A report from Alexander Mann Solutions, entitled Risk Mitigation in Assessments: The silent threat of CV fraud, has found around 20 per cent of the CVs processed daily by recruiters contain some kind of discrepancy. This issue is having a direct and significant impact on KPIs including time-to-hire, quality of hire and fill rate.
The paper, which is based on a comprehensive survey of recruiters providing services for various geographies, sectors and professional levels, finds that around 53 per cent of the time recruiters detect fraudulent CVs during the interview stage, 49 per cent during background checks and 41 per cent during phone screening. Background checking remains the most common form of pre-employment screening in mitigating against CV fraud, however, newer methods – such as social media screening – are also on the rise.
When quizzed on the most common discrepancies found in CVs, almost three quarters of recruiters (73 per cent) said candidates had altered employment timelines. Other types of fraud identified included falsely claiming skills, inflating job titles and listing fake qualifications, which were flagged by 51 per cent, 47 per cent and 31 per cent of respondents respectively.
This insight comes following previous research from the Risk Advisory Group, which scanned 5000 CVs and found that 80 per cent contained false information.
“There is no doubt that falsified resumes are a growing universal concern among talent acquisition professionals – and as CV fraud evolves, so should the solutions we use to fight it,” commented Claudia Nuttgens, global head of assessment and selection at Alexander Mann Solutions. “Businesses must re-evaluate existing processes to identify any areas of vulnerability and decision makers should also consider how technology can be deployed to enhance existing capabilities without negatively impacting the candidate experience.”
Nuttgens continues: “However, it should be noted that, despite the promising advancements in automated CV fraud detection, companies must be vigilant in developing these new tools, and should not forget the importance of empowering the recruiter to detect these. Technologies developed must not only be compliant with global standards, but also consider regional and local regulations. At the end of the day, people will remain central to any new screening process. The detection of fraudulent cases will still rely heavily on a recruiter’s skills and capabilities, rather than on tools or technologies.”