The perfect job is a dream we all have, but the current job market is highly competitive. Competition is so tough that lying during the recruitment process is something a surprising number of people consider, according to the latest study.
The findings revealed that 32% of respondents admitted to lying during the recruitment process.
Why Do Employees Lie And What Are The Repercussions?
The survey gave further insight into what candidates lie about more commonly in the recruitment process.
- Experience – 53% of respondents lied about their experience on their CVs.
- Skills – 38% of respondents have embellished their skills on their CVs.
- Previous salary – 26% of respondents have lied about their previous salary during the interview process.
- Skills – 38% of respondents have embellished their skills on their CVs.
93% of those who admitted to lying faced no consequences. 51% of the people who had lied were still in the same position.
Additionally, 58% of those who had lied felt they didn’t gain any advantage. 45% believed they did. The verdict is rather mixed, then. You have some people who believe lying can be beneficial and others who, despite lying, don’t think it made any difference.
But it’s also important to note that 14 people had gotten into legal trouble. Their lies had come back to bite them.
Are Employees Ready To Lie In The Future?
63% of respondents did say they would be ready to definitely lie or could be tempted to lie in the future. Not everyone who had lied would lie again, while the majority probably would.
A similar percentage of people also would lie for an opportunity to get a remote or online job. Considering the great resignation wave has been causing havoc in the job market, the desire to go remote might not be a surprise.
What Can Employers Do To Prevent Lying?
Lying during the recruitment process can seem enticing, but the consequences can be damaging. Not only could employees hurt their current and future career opportunities, but they might also harm their ability to perform as their lies could finally catch up with them if their productivity does not match up with the skills and experience they claimed to have.
For employers, it is crucial to pay more attention to the recruitment process. The HR department must use tools to catch the lies before the interviews take place. This can be done with background checks, but these can also be time-consuming since catching every lie might be impossible. Therefore, competency-based evaluations could be a great option.
Conclusion
Performance management software company StaffCircle created this UK study. Their study revealed that less than 25% of respondents endured a ‘very thorough’ recruitment process, which implies that employers need to do more to avoid making regrettable and costly hiring errors.
Employers can use competency-based practices to reduce the chances of hiring the wrong candidate by ensuring that the required skills for the job are aligned with the correct candidate that they hire.
With companies being vigilant about their recruitment process practices, this will help prevent their being issues in the future of companies only realising too late that they have hired the wrong person, which could then have a detrimental effect on business productivity.