Just how widespread is CV Cheating and what can you do about it?
In 2010 Chief Defence scientist Stephen Wilce said he had been a member of the British Olympic bobsleigh team; a helicopter pilot who served with the Duke of York; and an ex-Marine.
None of this was true.
We have been recruiting for many years now and we catch significant CV cheats like Wilce once every few years.
CV cheats appear at all levels.
International research shows that up to half of CVs aren’t kosher. Between 20 and 50 percent have exaggerations or lies. Resume Check says after doing thousands of assignments so far 42.6% have come back with some sort of inconsistency or red flag.
University of Auckland Associate Professor in Law, Bill Hodge says that making false declarations during a job interview is often grounds for justifiable dismissal and "poisons the well of trust and confidence before it even begins to flow”.
Fortunately, most of the 42.6% of CV’s flagged by Resume Check get orange flags – what many would consider merely “selling yourself”, or “resume inflation”. Seemingly benign, the exaggerations, raise issues of character. “If someone’s going to distort reality, do they have integrity?”
It seems obvious to us that you should either be spending time checking yourself or engage the service of a professional.
Check Facebook, Google, LinkedIn and NZ Companies Office and of course do at least two or three reference checks. Criminal data checks and credit history checks or even a medical check can be added. We notice that hair sampling checks (for drugs) are also increasingly common.
New Zealanders are very trusting and we are an honest society. We don't go around thinking the worst of people. The 90-day trial period helped reduce problems but employers needed to complete more thorough checks.
We have helped many clients dodge bullets because of our comprehensive recruitment processes. Will you?