“Cutting To The Truth About Resumes” with Phil Sharkey of The Hire Authority

Nathan (0s):
Welcome back Radio Entrepreneurs, I’m producer Nathan, Gobes filling in for Jeffrey Davis this morning. I’m excited to be back with another of our esteemed reporters, Phil Sharkey of The Hire Authority. Welcome back, Phil.

Phil (14s):
Thank you, Nathan. I appreciate it. It’s always great to have the segments with you guys are Radio Entrepreneurs, and I think it was something interesting for you today. I was going to talk to you Nathan, about resumes. I, I prefer as a background screener working for my clients, I would prefer to have a job application as that gives me the best information to do my abilities to my best, but so many of our clients, Nathan just send us a resume. I’d say probably 70% of my clients send a resume only. So that’s what I work off of. And I have something interesting here from a monster.com resource on, on resumes. If I could read to you, my friend, this was according to the masters.com outlook survey of 2021, that 66% of employers agree that candidates exaggerate skills and competencies on their resumes.

Phil (1m 3s):
So in fact, they believe that 66% falsify or lie on the, on their resume, which is a huge number. And then they followed that up with a survey of 400 applicants, as well as 400 hiring managers and HR professionals. This was through the check star and they found a whopping 78% of the applicants stretched the truths about themselves so that they think at somewhere in the neighborhood, again of 66 to 78% of people are stretching the truth on the resume. Now, Nathan, I know sometimes a resume gives you the latitude to put yourself in the best light possible, but when you cross that line and you falsify, it’s just going to cause you great harm.

Phil (1m 43s):
And you’re not going to get very far either with a recruiter or screening companies like ourselves. It’s just not going to happen. We’ve seen find that that here’s how they broke it down for you, Nathan. So they said they had five bullet points within the lines. They said 60% said they had a mastery in skills that they have basic knowledge of, or absolutely had no knowledge of at all. Over 50% said they had worked at some jobs longer in order to admit an employer. That’s a big thing for me as a, as a background screener, I often see they will stretch employment periods to be much longer and hide an employer. And you don’t have to be a, I don’t have to deputize you and make you an investigator.

Phil (2m 23s):
But the reason they hired an employer, usually things went poorly there. They were terminated in such 45%. They said gave a false reason for leaving a job, get that all the time where they’ll put down, you know, that they left for laid off lack of work and one simple call and we’d find out it was job abandonment or they were terminated for cause. So now they’re, they’re a liar of 42.2, 5% made up relevant experience. 41% use a director’s title when the actual title was a manager or lower. And, and that happens immensely. So again, I’m not just talking to the hiring people out there, but also people doing a resume when you make these claims and maybe, you know, for a day or two, you stepped up and did another part of the job.

Phil (3m 9s):
But if you’re not being honest about your title, it’s going to come back to bite you something major and they will pull an offer from you. Or even after the fact I’ve seen some clients terminate someone who’s already started one information surface on the resume that was falsified.

Nathan (3m 25s):
Yeah. Some of these things can certainly be major, you know, discrepancies, like you said, a director title versus manager, a manager might just be, you know, one or two people, whereas director implies, you know, you’ve got a whole division underneath you. These are very different things. And, and I think, you know, a lot of people have, have seen, you know, whether it’s a coworker or somebody that, you know, came into the job that claiming they had this and that. And then once they get on, on the job site, that’s not quite what they, they said,

Phil (3m 58s):
It’s so true. And again, I see the edge. I see the reason why. And they add to the survey that the news flash, they said, companies will check your credentials. So again, I know why people do do this. In fact, they mentioned a Kim Isaac she’s monsters re resume experts. And she said they do because it was a fear of not being good enough, a fear of not measuring up to their peers, a fear of not getting called back for interviews. Some people will do whatever it takes to get an edge, but they also pointed out that it will come back to get them. And the interviewer will do a background screen even after the fact. And it may get you in the door, but in the long run it’s going to cause you big time harm. They’ve even had some people way late in their career.

Phil (4m 38s):
There might be a merger within companies and they do a background check. I’ve done it many times myself. And it comes back to the, you know, the, the resume is falsified and the people who’ve been harmed that they’ve given back, they’ve had to give back relative pay and things will happen. You, you don’t, you don’t win in the long run and you’re taking one heck of a risk, I guess.

Nathan (4m 59s):
Yeah, that’s definitely serious. So as you allude to all, all of these are things that a, The Hire Authority could could check in on for, for employers who are looking at their perspective employees, or even current employees, as you said,

Phil (5m 12s):
It is, it’s part of our standard workups, so to speak and often tell people that, that, you know, they’re worried about time. Our standard background check takes three business days. So you’re not going to lose an applicant. You’re not going to lose a lot of time in the hiring process to just make sure they are who they say they are. They, you and I are talking today and you stick out your hand, you say, hi, I’m Nathan and I’m lying to you or hello. I’m putting my best foot forward. And this is who I am. And when they check that out, they’ll come to see that it did add the three most common resume lies are education embellishments. Obviously they’ve had people who falsified a degree or claimed a degree from the school that that is not where they went date deception, which I find a lot as well, which they commonly we’ll stretch dates to cover those jobs we talked about.

