The prevalence of Resume Fraud

Resume fraud is a major issue for organizations and it is important that it be dealt with. Resumes are what help organizations to understand the qualification of a candidate for a job position. This means that if the details that they give in the resumes or in their educational documents is deceitful, the organization end up employing an under qualified individual for the job position. The individual may not be able to effectively conduct the roles that he or she is expected to do and it may cause the organization to incur loss because of this employee’s inefficiency (Berman-Gorvine & Nadel, 2014).

It is important for candidates in various job positions to have the required qualifications in order to ensure efficiency in the output. There are some careers that are very critical and one needs to have the right training in order to be able to perform them effectively. Some career positions like those in the medical sector, matters to do with machine operation, teaching among many others are all courses that require intense training for one to be considered as a qualified candidate (Berman-Gorvine & Nadel, 2014). These are people whose roles are delicate and an individual who has attended the courses but did not qualify is not considered for the job positions.

It is important to ensure that only qualified individuals in various career paths perform the jobs to avoid any risks poor work results and in some cases even injuries and even in worse case scenarios death (Hannan & Shaw, 2010). A fraudulent doctor or nurse for instance is someone that does not really understand his role properly; he or she does not understand how he is supposed to handle different medical conditions. This is an individual that will make wrong diagnosis and administer wrong medication which could be harmful to the patients. This irresponsibility will harm the reputation of the hospital and it will affect its ability to offer services to its consumers (Hannan & Shaw, 2010).

Companies today have become aware of the issue of fraudulency and they try to take precaution measures to help them detect any form of fraud during the recruitment period. One of the ways that is used to help detect fraud is by doing background checks on the candidate this includes verifying their degrees and their past experience (Hannan & Shaw, 2010). In US, the National Student Clearinghouse helps verify student records and their graduation information for a fee and it is something many organizations are willing to use to verify their candidates. This is a lengthy but a worthy process that companies should positively embrace in order to prevent fraudster in job applications.

Figure 1: Showing various jobs and the required fraud checks

 

Jobs and potential liability	Propensity for violence	Sex Offender information	Criminal Record	Drug Use Information	Medical Records
Teachers work with children	P	P	P	P	P
Doctors work with vulnerable people	P	O	P	O	P
Bankers have access to private financial records	P	O	P	O	P
Nurses have access to drugs	O	O	P	P	P
Managers have power over other workers	P	P	P	O	P

 

As is evident from the above, there are some fraud checks that are much more important than others and they apply for all job types. One example of this is the criminal record check, it is important for a company to have an employee who has never been involved in any criminal activities because that way they can be trusted to conduct themselves in an ethical manner. Another check that is important for any employee in any sector is the medical record which verifies an individual’s overall physical and psychological health. This helps the company to understand if there is any special attention that the employee requires and if they are capable of offering that attention.  

The fraud check matrix above can be used by employers to understand some of the background checks that they can do on their candidates in various sectors. This is a matrix that is easy to use because it easy to understand and it helps verify the job applicants resume information.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

References

Berman-Gorvine, M., & Nadel, S. (2014). Resume Fakery Is Rampant and Global, Can Cause

Myriad Problems for Employers. HR Focus, 91(12), 1–3. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bth&AN=102663580&site=ehost-live

Hannan, J., & Shaw, N. (2010). lies, lies, lies -- fraudsters: how to identify and deal with

resume fraud? Human Resources Magazine, 15(5), 4–5. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bth&AN=55698863&site=ehost-live