White lies on resumes put others at risk

What are the odds of getting away with falsified information on your resume? Research from employment screening agency Verify has revealed that up to 25% of all resumes contain false information and a further 80% have exaggerations and embellishments.

Should employers expect 'white lies' which overstate skills or even represent information such as illness? Greg Newton, managing director of Verify, said that a highly competitive employment market, where applicant numbers are high and many candidates are well experienced and qualified for the job, meant that employers must be vigilant.

"Candidates recognise that they need to stand out from the crowd and often spend considerable time fine tuning their resume to appeal to the reader. Their resume is a marketing tool to present them in the best light and improve their chances of getting their foot in the employment door," he said.

Given this background, Newton added that two scenarios are at play: those candidates who tailor their resume to the job requirements; and those who blatantly alter the facts.

"Firstly, for those who choose to tailor their resume, they may highlight aspects of their background that directly relate to required competencies or experiences, not mention jobs that are irrelevant, focus more on qualifications that are required in the new job and so on," Newton said.

For those who 're-invent' themselves, Newton said it's not unusual to see whole jobs being omitted, qualifications being upgraded or job titles modified to reflect a more senior role. "For example, we sometimes see a diploma noted down as a degree or an Assistant Account elevating their title on their resume to Financial Accountant. We can readily spot this fraudulent misrepresentation through checking of qualifications with the issuing body and rigorous reference checking through past employers," he said. 

Misrepresentation of an illness can also have serious repercussions. Verify's largest single service today is the co-ordination of pre-employment medical assessments. Although traditionally these assessments were commonplace in mining, energy and construction sectors, Newton noted that increasingly they are being used across all sectors. "We've just been assessing a number of candidates based in the UK before they are formally appointed and commence their costly journey down under to Australia. This makes obvious sense when you consider that a person who takes up duty and then is found not to be able to perform the tasks required becomes a huge burden on the employer and very costly to extricate itself from," he said.

"Naturally any such assessment should only be carried out where it is being undertaken for the sole purpose of assessing a candidate's ability to competently perform the role. Typically we provide a range of assessments carried out by registered medical practitioners such as comprehensive pre-employment medicals, drug and alcohol assessments, spirometry and audiometry tests and inoculations such as Hep A, Typhoid and so on."