Job Interviews and Resumes: The Importance of Honesty

There are so many reasons why I always encourage employers to consider using a niche recruitment agency when making a senior appointment. Agencies are not only adept at helping clients accurately define the job specification and skill requirements of the vacant position, they also have ready made databases of candidates who have already been vetted and can bring the required experience, or who are ready for promotion to the next level. There is another, less obvious reason for employers to use a recruitment agency: to work out which candidates may be, shall we say, economical with the truth.

Who checks the veracity of what candidates say at interview and the story they tell on their resume? The issue of job application fraud is a bigger problem than you might think. In my experience, a significant minority of job candidates are not fully candid on their CVs, and some are downright fraudulent. I don't need to stress the risks to employers of appointing someone who isn't qualified or experienced enough for the role. What's more, nobody wants to recruit, and be seen to have recruited, a fraud as their council CEO, general manager or manager.

Good recruitment consultants will always fully check out an individual before the client extends a job offer. Companies like LG Services Group do so often at the pre-shortlisting stage, and certainly before a job is offered. Most of the time this is straightforward: candidates are who they say they are. However, a minority of background checks do unearth issues of concern. Here are a few resume scams:

Institution and degree or diploma. One of the most common issues is candidates who say they graduated from a particular university or business school, but can't produce documentation, and enquiries at the registrar's office draw a blank.

Grade of qualifications, police record, bankruptcy. Candidates have been known to exaggerate their grades. Seeing the original degree certificate is a must, as is engaging a reputable firm to check not only claimed qualifications, but also whether the candidate has a police record or is an undischarged bankrupt.

Vague employment details. Some candidates change the starting and ending dates of a period of employment to cover gaps between one role and another.

There are a range of techniques a professional recruitment agency will use to check the bona fides of candidates. They include:

Go with your gut feeling. The first thing to trust is your intuition. This is particularly true for a professional recruiter who has seen it all before: if something doesn't stack up about a candidate's story, follow your instincts and dig deeper with further questions that confirm or dispel your hunch.

Pre-shortlisting screening. LG Services Group always pre-screens candidates. This informal chat is normally face to face, or occasionally by video call. It gives a chance to get candidates to really open up about themselves, while carefully listening for consistency between what is said and what is in the application and CV.

The come-clean question. A personal favourite of mine, when trying to ensure candidates are being as truthful and open as possible, is to tell them we have a standard procedure of cross checking all the information candidates give us, then ask, in a completely matter-of-fact and non-accusatory manner, "Will this process of verification show up anything different from your CV, and if so, would you like to share that with me now?" Over the years I have seen a number of applicants open up to this line of questioning and provide an alternative version of their CV.

Use a standard interview procedure. Good recruitment and equal employment best practice means formal interviews should follow a standard questioning procedure, asking the same questions in the same format. Another benefit of this approach is that if someone gives an unusual answer or appears to talk up a claim, it stands out more when compared directly with other candidates.

Look as well as listen. Both during informal pre-screening and the formal job interview, I have always found it useful to observe body language, as it can be a guide to a lack of honesty. While the value placed on body language shouldn't be overestimated, an experienced recruiter can detect certain clues that help determine if a candidate is being less than honest.

Check the CV, and check it again. Certain parts of a CV merit particular scrutiny: the qualification claimed is one, and the date of award is another. Any employment gap is another: why did they leave a role, why is there a period without a job, and what did they actually do during that time.

Check social media. Visiting social network profiles, or a simple search, can unearth some interesting stories. An assault conviction or a dismissal are the kind of incidents that have been discovered in the past. Not everyone will embrace social media, and a person's right to privacy should be respected.

Undertake full reference checks. The importance of comprehensively checking references cannot be overstated. LG Services Group normally insists on the names of at least three referees, usually the current employer, a council partner or community leader, and a governing body representative such as a mayor or councillor the candidate has worked with. We ask a specific set of questions about the candidate's achievements, their ability to build relationships, and any limitations or development areas from the referee's perspective.

Follow up questions. Although it's important to question each candidate consistently at formal interview, there is still scope to ask a follow up or supplementary question. This is particularly useful when a candidate's answers are too vague and don't provide sufficient detail. Perhaps they are hiding something, and the supplementary question allows you to dig more thoroughly.

A CEO appointment for a council is an absolute privilege: the opportunity to appoint your own CEO doesn't come along too often. Making the wrong appointment can be hugely costly in productivity and staff morale, not to mention that being duped by a fraudulent candidate can be enormously embarrassing and damaging for the reputation of the council and the personal reputations of the mayor and councillors involved in the appointment. Using the services of a reputable recruitment specialist can help overcome these risks.

While the thrust of this article is about giving employers advice on how to spot lies and half truths on candidate resumes, it's worth also offering a heads up for anyone tempted to try to brag their way to the top. It is a huge risk to go through the application and interview process with a CV based on anything less than the truth. Chances are you will be found out before interview, and even if you get the job offer, how would you feel about losing it by making up a degree or a past employer to make your CV look more impressive? Even if you do get the job, one you might occupy for years, one day somebody from your past could bump into your current mayor at a conference, and your reputation is toast. Yes, it happens.

William J Taylor MBE is a writer, consultant and public speaker. He is a former council CEO and management consultant with extensive local government experience in the UK and Australia.