Fantastical Degrees and Where to Find Them
In this article, we look at what may be lurking beneath the surface of your candidates’ resumes, and what employers can do to mitigate potential reputational, financial, and corporate risk.
This article was originally published in HR Daily Advisor on June 26, 2023.
Few cases of resume bolstering get as much attention as that of the U.S. representative for New York’s 3rd congressional district, George Santos. After Santos’ 2020 resume was published in the media earlier this year, it was revealed to include a number of lies about his past activity, including fabricated education credentials and a partly fictional employment history, leading to bipartisan calls for his resignation.
While not every occurrence of resume fraud will be as high profile as that of a person appointed to a role in public office, it’s a good example of a growing problem facing employers everywhere. Now that hybrid and remote working are commonplace in many industries, and employees can often access highly sensitive and confidential data from within their own homes, it is essential that employers can trust their workers outside of their offices. In this article, we look at what may be lurking beneath the surface of your candidates’ resumes, and what employers can do to mitigate potential reputational, financial, and corporate risk.
Employing anyone will always carry an element of risk. However, businesses can implement steps to manage their risks with robust due diligence. While industries such as transportation and healthcare often have regulations mandating specific background checks for certain job functions, for businesses in other areas (and non-regulated roles within regulated industries), employers must use their best judgement to determine what their policies will be for vetting their candidates pre-hire.
By omitting certain background checks, employers may be able to reduce the onboarding time for new hires, but some facets of their candidates’ backgrounds, which could reveal things that may make a recruiter reconsider their hiring decisions, risk being overlooked. Conversely, a ‘leave no stone unturned’ approach could be unnecessarily costly for a business, time-consuming for both the employer and their candidates, and could result in candidates withdrawing from the recruitment process to pursue an alternative job offer where they can start sooner. So how can employers strike a balance between mitigating risk, managing costs, and reducing time-to-hire?
Assessing your employment risks
First and foremost, a candidate background check must always be relevant and proportionate to the role they have applied for within a company. An employer should work with their legal counsel and seek best practice information from a knowledgeable employment screening provider regarding which checks may be considered appropriate for various job roles, as well as any checks that may not be available in the different states, countries, and territories that their business is screening in.
More senior roles, or those with access to highly sensitive information, are typically considered higher risk, and individuals applying for these types of positions may undergo more thorough vetting. For example, an executive-level hire may be required to undergo specific checks above those routinely required for all employees, such as a directorship check (to search to any current or previously held directorships that may present a conflict of interest), an adverse media check (to verify that the individual has not been negatively reported in the media for anything that may be relevant to their role), and a social media check (to confirm they have not posted anything on their public social media profiles that could potentially embarrass the company or that indicates certain behaviors that would not be appropriate in their role).
However, one check that can sometimes be overlooked – despite being relevant and proportionate to most job roles, and its omission potentially resulting in businesses hiring underqualified workers – is an education check.
Education checks 101 – What are education checks?
An education check, or an academic history check, verifies education details provided by a candidate on their resume or application form. This check is typically conducted by contacting educational institutions directly, or via their authorized agents, to validate the academic qualifications a candidate has declared during the job application process. Additionally, employers may also request that candidates provide supporting documentation, such as degree certificates and transcripts.
While regulated positions may dictate the specific requirements of an education check, for other roles, employers must decide on what they feel is appropriate to provide them with peace of mind in this area to support their hiring decisions. Employers may choose to verify a candidate’s most recent education only, all higher education (all undergraduate and postgraduate qualifications, possibly including courses still being studied), or even all education history (including high school attendance dating back to when a candidate was 17 or 18 years old).
Finding fake, forged, and fabricated degrees
Another consideration when verifying a candidate’s education credentials, particularly if a business is doing this in-house, is diploma mills. These are organizations that claim to be higher education institutions but instead sell fabricated or falsified educational qualifications to individuals for a fee. Documentation provided by diploma mills can appear genuine, and without access to databases of known diploma mills, which many employment screening providers utilize or build themselves, it can be hard to know for certain if your candidates’ education qualifications are genuine.
Our recent annual Benchmark Report revealed that just 41% of survey respondents from the United States and Canada who said their company had a background screening program were conducting education checks in 2022. Shockingly, almost three-fifths were not checking this basic information as part of their pre-employment screening programs, potentially leaving them exposed to reputational and financial risk if candidates had secured roles based on illegitimate academic qualifications. In comparison, 76% of survey respondents from Asia-Pacific (APAC) and 70% of survey respondents from Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) said they conducted education checks.
The survey additionally found that 21% of employers globally had identified candidates during the background screening process who had discrepancies in their education credentials. These types of discrepancy were at their peak in India, where 53% of respondents had found education discrepancies while conducting pre-employment background checks. While discrepancies could be due to several reasons, such as misremembering dates of study, it is important to verify this information to catch any candidates who are intentionally trying to deceive their potential employers by bolstering their resumes with fraudulent education details.
High-profile cases where an individual or employee’s education credentials are said to be false are often shared in the media. This can damage the credibility of the individual, as well as potentially put the reputation of a business or brand they represent in jeopardy. A single incident could undermine the integrity of an entire workforce – if one bad apple has managed to get through the company’s recruitment process, how do people know that others haven’t also slipped the net?
A robust background screening program, including education checks, can allow employers to look deeper into their candidates’ backgrounds at what potentially lurks beneath the surface. This can help organizations hire with greater confidence, knowing that their candidates are who they say they are and that they have the experience and qualifications they claim.
What Verification Background Services does HireRight offer?
Explore the Services Within This Group
Aviation Solutions
Aviation screening services to help facilitate compliance with PRIA, FAA, TSA, and DOT regulations.
CV Analysis
Compares information on a candidate’s CV or resume against information they provided during the screening process.
DOT Drug & Alcohol Verification
Helps facilitate compliance with DOT requirements for pre-employment and annual drug and alcohol history verifications.
DOT Employment Verification
Previous employment verifications can be used to help fulfill the FMCSA requirement for prospective drivers.
Global Education Verification
Verifies candidate provided education history directly with institutions or their authorized agents around the world.
Global Employment Verification
Verifies employment history provided by your candidate with employers or their authorized agents around the world.
Extended Workforce Screening
An online solution for managing background screening for your extended workforce.
Gap Standard and Enhanced
Identifies gaps in your candidate’s education and or employment history.
Moonlighting Check
A moonlighting check identifies if your new hires or existing employees have been or are working for two or more employers at the same time.
Occupational License and Certification Monitoring
Tracks license and certification expiration dates that you choose to monitor.
Professional License Verification
Verify credentials for specialized roles requiring licenses and certifications.
Professional Qualification Verification
Verifies professional qualifications and trade memberships with institutions or their authorized agents.
Professional Reference Check Report
Asks six standard questions to the person provided as a referee by the candidate and documents their responses.