CV Cloning
01 April 2009
It is estimated that 1 in 3 people exaggerate or falsify their CV - what impact would this have on your business?
A recent survey by credit information specialist Experian has found that 1 in 10 people now publish their career details, including whole cvs, in their personal profiles on social networking sites which is leaving them at risk of ‘career cloning’.
Experian has also stated that organised criminals are always looking for new options and approaches and that there is a possibility that fraudsters will increasingly take on the identities and career histories of third parties to secure employment with companies for the purposes of committing fraud.
Therefore, how do you know if the cv you have received is from the actual candidate or employee?
Therefore, we again advise that you have robust recruitment processes in place that include in-depth questions to single out if the cv is cloned or elaborated, especially about skills and experience.
We have written articles previously on cv checking and advise that you should not take a cv at face value and that references are checked to validate their employment and career histories as well as ensuring you check their identity at interview in line with the Asylum and Immigration Act as previously covered in our article on our website under News dated 1 February 2008.
When someone is in a position of trust and confidence, especially in a finance role who may even have access to your petty cash and/or safe or in retail when they have access to client’s credit card information and cash in the tills, you can also carry out other more bespoke background checks that includes the FSA and credit reference companies, criminal record checks as well as reference checking.
It is also estimated that 1 in 3 people exaggerate or falsify their cv. HR Solutions has dealt with many cases where it has been found that the employee has done this to obtain a position.
Some examples have been exaggerating competency in computer skills, field sales management skills, project management skill, employment history of companies that don’t or never existed, many cases of fake academic qualifications and even non-disclosure of past absence history and medical conditions.
All these issues had to be managed through in some cases, protracted disciplinary and grievance process when the employee had been employed for only a short time. This was expensive and time consuming for the client and had robust checking been done initially, some of the cases might not have arisen.
You really do need to know if the person you want to employ is the one you can trust to deal with your finances, confidential information, company assets and above all your reputation.