Montana Employers Monitor Applicant Lies on Resumes

The unemployment rate in Montana in August of this year was at a five year low of 5.3%, though this is significantly higher than its pre-recession rate of 3.1% in December of 2006. With unemployment rates like these, people begin to become desperate for jobs and more willing to resort to dishonest means in order to be hired. And often, these falsehoods are not caught until after the applicant has been hired and money has been spent on his or her training.

The following are a few time-tested strategies Montana companies can employ in order to make sure they don’t end up with one of those too-good-to-be-true candidates slipping into their employee pool.

1. Trust your instincts – If the resume seems a little too perfect or their job qualifications a bit contrived, do a little more digging. Don’t offer the job until you can prove for certain all their credentials are legitimate. More signs of lying include when they claim to have attained an educational degree that doesn’t match their age or their references don’t reflect their purported background.
2. Do a thorough background check – Don’t rely on your gut alone. Companies that provide background checks could also provide education verification and check out the references for you. This frees you up for other important matters and you can be certain the applicant has been vetted by a professional.
3. Perform multiple interviews – In order to narrow your pool of potential candidates to the cream of the crop, conduct several interviews. The first might be a phone screening and the next with a number of key members of the company. Part of this process might include the completion of some simple tasks to evaluate their ability to complete assignments in a limited time to your satisfaction. Finally, the top performing applicants could meet with a member of the hiring team to do a final interview.
4. Ask for extra references – If the first two references seem a little fishy or they don’t provide a complete picture of the candidate’s employment history, you are entirely within your rights to ask for additional references—either personal or professional. If they can’t come up with more, treat this as a red flag and study their background even more carefully.

Finding a job is tough in this economy, so it’s not surprising people will resort to illicit means to secure employment. It’s up to the hiring teams of Montana companies to make sure they are doing sufficient research on the background of each of their candidates before a position is offered.