that he was a doctor and that regardless of whether he was or not, he had successfully treated the king.  And of course, this being a movie everything ends happily.

While the movie is based on a true story, I am not sure if there was ever a controversy over Lionel Logue’s credentials.  However, true or not it does raise the issue of how important it is to know the qualifications of those we choose to employ.  It also depicts what reference credentialing might have looked like in the late 1930′s.

Pretty interesting stuff.  And in my maiden voyage as a film critic, I give it two thumbs up!

Continue Reading

Question: What do United Airlines Pilot, Dr. William Hamman and I have in common?

Answer: We are both not cardiologists or any other type of doctor for that matter.  However, one of us pretended to be. And that person is not your favorite background screening blogger.  Stop me if you’ve seen this movie.

A.P.: Pilot Duped AMA with Fake M.D. Claim

He seemed like Superman, able to guide jumbo jets through perilous skies and tiny tubes through blocked arteries. As a cardiologist and United Airlines captain, William Hamman taught doctors and pilots ways to keep hearts and planes from crashing.

He shared millions in grants, had university and hospital posts, and bragged of work for prestigious medical groups. An Associated Press story featured him leading a teamwork training session at an American College of Cardiology convention last spring.

But it turns out Hamman isn’t a cardiologist or even a doctor. The AP found he had no medical residency, fellowship, doctoral degree or the 15 years of clinical experience he claimed. He attended medical school for a few years but withdrew and didn’t graduate.

His pilot qualifications do not appear to be in question — he holds the highest type of license a pilot can have, a Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman said. However, United grounded him in August after his medical and doctoral degrees evaporated like contrails of the jets he flew. He resigned in June as an educator and researcher at William Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak, Mich., after a credentials check revealed discrepancies, a hospital spokeswoman said.

Doctors who worked with the 58-year-old pilot are stunned, not just at the ruse and how long it lasted, but also because many of them valued his work and were sad to see it end.

More

Just asking, but wouldn’t a thorough employment background check have uncovered this charade?  I imagine that performing an Education Verification with the medical school or performing a Professional License Check might have done the trick.

Note to United.  I hope that this post in no way, shape or form compromises my frequent flier status or upgrade request I recently made with your airline.  I love to fly the friendly skies!

Continue Reading

The use of fake academic degrees is becoming epidemic.  There are now an estimated 5,000 diploma mills throughout the world selling bogus academic credentials in exchange for money and little or no coursework (see my phony PhD above).  In just the last decade alone, this industry has accounted for over $1 billion in sales.

And our UK-based strategic partner, Verifile Ltd. has an interesting take on why the industry continues to grow. Check out this excerpt from their latest release.

Ahead of tomorrow’s House of Commons vote on tuition fees, CV verification and background screening expert, Verifile Limited, is concerned that an increase in tuition fees will lead to an increase in bogus universities and push more people to buy fake degrees from the criminals who run these organisations.

Verifile Limited owns Accredibase™, the world’s largest database of fake universities, or “degree mills”. Since the release of the company’s comprehensive report in January*, the number of confirmed bogus institutions** claiming to operate from the UK, has risen by an alarming 24%, taking the number of degree mills to 337 in the UK alone. In addition, a further 219 institutions are suspected mills and are currently under investigation. The majority of suspected mills are later confirmed as bogus upon completion of the investigation.

“It is hard to believe that candidates are not aware of what they are doing when they originally purchase their ‘degrees’ without taking classes or sitting in exams, yet tens of thousands of individuals are using degrees purchased from degree mills over the internet. And you find them from all walks of life from IT to security, health, education, management, government and more. If tuition fees are to increase, we must expect the incidence of fake degrees to also rise. Where the Government is not prepared to fight this problem effectively, it would be advisable for organisations to be more thorough when they carry out background checks” concluded Ben Cohen.

View Full Release

Of course, employers can limit the possibility of this happening by taking the following steps:

• Always check the accreditation status of the university.  Lack of accreditation doesn’t always mean that a school is phony, but it might lead to other questions.
• Conduct an Education Verification as part of your standard employment background check

Continue Reading