Are Your Job Candidates Honest? A Look at Resumé Fraud

Job applicants must work hard to stand out in a crowded marketplace. For some, that means bending the truth — or outright lying — about their experience, skills and education. According to a survey performed by resumé-writing service StandOut CV, a staggering 64.2% of Americans have lied on their resumé at least once.

Bad hires can generate direct and indirect costs, including lost productivity, customer dissatisfaction and wasted training time. In extreme circumstances, news of a bad hire can result in reputational damage. To make matters worse, if a dishonest new hire objects to being fired (or a candidate doesn't get the job), the person could sue, leading to expensive legal bills. You can help protect against such losses by spotting dishonest resumés early in the hiring process.

Common Lies

Technology increasingly makes it easier to revise and falsify resumés. Here's where dishonest candidates commonly fudge their qualifications:

• ‍Employment history. Resumés could claim employment at defunct or shell companies, making it harder to verify employment. Some jobseekers inflate titles, fabricate leadership roles and exaggerate the size of the teams they managed. They might also extend employment dates and create false consulting or freelance engagements to hide gaps.‍
• Education. Candidates may claim degrees from diploma mills and nonaccredited institutions or invent them altogether. Some might alter their graduation dates or replace majors with more challenging subjects or majors related to the job they're seeking. Applicants could also inflate their GPAs, report fake awards and achievements, and state they've earned degrees that they've only partly completed.‍
• Certifications. Here, applicants might fabricate professional credentials, claim expired certifications as current or modify the level of certification they've achieved.‍
• Skills. Candidates who lie on resumés frequently exaggerate software competency — claiming expert-level knowledge when they have only basic skills. Falsely claiming they know how to operate certain equipment and fake foreign language competency are common, too.

Red Flags

Certain industries and positions are more prone to resumé embellishment, including arts and creative jobs, retail, hospitality and education. But regardless of industry, your organization can boost the effectiveness of your job candidate screening process by scrutinizing applicants for certain "tells."

For example, look for inconsistencies related to career growth. If a resumé's progression of titles, job responsibilities and salaries appears illogical and atypical, ask the applicant for additional information. Also, be wary of achievements described unrealistically or with words that sound copied and pasted.

Dig deeper if, during an interview, applicants offer only vague responses to specific questions or appear to be unfamiliar with industry terminology they should know given their resumé claims. You may want to reject outright candidates who decline to participate in skills assessments or make excuses to avoid scheduling interviews with specialists in your organization.

When you enter the due diligence stage, look for the following clues that something isn't right with job candidates:

• Their social media history (depending on the position, you might look at LinkedIn, X, Facebook, Instagram and others) doesn't align with their resumé timelines,
• Educational institutions are unable or unwilling to verify their qualifications, and
• Previous employers are impossible to reach or don't have records of the candidate's employment.

Reference checks that provide inconclusive feedback should also give you pause.

Legal Compliance

Although vigilance against resumé fraud is critical to your business's continued well-being, you must comply with all relevant regulations. Your attorney can inform you of specific federal, state and local employment laws. However, you should always keep job applicant data confidential and obtain consent before reaching out to references and performing background checks. Contact us for more information.