I strongly suspected this applicant was lying about his age (Image by Artur Skoniecki from Pixabay)
A recent article titled The Rise Of The Fake Job Applicant caught my attention.
In the age of AI, excellent but fake CVs are easy to produce.
That poses a big risk to companies hiring new employees, especially small and medium-sized enterprises.
Those are businesses usually without in-house HR and legal people to call on for vetting.
We’re talking beyond blagging and a little embellishment here and there.
To quote from the article;
“incidents that take job-applicant fakery to new–and shadier–levels. Totally false résumés featuring fictional employers. Professional interviewees. Covert coaching of candidates with no experience.”
Imagine the fun Frank Abignale Jnr. would have if he was in his impersonating prime today.
If you type that title (The Rise Of The Fake…) into your browser, you’ll see links to many articles about this subject.
Your safest insurance is to check references with personal calls to people listed as previous employers or references.
Trial periods that can be extended if there is any doubt about capability are another.
Hiring new people has always been risky.
Most of the time, things work out, but I’ve had my share of mishaps over the years.
- Like, the guy who used our small regional office to run a fraud who then absconded with cheques and our company car. He was seen months later on a news bulletin acting as a spokesperson for the prisoners in Strangeways prison.
- Two people with alcohol problems they were able to hide until they couldn’t. I can’t give you the details of how their addiction came to light, but neither was good for them or us.
- The benefits fraudster, who said he was American, spoke with a US accent but turned out to be from London. Outside of work, he had multiple identities and, unluckily for him, an angry partner who tired of his philandering and shopped him to the police.
Hopefully, you will never encounter such fakery when hiring and managing people.
However, in the age of ChatGBT and other AI tools, extra care when hiring is required.
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Very best,