How Pre-Employment Testing Can Spot Fraudulent Resumes

Apple founder Steve Jobs once said, “The secret of my success is that we have gone to exceptional lengths to hire the best people in the world.” This is, undoubtedly, the dream of any hiring manager - that talent will fall right into our laps and go on to help our companies thrive. 

But recruitment is much more complicated than that, and without the right tools and resources, there’s a real risk of hiring the wrong candidate time and time again. For one reason: some of whom are truly not the person they claimed to be on paper. 

In this article, we will talk about how to separate the genuine resumes from the dishonest ones, and identify the very best talent within a sea of applicants. 

Resumes aren’t always as they seem

Resumes aren’t always telling the truth. In fact, 40% of people have lied on their resumes at some point (Indeed survey, 2021). Think about that for a moment – if 100 people apply for an advertised position, it is estimated that only 60 of them are being honest about their skills, qualifications and experience. 

More alarmingly, another survey made by Checkster (a reference-check company) has found that 78% of people who had applied for a role in the last 6 months, would consider misrepresenting themselves on an application. 

Misrepresentations can be minor or major, depending on the candidate and the position being applied for. For example, in this same study:

• 60% of candidates who have lied (or would consider lying) on their resume, have done so by exaggerating their foreign language abilities.
• 41% have said they held a Director title when they did not.
• 50% said they’d worked at a company longer than they actually had.
• And 39% lied about which university they attended. 

Some of these issues, such as length of time working at a previous company or the university they attended, can be easily proven or disproven. A simple employer reference and degree certificate would clarify the issue. But when it comes to skills, language abilities and experience, it can be a little harder to spot the truth from the lies. 

Why do candidates lie?

There are numerous reasons why someone may be dishonest on their resume. Some of these are:

• To get ahead. Exaggerating achievements, skill sets or language skills can put the candidate ahead of competing candidates, increasing their chances of being invited to interview. 
• Financial trouble. A candidate who has been out of work for a while might be experiencing financial hardship, leading them to lie on their resume to try and get any job they can. They may also exaggerate how much they earned in their previous role in an attempt to persuade the new employer to match or raise the candidate’s salary in their new role. 
• Economic downturn. During times of economic hardship and mass unemployment, people will apply for any job going, and often alter their resumes to fit the job specification, even if it means being dishonest. They may even say they have been in recent employment when in fact they have not, out of fear that resume gaps might reflect poorly on them. 
• Previous disciplinary action. If a candidate has experienced disciplinary action in a previous role, they may leave this job information out of their resume or make edits to ensure the new employer doesn’t find out about it. 
• Fear of discrimination. Unfortunately, research has shown that hiring managers are twice as likely to call minority candidates if they ‘whiten’ their resume. By ‘whitening’, we mean deleting information that might give away their race or ethnicity. If a candidate fears they may be discriminated against, they may make resume changes, such as swapping the name of a foreign university they attended for a local one. 
• Wanting to cut corners. Most honest workers know they have to climb the ladder, complete training and skill-up to gain promotions and superior titles. But some would rather skip the hard graft and get the more senior positions by telling a few resume lies. 

How can this be solved with pre-employment testing?

Given the enormous breadth of lies that can be told on a resume, from a candidate’s age and employment history to their skill sets and foreign language abilities, it can be incredibly difficult for recruiters to spot them. Sometimes, the lies are only spotted after the person has been successfully recruited - costing the company money in either training up the new employee or finding their replacement; thus beginning the entire recruitment process again. 

But pre-employment testing can do the hard work before anyone reaches the in-person interview stage. 

Pre-employment testing is the process of testing skills, attitudes, emotional intelligence, language abilities, cognition and knowledge at the very beginning of the recruitment process. So, if 200 applications are received for one job posting, pre-employment testing can weed out the dishonest applications before a hiring manager even looks at them. 

The result? Higher quality, honest resumes that truly reflect the talent of the individual. 

In summary, while it is expected that almost half of all applicants will lie or misrepresent themselves on their resume, these candidates can be spotted early with the right tools and technology. 

Thus, the company saves time and money, while benefiting from recruiting only the very best talent out there. 

Pipplet can help

Pipplet is a pre-employment test that utilizes cutting edge technology to assess the language skills of each candidate, separating the real resumes from the fraudulent ones. As already mentioned, one of the most common lies told on a resume is foreign language ability. This is why Pipplet is especially useful, because it can assess more than 300 languages, giving candidates a universally recognized CERF score. Pipplet can be accessed online by any candidate, anywhere in the world, and involves asking a series of customized questions that help hiring managers to filter candidates. 

No matter which role you are hiring for, or which industry your company is in, Pipplet can help. Click here to sign up today.