Understanding Recruitment Fraud: What Does It Entail and How Can You Steer Clear?

The pandemic resulted in mass layoffs and job loss in multiple sectors around the globe. So far, E-commerce is the only stable sector providing new jobs and continuous growth. Yet, increase in unemployment is paving the way to spreading of job frauds.

A recent study by KPMG stated that individuals desperate for jobs are submitting fictitious personal and educational information to lie about their qualifications and professional experience.

Organizations need to be on their guard and devise a prevention and fraud detection strategy by analysing and studying commonly seen recruitment and employment frauds.

Different Forms of Recruitment Fraud

From listing false skills in the resume to violating company policies, recruitment fraud can occur in numerous ways. Here are some of the commonly seen recruitment frauds.

• Fake certificates – Submitting fake certificates for educational or personal qualifications, professional experiences, skills, or even volunteer work can be considered in this category.
• False resume data – Listing wrong skills, fake qualifications, wrong references, exaggerated work experiences, wrong educational background, mentioning incomplete courses.
• Proxy attendees for work evaluations – Placing substitutes for assessments and evaluations, submitting forged reports etc.
• Multiple affiliations – Working full-time for two or more companies at the same time, joining a new company without resigning from the previous company etc.

The list of recruitment frauds doesn’t end here. Fraudsters are getting creative, misusing technology to come up with new ways to con employers. In the light of the situation, disciplinary actions can help to mitigate the impact and prevent frauds from occurring.

Employees are the most requisite assets of the company. A wrong hiring choice can hurt the company’s reputation and work culture which is why it’s essential to prevent such a fraud from occurring in the first place.

Recruitment frauds can damage the reputation of the company and also cause internal issues such as leadership conflicts and discrimination.

With that said, you’ve probably guessed by now that when it comes to employment frauds, the better-early-than-late approach is the best policy. Here’s how we think you should go about it.

3 Ways to Deal With This Issue

1. Background verification: Strong background verification measures should be taken while hiring every applicant. Make use of professional social networking websites and online profiles of the shortlisted candidates. Also keep in mind that practice of ‘unearthing applicant information’ on other channels should be ethical and secretive. While vetting professional portfolios, make sure you reverse check sources and ask for proof of ownership.

2. Document verification: Verification for all the submitted documents may seem tedious but it’s crucial to manually verify original documents while onboarding. You could also hire an expert proficient in identifying falsified/fabricated documents.

3. Cold calling the references: Make sure you ask for immediate references such as managers, co-workers etc before you onboard an employee. Most recruiters skip cold-calling references, as it seems gruelling. Cold calling immediate references have to be mandated to avoid further uncertainties about the professional and basic personal qualifications of the candidate.

Unfortunately, deceit and fraud are deep-rooted problems that you cannot single-handedly eradicate. But what you can do is work on building deterrents like a bulletproof candidate screening mechanism or a whistle-blowing system to protect your company and employees.