Your Lying Resume
By Daniel Rabanales, Marketing —
Under-qualified staff members cripple organizations as a result of deceptive resumes.
Lying is a plague that harms the efficiency and culture of an organization, especially when it comes from its most valuable asset — its employees.
Employers must now be alert to the disturbing problem of candidates lying on their resumes. A recent report from First Advantage, a pre-screening employment company, informs that 27.2 percent of its background verifications “uncovered inaccuracies” from which 32 percent are considered “major discrepancies.”
Crazy, Wild, Overdone Exaggerations
Education, “the second most requested type of verification after employment history,” had the highest discrepancies in candidates’ resumes. Senior VP and Managing Director of First Advantage, Traci Canning, explains that most inaccuracies relate to candidates exaggerating over academic achievements, declaring attainment of incomplete degrees, and even covering up negative employment history.
Deceptive Resumes Put Employers at Risk
A limited number of jobs, combined with the vast supply of candidates, creates a frantic competition in the job market, leading many to resort to lying as a means to an employed end.
This alarming trend poses a serious threat to organizations — hiring under-qualified personnel may result in huge costs and inefficiencies for employers. Since 2012, research indicates that 10.8 percent of all resumes have major discrepancies found in the education and employment verification sections, leading to an increase in the use of services provided by companies like First Advantage.
Tools of the Lie Detection Trade
As employers become increasingly aware of the costs of under-qualified staff (and staff that used a “lying” resume to get hired), they’re turning to pre-employment screening to provide a solution. First Advantage has seen a 25.1 percent increase in checks since 2011, demonstrating how companies are directing resources and attention to this common threat.
In organizations and businesses, lie detection technology could play a significant role in this screening process. EyeDetect™ could make all the difference in preventing the wrong people from entering an organization.
EyeDetect provides a painless and non-intrusive test that examines an individual’s pupil dilation and other optical behavior while they answer a series of true or false questions. Results are encrypted in real time to the cloud, calculated and then securely made available to parties in authority to evaluate the results.
