By Lynne Curry, Ph.D, SPHR bio
The new business manager you hired—the one with the terrific resume and reference? It turns out she never worked for the employers named on the resume or knew the supervisors listed as references—despite the glowing recommendations they wrote for her. Instead, she paid for a legitimate-appearing, completely phony resume and references.
Fake resumes and references for sale
Don’t believe me or think you could spot this fraud? Google “career excuse” or visit www.careerexcuse.com, one of several Internet sites offering job candidates hard-to-see-through fake work histories and references. If you’d like to try the process yourself, you can click to complete a free reference request form and see your (fake) references before you buy them.
Applicants using CareerExcuse.com can develop a completely fake yet validated resume with prompts such as “choose your career history;” “pick your start and end date;” “get rid of” a 3 year resume gap” and “choose your salary.” The site claims “bankrupt companies make a great previous employers” and offers that they have “dozens of bankrupt companies…ready to provide any inquirer your desired reference information.”
According to the site, they provide job candidates “a real company with a real address and a real 800 number” with live “operators standing by” to field prospective employer calls. That means if you, as a prospective employer call the reference you’re given, you get a real person who alleges to have known your applicant well and vouches for his or her sterling work history.
Even authentic employers give inaccurate references
Perhaps, you’ve run across less devious candidates who didn’t measure up to the reference letters you received from their former employers. Here the problem may result from conflict-adverse former employers who write overly positive reference letters out of guilt or to ward off potential problems from volatile laid off or terminated employees. Alternatively, the reference letter you’re looking at may have been written by the employee you’ve just interviewed, who offered to draft a letter for her former manager’s signature. He took the easy way out to save time, and then signed the letter even though it overstated the soon-to-be former employee’s qualities, just to be done with the situation.
Take the time to know who you’re hiring
How can employers defend against resume and reference fraud?—by making extensive reference checking calls and exploring all danger signals before making hiring decisions.
Personally call the references listed on the resumes as well as references not provided by the applicant. No law says you can’t, and supervisors not listed by the candidate often reveal problems you need to know about.
Feeling stuck because your applicant’s former employers no longer exist or her supervisors have moved on? In this Internet accessible age, you can search for former supervisors by name even when the company has dissolved or the supervisor has left the company.
Think carefully before allowing your candidate to permanently block you from calling her current supervisor. By complying with her request, you miss the other side of the story. Did that charming interviewee present a different side once hired? Was it only bad luck the applicant worked for three companies that bankrupted? Did she fake her job history or potentially speed these companies in their downward spiral with the costs from a business manager who used antiquated work methods and piled up a fat overtime expense?
While you need to respect a candidate’s request that you not contact a current employer unless you’re about to make an offer, you can offer a position contingent on a positive reference check. You can also let your applicant know you feel you need to do a reference check and ask her permission if that’s the only step keeping you from an offer. If she says “no,” you can then move on to your second-ranked candidate.
According to former employment attorney turned HR consultant Richard Birdsall, “In-depth resume-probing often surfaces cover-ups and inconsistencies.” His two favorites: the applicant who covers up a short-term problem job by extending the time he worked for the employers before and after the omitted job; and the applicant who alleges she attended a residential university in one part of the country during the same months and years that she worked for an employer in another state. According to Birdsall, he regularly surfaces applicants who claim university degrees from institutions that have no record of the candidate.
Finally, you’ll want to conduct a background check to uncover criminal and civil legal problems that you may “own” if you move too quickly to hire based on a “too good to be true” interview.
Lynne Curry, Ph.D., SPHR, author of Beating the Workplace Bully and Solutions and owner of the Alaska-based management consulting firm, The Growth Company Inc. consults with law firms to create real solutions to real workplace challenges. Her company’s services include HR On-call (a-la-carte HR), investigations, mediation, management/employee training, executive coaching, 360/employee reviews and organizational strategy services. You can reach Lynne @ www.thegrowthcompany.com, via her workplace 911/411 blog, www.thegrowthcompany.com or @lynnecurry10 on twitter.
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