I once was in charge of hiring for our main call center when I worked for a mail order catalog company years ago. It was a great job where everything moved at a quickened pace and you always felt like you could have used a few more hours in your shift. It’s a great feeling to know that you’re helping your company thrive by hiring good people to get the job done right. Unfortunately, we didn’t use an employment screening company to help us make the best decisions. Some of the people we brought in had practiced the “art” of resume falsification to get their foot in the door.
I can clearly remember the sweet, retired gentleman who was looking for a job as a call center rep part-time. He would have been a great fit for the job; however, he purposely hid his age on the resume to prevent us knowing how old he really was. Did it make a great first impression on me when he showed up for his interview? You can bet the answer is no. Ageism in the workplace is a fear that many job seekers face as they get closer to retirement age. They think that because they are older, most employers will not spend the time or resources to train someone who won’t be there long term. However, the truth is that it is illegal for an employer to discriminate because of someone’s age. An applicant disqualifies themselves by lying on their resume.
Another candidate whom I interviewed was applying for a manager position and had stated on her resume that she had managed 25 people, had handled budgets before, and was well-versed in resolving conflict within her staff. However, when I spoke with her for the phone interview, she was unable to explain what types of conflicts she resolved, what specific responsibilities she had undertaken as a manager, and how she set up her department’s budget each month. I immediately knew that she had committed resume falsification in order to seem more competent than she actually was. I immediately told her I felt she would not be a good fit for our organization.
Another common resume falsification is lying about having earned a degree or certification. It used to be that hiring managers could call each candidate’s school to verify with their records department that the applicant had earned the stated degree. In today’s times, that is much too time consuming for the hiring professional along with numerous other verifications and checks we must do to ensure someone is on the up and up. That’s why it’s so important to partner with an employment background screening company who can take care of all of these things for you and more. They also handle drug testing, verification of business or property ownership, checking tax liens or bankruptcies, pulling DMV records, and verifying your candidate’s true salary history. Go to the experts at Accu-Screen for an accurate and fast report on your applicants based on the points you need checked. I don’t hire anyone without them!
