Fudging on resumes not worth it, experts say

Alana Roberts

Tuesday, Jan. 4, 2005 | 11:06 a.m.

When it comes to a job search, fibs and white lies don't enhance a candidate's resume, they only rouse suspicion among headhunters, employment law experts say.

It has recently become harder to get away with resume inaccuracies as more companies begin to use background checks to make smarter hiring decisions.

"White lies don't work in the workday," Kim Kerr, director of security services of security firm LexisNexis PeopleWise.

The Society for Human Resource Management reports 82 percent of companies performed some kind of background check on applicants in 2003, compared with 66 percent in 1996.

"More and more companies are checking the veracity of applications," Kerr said. "Companies may have reacted to Sept. 11, but now that they're doing it they're saying it's good business."

Background checks include criminal background, education, driving records, military discharge and credit records.

Kerr and local employers' lawyer Patrick Hicks presented ideas about how to properly use background checks in the hiring process to a group of human resource professionals during a recent breakfast of the Southern Nevada Human Resource Association.

Carol Herrington, president of the Southern Nevada Human Resource Association, said after the presentation that identity theft is a major concern for employers.

"I think it's important to verify the true identity of the person," Herrington said. "I've seen many cases of identify theft in the workplace. It's pretty easy to get a fake Social Security card and a driver's license in another person's name. When I first started running ID checks, I was shocked to find that some Social Security numbers belonged to other people. Sometimes I would have a number that was issued in 1952 and the person standing before me was only 25 years old."

Hicks said employers must be informed about the people they hire with increased concerns about theft, workplace violence and identity theft. According to another survey performed by the Society for Human Resource Management, 55 percent of human resource professionals say they sometimes find inaccuracies on resumes and 47 percent say once an inaccuracy is found on a resume it has a very important impact on the company's decision to extend a job offer.

"One person's puffing on their resume is another person's fraud," Hicks said during the presentation. "A recent study showed 80 percent of all applicants are unqualified for that job. A lot of folks do apply for jobs they're not qualified for."

Although many employers are conducting background checks, Kerr and Hicks said companies can save money and time by tailoring the check to the amount of access the person would have to the company's sensitive information, property and the public.

Kerr said that means executives in the upper echelons of the company, including human resource professionals, should be the ones undergoing the most extensive background checks because of the amount of access they have to sensitive information.

Kerr said it is OK for a company to hire workers with a criminal background, depending on the position they're applying for and the offense.

"If you decide to hire someone with a past there's nothing wrong with that," Kerr said. "It's OK to accept risks. It's my opinion that you need to accept the risks you know, not the ones you don't know."

Bob Coyle, area president of Republic Services of Southern Nevada, who did not attend the presentation, said the waste hauler performs criminal background checks and driver license checks. He said the company does hire some people with criminal pasts, and that the decision is based on the position and the job description.

"To look at people with white collar or nonviolent crimes or fraud would not preclude them from getting a job," Coyle said about the company's background check procedures. "It would allow you to take into consideration the crime versus the position the applicant was applying for. If you have somebody convicted of bank fraud you probably wouldn't look at them for a controller position. You wouldn't hire somebody who had two misdemeanors and one felony DUI for a driver position."