{"id":467897,"date":"2023-11-07T15:29:47","date_gmt":"2023-11-07T15:29:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shrm.org\/resourcesandtools\/hr-topics\/people-managers\/pages\/dishonesty-in-hiring.aspx"},"modified":"2023-11-07T15:29:47","modified_gmt":"2023-11-07T15:29:47","slug":"dishonesty-in-hiring","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/squarehr.com\/index.php\/2023\/11\/07\/dishonesty-in-hiring\/","title":{"rendered":"Dishonesty in Hiring"},"content":{"rendered":"

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t\u2019s no surprise that job candidates lie to get ahead. According to a recent survey<\/a> from Resume Builder, a resume services company headquartered in Seattle, 32 percent of Americans admit to lying on their resume\u2014the most common lie being the amount of experience they have. Another survey<\/a> conducted by Checkster, a reference-checking service based in Novato, Calif., found that among the job candidates they surveyed, a full 78 percent say they had misrepresented themselves to potential employers.<\/div>\n

Some of those inflated claims include mastering skills about which they had only basic knowledge (60 percent), excluding previous employers (50 percent), giving a false reason for leaving a job (45 percent), fabricating experiences (42 percent), using a director rather than manager title (41 percent), and having a degree from a university more prestigious than their own (39 percent).<\/p>\n

\u201cMany job seekers operate believing that if they can just get in front of the hiring manager, they\u2019ll be able to impress them enough to receive a job offer,\u201d says Amanda Augustine, a certified professional career coach and resident career expert at TopInterview, an interview coaching firm headquartered in New York City. \u201cOr, if they are just given an opportunity to do the job, they\u2019ll be able to learn what they don\u2019t already know. <\/p>\n

If a candidate is caught in a lie, Augustine says, they could lose the opportunity they\u2019re pursuing. Or, if they are caught later, they might be fired. \u201cEven if someone is able to keep their lie off the hiring manager\u2019s radar and land the job, their employment can be terminated if the lie is uncovered at a later date,\u201d Augustine says. \u201cOnce a candidate is outed as being dishonest about their career story, their professional brand will also take a hit.” <\/p>\n

According to the Resume Builder survey<\/a> of 1,250 workers, there are consequences if job candidates are caught misrepresenting themselves. Of the respondents who said they had lied on their resumes, 41 percent who were subsequently hired said their job offer was rescinded once their lies were detected. Eighteen percent who were hired were later terminated when they were caught; 12 percent were reprimanded but kept their jobs. Only 29 percent of those hired said they suffered no consequences.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

‘Most people lie to the hiring managers. It happens during every interview, to a degree. But that’s not necessarily a deal breaker.’ \u2014Biljana Rakic<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, many career experts say they tend to give candidates the benefit of the doubt when they stretch the truth. The Checkster survey revealed that 66 percent of hiring managers are willing to accept a lapse in ethics. \u201cIf you say to a candidate, \u2018Tell me about a time you made a critical mistake,\u2019 they may try to soften the story about the time they botched a project that cost the company millions,\u201d said Eric Mochnacz, SHRM-SCP, director of operations at Red Clover, an HR consulting firm in Kinnelon, New Jersey. \u201cIt doesn’t make them a liar; it just makes them a strong and adept interviewer. In my 20-ish years of managing interviews for individuals across all levels of an organization across a variety of industries, I have only encountered one individual who turned out to have completely lied through the extent of his interview process and eventual employment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Biljana Rakic, vice president of human capital at CAKE Inc., a work management software provider based in Palo Alto, Calif., holds a similar view. \u201cMost people lie to the hiring managers,\u201d she says. \u201cIt happens during every interview, to a degree. But that\u2019s not necessarily a deal breaker. Some \u2018lies\u2019 aren\u2019t complete fabrications, but harmless omissions. In any case, most resumes are embellished to showcase the candidate in the best possible light.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Hiring Managers Are Dishonest<\/p>\n

Perhaps more surprising, while dishonesty among job candidates is prevalent and even accepted at times, many hiring managers also admit to lying during the hiring process. In fact, according to another Resume Builder survey<\/a> of more than 1,000 hiring managers, the vast majority (80 percent) say lying is very acceptable (14 percent) or somewhat acceptable (66 percent) at their company.<\/div>\n

Resume Builder reports that 36 percent of hiring managers admitted they\u2019ve lied to candidates about their company or the role they are seeking to fill. Of this group, 75 percent said they were dishonest in the interview, 52 percent in the job description and 24 percent in the offer letter. Their most frequent lies were about the position\u2019s responsibilities and growth opportunities.<\/p>\n

