Ten Things Job Applicants Lie About During the Hiring Process

Posted: September 22, 2021

Do job candidates really lie during the hiring process?

Unfortunately, the answer is yes. It is quite common for job seekers to provide false information on their resumes and cover letters, be dishonest in job interviews, offer fake references, and the list goes on. As a result, it is critical that companies protect themselves from these falsifications, including running background checks on potential hires.

In particular, a significant number of applicants falsify information on their resumes, assuming that they will never get caught. According to Indeed’s recent article, an astounding 40 percent of job applicants lie on their resumes. And, another CareerBuilder survey reported that 75 percent of recruiting managers have uncovered lies on applicants’ resumes.

Here are the ten most common things that job candidates provide false information about during the hiring process:

1. Job experience and responsibilities
2. Skill sets
3. Job titles
4. Employment dates
5. Academic degrees
6. Past salary history
7. Certifications and licenses
8. Claiming a language fluency
9. Criminal history
10. Drug use

Here are a few things you can do to protect your company against falsifications during the hiring process:

• Hire a background screening company to run thorough background checks on potential hires since they can uncover exaggerations put forth in resumes or interviews.
• Make sure that employment dates on a resume contain actual months or days versus only years, which could alter employment length.
• Compare candidates’ cover letters and resumes to verify that the information matches up.
• Contact candidates’ past employers to verify key information, including employment dates and titles.
• Conduct professional and personal reference checks since they can offer insight into a person’s work ethic, reliability, personality, and ability to communicate and get along with others.
• Ask references to verify key details of their professional relationship with the job applicant, including job title, supervisory relationship, etc. Consider hiring a professional company to conduct reference checks to ensure that they are compliant and accurate.
• Give potential candidates assessments that test his or her skills, especially those that are important to the position at hand.

Info Cubic can help you verify candidates’ credentials quickly and legally. Here are a few products that we offer that will give you the peace of mind that you are hiring honest employees:

• Employment verification: Employment verification is a necessary step to take during the background check process. Our employment verification professionals will verify previous employment supplied by applicants, including dates of employment and position(s) held. Per the employers’ policies, reasons for leaving, rehire status, starting and ending pay rates, performance, reasons for departure, rehire status, and any other general comments may also be available.
• Education verification: Info Cubic processes education verification requests by contacting educational institutions directly to verify degrees or certifications earned. Our education verification reports confirm degrees, diplomas, certificates, and attendance dates from universities, colleges, trade/vocational schools, and/or high schools.
• Professional license verification: Info Cubic’s professional license verification checks that the applicant has a valid license as claimed. Common licenses verified are CPA, RN, MD, state bar, etc.
• Professional/Personal Reference Check: Our experienced verification staff completes professional/personal reference checks by interviewing an applicants’ former or current colleagues, friends, and family members.
• County criminal records search: Info Cubic’s county criminal records reports show criminal court records such as felonies, misdemeanors, and in some cases, lesser violations like traffic offenses and ordinance violations. Legal violations are found by searching the upper and lower courts in 3,100+ jurisdictions across the United States.
• Drug testing: Info Cubic can help screen your candidates for a variety of substances through a network of more than 20,000 collection sites nationwide, including patient service centers and third-party collection sites. We work with almost every screening vendor in the market, so the testing process is convenient for you and your applicants.

By performing the due diligence on your candidates in advance, you are ensuring that you are only hiring ethical, capable, and long-lasting employees, which will ultimately save time, money and headaches. For more information on how Info Cubic can help you screen your potential job candidates, please contact us at (888) 925-0922.