Are Your Candidates Being Honest with You?
How do you decide who to trust? In our personal lives, we generally develop relationships over some time, perhaps months or years. In contrast, players in the business world are often forced to make game-changing decisions based on relatively little information. Considering that nearly half of resumes and applications contain information that is inaccurate (or even falsified), it’s reasonable to wonder if your job candidates are being honest with you. How can you tell if a candidate is being truthful? Here’s how to find out.
Finding an honest candidate
If you want to find the most trustworthy candidate, you’ll need to take a close look at their resume. Though it’s easy to make an honest mistake or typo in any part of a resume, here are some areas that are often deliberately falsified:
Education and credentials
Many applicants are like the heroes of a 1980s action flick: they started their training, but they bailed before it was complete. But hey, one year of college is basically the same as a degree, right? Since it’s very common for candidates to tout training and certifications that are, at best, half-finished, you should be sure to confirm any claims before accepting them as fact.
Employment history
Though some candidates will brazenly claim to have worked for a company even if they’ve never set foot in the door, it’s more common for an applicant to simply exaggerate their role with a previous employer. Did they occasionally get put in charge when a supervisor was out for the day? With a little resume magic, this can easily be inflated into a full-time management role. When checking references, this is why it’s important to go deep into the details.
Specific skills
When an applicant is vaguely familiar with a skill, it can be tempting to include it on their resume. Don’t assume that a candidate is truly an expert, however, until you can verify their abilities. In fact, since almost every field is changing and advancing rapidly, proficiency in a specific skill set can quickly become outdated. If a skill is crucial to the position you are filling, you must perform some type of test to verify their abilities. In many cases, you may even be able to judge their knowledge based on a casual conversation during the interview.
A comprehensive background check can generally provide the answers to all your urgent questions. From verifying a candidates work history and education to investigating their personal record and character, Chane Solutions can help you decide who deserves your trust – and who deserves the door. To learn more about how our tailor-made background screening services can improve your hiring process, contact us today.