21.09.2018

The importance of CV checks

Simon Houlton, CEO of IScreenYouScreen, a reference checking software.

A statistic has stated that 75% of HR managers have caught a lie on a CV. A staggering figure that could cause huge detriment to any business should an employee be participating in something they’re not officially qualified to do. Many fall into the trap of taking every piece of information on a CV at face value, without researching into specific areas.

For example, if an applicant attended university and achieved a specific honours degree, the chances of doing a background check on this is slim and if a candidate has got away with it once, they’ll continue to do it. For specific industries, this can be a huge issue, understanding the law, working in a scientific environment where danger could occur or in health care, having the correct knowledge is vital, as any mistake could cause huge issues.

This is where checking CV’s over and over again should be a routine. With the internet being as advanced as it is, we are now able to find almost any piece of information we want, this can be incredibly useful when checking CV’s. Simply looking on a LinkedIn profile; scrolling through social media to find any evidence that an applicant attended university or finding images of the candidate doing previous work experience should indicate that they’re telling the truth.

Routine checks in an interview should also be mandatory. Ask the candidate to explain what they done on previous jobs, what they enjoyed most at university and ask to give specific examples of work. Their confidence in giving the answers and body movement should give you an idea if they’re trustworthy. Another idea is to set candidates tasks to do before the interview. If they’re applying for a visual job that includes design work or writing skills, set a task to give them the chance to showcase their abilities. If the candidate comes back with an average piece of work, you can begin to question them.

Usually if you’re a big business, an in-house HR team will take care of checking CVs and arranging interviews for the most appropriate candidates. However, as the statistic earlier shows, lying on a CV is not uncommon and therefore wastes a lot of time for the HR team to be checking the validity of information. An idea would be to use a screening service, which takes care of the reference checking for you. Filling a job role is an important issue and finding the perfect candidate should always be a top priority. Hiring someone to only find out weeks later that they’ve lied on their CV will not have only wasted your time, but reduced business productivity.

For more information please visit www.iscreenyouscreen.co.uk

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