An employee is hired on the basis of the impression his/her resume leaves on the employer. His educational credentials, his professional achievements and to a major extent, his past employment experience play the most significant role in his hiring. The employer adjudges the candidate’s capability to handle the work profile through the work he has put in for his previous employers. He also ensures that the candidate, once hired, would be the right fit for the company based again, on the kind of businesses he was associated with in the past. But what if they were all falsified?
Stern encounters many cases of fake or falsified experience letters provided by our clients’ employees during its prevalent background screening processes. What is to be noticed is that most of these aren’t easily detectable and appear genuine on the face of it. It is only after careful and extensive background check that the real story emerges.
One such instance is this female employee of a reputed MNC furbished an experience letter claiming that she had previously worked for an organization for a period of one year. The reference number provided by the employee confirmed this information. But upon close investigation, it was revealed that the existence of the organization itself was dubious.
On another occasion, we came across the profile of an employee who submitted a fake proof of employment by a reputed organization. The said organization didn’t have anyone by his name in their records whatsoever. He had used the brand name of the organization in the market to buff up his resume and secure the position with the client company.
Another employee fabricated an experience letter from a said company that didn’t exist. He was attempting to cover up his employment history in another company during that period. This came to light when a post from the candidate’s social media account revealed that he had received his “first salary” from a different company.
According to an international survey of more than 7,000 applicants for executive positions, it was found that 23 percent misrepresented personal information. Of those who misrepresented information, 71 percent lied about the length of service, 64 percent lied about accomplishments, 60 percent exaggerated managerial experience, 52 percent identified mere attendance at college as a degree, 48 percent overstated job responsibilities, and 41 percent omitted negative employment experiences(sic).
With these staggering figures, employers must wonder if the resume in front of them should be looked at with sheer scepticism. Yes, it should be. Employment fraud is rampant. A resume can no longer be taken at its face value but thoroughly investigated. With the current rate of unemployment in our country, job seekers are willing to lie their way into various organizations.
Let’s take a peek into their perspective. A website named www.fakeresume.com claims that lying about your experience credentials is justified and not unethical because “corporations are more unethical than you could ever be”. The site goes on to say that employees are treated “like dirt” even after years of hard work.
With ideologies like these steering job seekers away from an honest hire, employers must focus their energies on careful screening, and extensive employee background checks to avoid the company getting in harm’s way. Also, many rampant myths about hiring should be addressed. A recent Twitter chat revealed the numerous biases employees feel whilst working in an organization. Some subconscious, others intentional; but prejudices nonetheless. The notorious website further explains that employers downplay your resume as “brushed”, so one might as well do the same.
Comprehensive background checks spare the business the negative effects of resume and job application fraud. It saves essential time, finances and prevents any damage to the goodwill of the brand. The days of Mark Twain’s golden “Honesty is the best policy” philosophy are long past, and we are faced with fraudulent miscreants who would stop at nothing to secure employment with your organization. Question of the matter is, would you let them? download vray 3.6 sketchup crack