EmployeeScreenIQ Blog

A little resume fraud news from a Canadian blog on Trust in the Digital Era.

How should an employer deal with resume fraud?

The rise in résumé fraud can be traced to the rise in unemployment, coupled with tough competition among those competing in the labor market for what few jobs are available. Job seekers who don’t have a degree or specialized skills are inventing them out of desperation. For the employer, this translates into a significant problem since applicants who lie on their résumés often become employees who misrepresent issues on the job. It is estimated that résumé fraud costs employers approximately $600 billion annually.

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Resume lies must be a theme this week? This is for no other reason than coincidence, but there have been a lot of articles published on the topic over the past few days. This article points out that some companies use sites like Facebook and Google to conduct background checks, our readers know how we feel about that! See our latest blog posting on social networking sites. Nonetheless, this article is from Sweden where the FCRA and other laws baring the practice don’t exist.

Study: ‘lying common among job seekers’

Published: 13 May 08 17:04 CET

Nearly one in two human resource directors from Swedish companies report encountering job candidates who have lied or withheld relevant information during the recruiting process, a new study has found.

* Poll: training trumps tax cuts for job creation (12 May 08)
* Swedish labour model set for a facelift after 70 years (6 May 08)
* Making it in Sweden: the British professor (30 Apr 08)

The report, published on Tuesday by the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce, also found that one in eight companies perform internet searches on candidates or review their profiles on social networking sites such as Facebook or LinkedIn.

“A quick internet search together with looking at a person’s profile in Facebook, for example, can give a completely different picture than what a candidate highlights in a CV,” said the Chamber in its report.

Nearly 20 percent of respondents who don’t currently check Google or Facebook said that including such searches in the recruiting process would increase their peace of mind regarding potential new hires.

About 90 percent of companies polled reported having a specific policy regarding background checks on potential employees, with 70 percent also claiming that background checks will become more important in the recruiting process over the next five years.

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The Chicago Tribune published a great article, Honesty Always the Best Policy When Writing Up Your Resume, offering cautionary advice about (pick one) stretching details, lying, fudging, taking liberties with the truth, padding and, or embellishing your resume.  This story can’t be written enough and I think that the advice provided is great.  Honesty is the best policy.  Tell the truth.  In this day and age, a background check will most likely shed light on even the most minute “white lie”.  The scary thing is that many mis-truths and mis-rememberings (see Roger Clemens) wouldn’t have prevented qualified people from getting the job if they just would have been honest in the first place.

For those who have different definitions of some of the phrases mentioned above, perhaps a refresher course might help.  Click on some of the words above for the proper definitions.

Some other helpful terms:

• Liar, Liar Pants on Fire
• Fibbing
• Joshing
• OJ Simpson (modern day lexicon for “Liar”)
  
• Bluffing
• Misleading

You get the picture!  Now get out there and tell the truth. (Well, not all of you.  That would put me out of business.)

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I came across this story this morning while doing some research on resume fraud.  I found this interesting because it featured a few more famous resume imposter’s, ones I have not listed in the past.  I often find it mundane to keep using the same examples over and over.  According to Forbes, there are nine ways an applicant will “fib” on his or her resume:

1. Lying about getting a degree
2. Exaggerating numbers
3. Increasing previous salary
4. Playing with dates
5. Inflating titles
6. Lying about technical abilities
7. Claiming language Fluency
8. Providing a fake address
9. Padding grade point averages

There are a few more examples other than George O’Leary, Marilee Jones and David Edmonson. Now I have more names to keep future posts more interesting!

Read on!

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Herbalife, a publicly traded corporation just confirmed that their president and Chief Operating Officer failed to complete the MBA he claimed to receive on his resume (Herbalife Statement).  Isn’t it amazing how often we see stories such as these?  Not really!  Face it people, in this information age there are no secrets.  What amazes me is that this information was never revealed in a background check.  You would think it might be important for Herbalife to know this information, right? A simple Education Verification would have provided them with the 411.

Here’s the thing.  I don’t know this individual or about his job performance, but you have to do a lot of impressive things to become a president of a globally recognized publicly traded company.  My guess is his experience and hard work got him to the top.  Unfortunately, it is a little “inconsequential” lie that will surely lead to great consequences.

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I came across this blog yesterday and thought it would be a nice addition to our postings. The writer focuses on how a candidate can still promote themselves on a resume even with things that are less than spectacular. She emphasizes that lying on a resume is a big no-no, being ethical and truthful is always the best route. When we launched employeescreen University, this is exactly the type of advise we want job seekers to take, especially knowing that a background check will be conducted!

Is Your Resume a Lie?

There was a high-profile story in the news recently, about the consequences of lying on a resume. Did you see it? Robert Irvine, the host of his own show “Dinner: Impossible” on the Food Network will not have his contract renewed next season. The problem, apparently, is that he fabricated parts of his resume. What a shame! Padded resumes are often the result of job seekers’ insecurities about some perceived weakness or lack in their qualifications. But, it simply isn’t necessary to lie. In fact, it is just plain wrong! Robert Irvine could have avoided this whole situation had he turned to an expert to help him frame the credentials that he did have in the most positive light, rather than faking credentials that he didn’t have.

One of the most frequent questions that I am asked by potential clients takes the form of… “I have a problem (or weakness) in my professional history in the form of XYZ. I’m afraid of how that will look on my resume. Have you ever dealt with this problem (or weakness) before? Do you think you could help me?”

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Dinner: Impossible television chef, Robert Irvine was fired from the Food Network for fudging his resume. Oh the humanity! C’mon. Can’t anyone tell the truth? I’ve actually watched this entertaining show and the opening mentions the British chef’s accomplishments including that he cooked for Britain’s Royal Family. Unfortunately, I guess this wasn’t true.

Am I surprised someone lied on their resume? Not really. We find a 56% discrepancy between what someone puts on their resume and what we find when we conduct education and employment verifications. Am I surprised that the Food Network didn’t know this before they promoted this television show? YES! As a fan of the show, I can say that the absence of that credential would not have dissuaded me from watching.

Read the full story in USA Today

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I found this blog posting and thought it was an interesting perspective from the job seeker.

Response to Lying on Your Resume

This article talked about the repercussions of lying on your resume. It is really difficult for me to think about lying on your resume…which is probably naive of me. I can understand the pressures of trying to make your resume more appealing to employers. I am currently experiencing the stress of trying to work on my resume for PA school. The article speaks about the fact that companies are now better at finding out when someone lies on their resume. Background checks are conducted to explain why an employee’s performance is not up to par.

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I am glad to see that others are thinking about people lying on their resumes.  I have used these examples many times while doing presentations to HR groups.  Its almost like the I wrote this one!  This is a great story called Little white lies (or bigger ones) pop up in job hunt.  I don’t agree with their findings that 25-40% of resumes have misleading information, our statistics show this number to be well over 50%  A great case for doing background checks and employment screening.

This is a good read:

Don’t mean to brag, but my grade-point average was a 4.0. I landed a job at The New York Times right out of college. As for community service, well, you’ll find me serving meals to the homeless and tutoring adults in reading.

Sound too good to be true? Of course it does, because it is.

But as you type up that resume or sit nervously in front of the interviewer, sometimes a little white lie slips out, right? Maybe not quite so blatant. Maybe not really intentional. But lying seems to be a qualification to get a job.

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