This lying apparently works, when you consider that 92 percent of hiring managers report that a candidate they lied to accepted their job offer. \u201cWith the pressure to bring on talent in this market, hiring managers are also lying about the role and responsibilities as well as growth and career development,\u201d says Stacie Haller, chief career advisor at Resume Builder.<\/p>\n

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‘No one who is tasked with recruiting candidates wants to admit that their company is dysfunctional or its work environment is toxic.’ \u2014Amanda Augustine<\/p>\n

\u201cMost often, hiring managers try to minimize or gloss over any issues with the work culture,\u201d says Sarah Doughty, vice president of talent operations at TalentLab, a talent recruiter for technology companies based in Ottawa. \u201cThe match is less durable, and often the candidate will leave within the first year. This costs employers and causes more ripple issues like over-burdened teams and more expensive\/time-consuming recruitment in the future.\u201d<\/div>\n

In her experience, Augustine says she has seen hiring managers often omit details or stretch the truth about an open position when they think they\u2019ve found the right candidate. \u201cNo one who is tasked with recruiting candidates wants to admit that their company is dysfunctional or its work environment is toxic,\u201d she says. \u201cRather, they\u2019d prefer to avoid talking about such facts and embellish others to keep a good candidate from rejecting a job offer\u2014even though this decision will often come back to haunt them later.\u201d<\/p>\n

Two Wrongs Don\u2019t Make a Right<\/p>\n

Just as lying can hurt a job seeker\u2019s reputation, it can do the same to a company. \u201cThis incident could end up tarnishing the employer\u2019s reputation,\u201d Augustine says. \u201cAnyone with internet access can broadcast their negative experience on company review sites like Glassdoor and on social media.\u201d<\/p>\n

Amy Feind Reeves, founder and CEO of HireAHiringManager, a career consulting company in Boston, says hiring managers lie\u2014or at least omit crucial details\u2014about positions that are challenging to fill. \u201cThere are roles that are hard to fill because the work can be grueling and [lead to] high burnout,\u201d Feind Reeves says. \u201cHowever, in general, hiring the wrong person for the job is only going to cost a hiring manager, the same way a candidate lying their way into being hired for the wrong job is going to cost a candidate.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lying could be a symptom of a rushed and disorganized hiring process, says Craig della Penna, managing partner and founder of Aesop Partners, a management consulting firm, and the founder of HireBest, a talent recruiting firm, both based in Concord, Mass. In the rush to fill an open position, a majority of hiring managers don\u2019t take adequate time to thoroughly understand what they need in the role or take an honest assessment of the hiring situation they\u2019re facing.<\/p>\n

‘Once either side realizes that the other is lying, all trust is gone, and the relationship is hard to recover.’ \u2014Stacie Haller<\/p>\n

\u201cThis has two possible downstream effects: First, the candidates that are sourced might be starting off the hiring journey as a poor fit. [They are] either underqualified or overqualified for the job in question,\u201d della Penna says. \u201cSecondly, it results in hiring managers succumbing to their conscious or unconscious biases and hiring a candidate that is not a good fit for what they actually need. When newly hired employees discover that they were sold on a job that is different than the one they thought they took, that creates feelings of frustration and distrust moving forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

When interviewing for a job, it\u2019s critical to be as honest as possible, Augustine says. \u201cGood faith is essential for a healthy and productive work environment. Hiring the wrong candidate for a job or accepting the wrong opportunity is an expensive mistake to make for either party.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the worst-case scenario, uncovering a lie can negatively impact a candidate\u2019s or a company\u2019s reputation for the foreseeable future. \u201cThe corrosion of honesty is alarming, and we must shine a light here,\u201d Haller says. \u201cAs for the hiring managers lying, the responsibilities are also with candidates to do their due diligence and information gathering on the companies they are considering joining. Once either side realizes that the other is lying, all trust is gone, and the relationship is hard to recover.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kylie Ora Lobell is a freelance writer based in Los Angeles.<\/em><\/p>\n

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I t\u2019s no surprise that job candidates lie to get ahead. According to a recent survey from Resume Builder, a resume services company headquartered in Seattle, 32 percent of Americans admit to lying on their resume\u2014the most common lie being the amount of experience they have. Another survey conducted by Checkster, a reference-checking service based […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[313,37,427],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-467897","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-communication","category-employee-relations","category-talent-acquisition-communication"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/squarehr.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467897","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/squarehr.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/squarehr.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/squarehr.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/squarehr.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=467897"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/squarehr.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467897\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/squarehr.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=467897"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/squarehr.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=467897"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/squarehr.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=467897"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}