Phil (6m 0s):
And then finally, the number three is skill stretching, where they will claim obviously skills that are way above what they really possess. And it will come out to, to be found that that’s not the fact. So a quality screening program will eliminate that problem. Nothing worse for an employer to have to bring someone on board and then terminate them for cause for falsifying. That’s why we say use us in a preemployment environment. Three days is all you need to give me and we’ll come back to you with, with finding out whether you got an honest person there or not.

Nathan (6m 30s):
Yeah. Having to terminate somebody after you’ve hired them. That’s, you know, last time that you spent training this employee, you have to go back to square one to, you know, hit the ground. Again, looking at resumes seems much easier and much more cost-effective to reach out to the authority beforehand, The Hire Authority.

Phil (6m 47s):
Absolutely. It’s a lot less grief and problems. And the whole employee population, you know, the scuttle button to talk and everything. It’s much better to bring somebody on board that’s been vetted thoroughly and you feel good going forward as, as the person who, who, you know, signed off on the background check, they feel that going into a company that’s worth their wild. And it’s got, got all their ducks in order. It’s a good, good relationship. Both ways.

Nathan (7m 12s):
Yeah. And I think that’s that much more important now, as we’re wrapping up 2021 heading into 2022, you know, it we’re experiencing as many people have called it. The great resignation, lots of employers are looking to fill those gaps. No reason to fill it with somebody that either is not going to hold up to what you were hoping for or what you expected, what you’re paying them for. You know, obviously a lot of people are setting those, their salary rates. Oh, a lot of employers are setting their employees, salary rates based on the skills, the experience, et cetera, that an employee states that they have on their resume. So, you know, setting up somebody for all of that and then just to have to let them go shortly afterwards or, or have them fall short is not what an employer wants right now.

Phil (7m 56s):
So true. Nathan and also, I see a lot now we’ve talked in the past. That’s where, you know, don’t let your best practices, your best hiring guidelines slide, keep, continue to do your due diligence. If you let it slide now as an employer and entrepreneur owner, the whole thing breaks down. So just because we’re desperate finding people for certain positions doesn’t mean you still should do a quality background check to make sure they are who they say they are.

Nathan (8m 20s):
Of course. And the any additional closing thoughts you have for us to, to end up the year, start the new year.

Phil (8m 26s):
I do. In fact, Nathan, I do. And of course, going with, you know, me being the Grinch and being quite jaded, I have a Santa story for you. I do, I do just to fit the point, but not so married. I have a story here in, in somewhat quite shocking, actually. So it was founded a level two sex offender was found to be working as a Santa this year at, at the Burlington and pheasant lane malls. So again, this is a level two and that’s the more severe level. So this was working for the Simon properties group, the Burlington and pheasant lane mall. And if this can happen on a mall, hiring a Santa, it can happen to any business. You really can’t afford to skip a background, check on a man who’s dealing with the children and being so close to them.

Phil (9m 12s):
It is quite shocking actually. And it just goes to tell you, if you, if you turn your head and say, well, I just got to make a quick snap decision. You could get into a real, real bad situation. So there’s my bad news of the day. Everyone should at least go through a background check. It just has to be done today.

Nathan (9m 29s):
Yeah. She’s happy holidays for Sure. I have heard that, you know, there, there is a great need for, for those mall Santas. There’s, there’s many vacancies there. So, you know, many of them, even, even in that industry, employers are facing, you know, the effects of this grade resignation. But as you said, no, no reason to, to jump on the first person that comes in without looking at them more thoroughly.

Phil (9m 57s):
Exactly. Back then, again, you can reach out to us right here, The Hire Authority on the internet@wwwdothigheroff.com or call our offices at (508) 230-5901. Just ask for myself or any of the staff. And we’ll be glad to set up a program right away for you. It’s very easy to come on board.

Nathan (10m 16s):
Great. And saves me the trouble of the usual question of how do people reach you. It’s because Phil’s a professional and a regular here on our show, which means you can find him on Radio Entrepreneurs dot com as well as on YouTube, LinkedIn, all of the other sites that we’re streaming on. If you like Phil’s commentary has his regular updates, be sure to hit like share subscribe, comment, hit that bell button on YouTube. That gives you notifications. When new content comes out, all that helps our show immensely. And we really appreciate it. And it’ll keep you up to date on all of the trending topics in hiring staffing, screening, et cetera, and all the other shows that we stream. I want to thank our listeners and viewers for joining us. Of course, I want to thank you, Phil, for joining us happy holidays and have a hope.

Nathan (10m 59s):
You have a great rest of your new year.

Phil (11m 1s):
Thank you, Nathan. Same to you as well.

Nathan (11m 4s):
Thanks. We’re back on Radio Entrepreneurs after this break.