Identity fraud and fake qualifications are common news articles, and while they produce penalties for the individual, employers can also face serious ramifications.
An estimated 40 percent of people lie on their CVs, and three out of four employers have caught a lie on a candidate’s CV.
“Onboarding is not just about verification and certificates – you must know the background of someone potentially coming into a business by having confidence in these certifications being correct,” said Michael Ivanchenko, CEO at Know Your People software company, CVCheck.
“Having people in your company who have lied about their background or their qualifications is serious, potentially criminal, and can have huge ramifications for the businesses, companies or organisations who employed the individual.”
“While we usually focus on the price paid by the individual at fault, an organisation can still suffer significant brand damage, even if they’re found not to have breached any laws and did the right thing by reporting a crime as soon as they became aware of it.”
“That brand damage can be potentially ongoing and long-lasting and may cost you future business.”
Ivanchenko provides some tips for businesses to ‘know their people effectively. Find the fake qualifications first. The internet has enabled a multitude of fake (and often ‘certified’) diplomas, degrees, and academic transcripts. This means employers should no longer take an academic certificate at face value and must validate qualification claims. Perform rigorous background and compliance checks for your entire workforce. This protects not only customers but other staff and the health of a brand as well.
Screening techniques include - CV screening (manual or automated), skills assessments and interviews.
- Use background checks as a screening tool rather than final validation: Most employers see background checks as ‘due diligence’ or a validation that final-round candidates have the background and skills they claim to possess. This should be done at the start of the employment process.
- Only assess and interview candidates who pass relevant checks: Even with the help of technology, CV screening, skills assessments and interviewing all take time and money. Running checks such as a National Police Check as early in the process as possible will ensure that only verified candidates will progress.
- Remember it comes down to maths: Is the cost of assessing and interviewing potentially dozens of ineligible candidates higher than the cost of screening those candidates out beforehand? If so, it may make sense to conduct background checks earlier in the process.
- Employee situations change: Once 100 percent certain that employees are checked and cleared, ensure they stay compliant by performing regular checks and ensuring systems can support automatic verifications.
“Cited is an absolute game-changer in that it allows a company to see in real-time which of your employees need to take action and when, to remain up-to-date. It creates a single source of truth and removes any margin for error. Whether it’s police or working with children checks, certification or qualification, all your workers across all your locations can be monitored in one place quickly and easily,” said Ivanchenko.
Some recent compliance breach examples from the healthcare industry that highlight the importance of knowing your people:
A fake doctor was fined $10,000 and sentenced to a two-year intensive correction order in January 2022. After failing her exams, she worked as a medical intern from January to August 2021 in Sydney after providing fake documents to get the job. She completed 126 shifts that risked the lives of patients and staff, before her employment was terminated when the hospital requested paperwork she could not provide.
A fake IVF doctor was jailed for ten years in 2018 for 51 offences relating to sexual assault and deception after masquerading as a fertility specialist. The man had never studied medicine.
