Common resume lies recruiting agencies catch every day

As a recruiting and staffing professional, you’ve seen it all. From the potential job candidate who acts like the bee’s knees to the person who struggles to articulate a thought in an email. It’s the staffing industry after all, and everyone is after that next big professional break and they think you’re going to be able to give it to them. I’m sure you’re watching out for those job candidates who are stretching the truth, but are you paying attention to those who are trying to take on the role of the Big Bad Wolf and lie on their resume?

As you well know, lying on a resume is not as uncommon as many outside the staffing and recruiting industry might think. According to Statistic Brain, 53 percent of resumes and job applications contain falsifications. ADP has reported that 46 percent of employment, education and/or credential reference checks on job applicants have revealed discrepancies between what the applicant provided and what the source provided.

But, why do applicants lie? Obviously, lying on a resume is foolish. If you’re not immediately caught, you will be sooner or later and those lies will immediately get you tossed out the door. Still, some job candidates still feel that lying is there best chance at getting your attention.

When you’re reviewing a candidate’s resume, are you screening it for potential fibs to outright lies? You have a number of tools that can be used to check the validity of a job candidate right at your fingertips. Your recruiting software helps you manage the details of an applicant, check resume credentials, job history and other background details as it tracks his or her progress through the entire recruiting process. With your software system acting as your ‘fact-checker’ you can more easily determine the details that are the key to catching a liar. Because of the massive amount of talent you deal with on a daily basis, it can sometimes be hard to connect the dots, which is why having a software that enables you to effectively grow, track, and manage your candidate pool is critical.

With that in mind, here are the top three things job candidates are likely to lie about on their resume that your recruiting software can help you catch:

1) Employment gaps.

Forbes reports that the most common resume lies involve playing with employment dates to hide gaps. This can be because a person is trying to hide being fired, a period of job hunting or even an embarrassing prison stay. Women may even stretch the employment truth because they believe leaving the workforce to start a family could be viewed negatively by potential employers. You can use your staffing software to better track employment dates and see if there are any inconsistencies that might pop up.

2) Experience.

It’s not uncommon for a job candidate to embellish the truth on a resume. After all, the entire purpose of that piece of paper is to get someone to make a call. However, when embellishment stretches into a grey area and the candidate can’t back up his or her claims, there are problems. You’re trying to fit the person to the right job and if a worker lies about his or her credentials and the lie isn’t caught, the resulting situation is going to be bad for everyone involved.

3) Certifications or degrees.

It’s such a simple thing, but the news doesn’t lie. Many people, even chief executive officers (CEOs) in charge of global companies, have been caught lying about the degrees or certifications they may hold. It’s an easy thing to check for and can help you immediately cross someone off the candidate list.

At the end of the day, you want to place candidates or employees that will serve the needs of your clients and reflect positively on your staffing and recruiting expertise. Using all of the tools at your disposal to find candidates that meet both of these requirements is just plain good business sense.