We're trying to be as careful as possible in prescreening the people we interview. We hear a lot about resume falsification—some amazing percentage of resumes supposedly have "mistakes" or outright lies on them. What are some of the common things people lie about on their resumes, and will a routine background check pick up the lies? —Alan, HR Manager in Santa Barbara

Most organizations are eventually forced to deal with resume fraud on some level. We sought out Jared Callahan's expertise on this issue.

Any lie or misrepresentation found on a resume is a concern because you're aiming to hire people with high levels of honesty and integrity. Based on my experience, the most common things people lie about are education, employment, and convictions. The industry organization that represents background checking firms, the National Association of Professional Background Screeners, has found that education fraud is on the rise—more so than lies about past employment or criminal convictions.

Why might this be? I think it's because as part of the employment screening process, most employers flat out ask the question about convictions and/or pending criminal issues on their applications, and many employers also use release and authorization forms that ask the question a second time. Seeing these two references to criminal issues on forms before employment, most applicants believe the employer will check for criminal records, so they are less likely to lie about that part of their background. Furthermore, applicants tend to believe that employers will call past employers to verify past employment. (Some employers don't—at their peril. Calling past employers is an absolute must during the hiring process.)

It is because of this, I think, that there is less lying in the convictions and past employment areas. However, the growing trend of falsifying education credentials suggests that untruthful applicants believe employers either don't check out the facts or are indifferent to what is listed about education.

Whether an employer hires a background firm or conducts verifications in-house, it is easy to confirm both past employment and education credentials. I strongly recommend it. In addition, I recommend that you require all candidates to fill out applications. First of all, with a resume, they can always say things like, "Oh, yeah, sorry—I forgot that was still on my resume. I put that there thinking I was going to get the degree." But they can't wiggle out of a signed and dated application. And second, when you evaluate candidates by looking at their applications, you are comparing "apples to apples." You've got the same information from each candidate in the same format. When comparing resumes, you're just looking at what each candidate wants you to see.

Jared Callahan is a licensed private investigator in California, and is director, client services and production, for Employment Screening Resources in Novato.

We'd Like to Know:

Have you ever discovered that an applicant lied on his or her resume?

If you answered yes, what did the person lie about or falsify?

• Education


• Past Employment


• Convictions


• Qualifications


• Other (please describe)

Click here to answer the questions.

Last Week's Results:

In last week's Q&A, we asked: "Have any of your employees taken leave under California's military spouse leave law?" None of the employers that responded said that their employees have taken leave under this law.

Keep Your Supervisors Up to Date on California Employment Laws

Reviewing resumes and interviewing candidates during the hiring process are only a few of a supervisor's or manager's many responsibilities. To ensure that your supervisors have their bases covered and aren't running afoul of the state's complex employment laws, encourage them to join you on May 15 for an in-depth audio conference, "Managing Within the Law for California Supervisors: How to Ensure They Comply With the State and Federal Laws That Affect Your Workplace." During the 90-minute event, an experienced California employment attorney will cover the dos and don'ts in the areas your supervisors handle regularly, highlighting topics such as interviewing applicants, understanding wage and hour laws, responding to leave requests, disciplining employees, and more.

For more information and to register, click here.