Misrepresentation on Resumes Poses Risks for Employers

Low tech unemployment creates challenges for organizations attracting and retaining a digital-ready workforce. On first glance, you wouldn’t think the same would be true for job seekers in this market.

A new survey by Checkster, a reference checking company, shows that 78% of candidates who applied for or received a job offer in the past six months admit they did or would consider misrepresenting themselves on their application.

The survey queried 400 job applicants as well as 400 hiring managers, recruiters and other Human Resources professionals.

Perhaps it’s a sign of the tight tech talent market—66% of hiring managers still are willing to hire these candidates.

But talent misrepresentation is a serious issue for employers. In an article posted on Forbes.com, “Why Workforce Strategy Wins In The War For Talent,” Harley Lippman, Founder and CEO of Genesis10, and member of the Forbes Human Resources Council, identifies talent misrepresentation as one of the underlying drivers of workforce risk and uncertainty, along with immigration reform, the talent squeeze, the changing IT landscape and training and professional development.

Some of the ways job applicants typically misrepresent themselves, according to the survey are: 1) having a mastery of skills they barely use (60%); 2) working at a company longer than they did to omit another employer (50%) and 3) having a higher GPA by more than half a point (49%).

At Genesis10, we did a quick poll of our own. Speaking with our Vice President of Recruiting and Director of Compliance, we learned that job applicants are misrepresenting themselves by:

• Listing a college they attended that did not present them with a degree.
• Stating that they have graduated but are only enrolled at the university and have not completed the requirements for a degree.
• Presenting a fabricated degree certificate.
• Embellishing their work experience, areas of responsibilities or contributions.
• Stating they have a certification that they have not completed.
• Saying they worked for an employer and then having a friend pose as a reference.
• Exaggerating the duration they worked for an organization. For example, if there's a two-year gap on their resume, they will extend the years of employment at one of the organizations listed.
• Removing the months from their resume. For example, if their employment ended in January of 2019, but they just put 2012 - 2019 on their resume.
• Filling in employment gaps with "self-employment" or “voluntary” work.

At Genesis10, we take candidate authenticity verification very seriously and go to great lengths to eliminate unscrupulous candidates misrepresenting their experience or identity. We conduct plagiarism checks on resumes and do social media and internet research to ensure the resume is unique and reflective of the candidate as well as aligns with their social media profiles. And, of course, we conduct thorough background checks, employment verification, education/certification verification and client/managerial reference checks.

How are you changing your recruiting techniques to trust and verify that the candidate whose resume you are reviewing truly has the qualifications needed to do the job? Does the candidate you’re interviewing match the qualifications outlined on his or her resume? If you need assistance with honing your strategy, start a dialogue with Ami. 

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