“8 Out Of 10 Applicants Are Telling You Something That’s Not True” w/ Phil Sharkey of The Hire Authority

Jonathan (1s):
Welcome back to radio entrepreneurs. I’m Jonathan Freedman joined by our good friend and guests, Phil Sharkey, president of the Hire authority. Welcome to the Sharkey report with sheriff Sharkey. How are you this morning, sheriff,

Phil (14s):
Now that I’m doing great. Thanks so much for having me. I always look forward to our time together and I have an interesting numbers prepared for you in my industry regarding what’s going on out there for people, for companies checking out people, looking for jobs. The few that are looking for work got some bad.

Jonathan (30s):
Well, the few that are working for a few that are looking that aren’t in the game, but the many that are in the game that are looking as well. And we always know you come to us with great statistics, great numbers through your research. What’s the latest, scary number you have for employers out there.

Phil (43s):
This is what I have for you, Jenna. And I have a survey from a reference checking company called check stir. They just do reference checking. We do full preemployment screening, but they, their survey of 400 job applicants as well as 400. The hiring managers, 800 people show that 70% of the candidates who applied for a job received an offer in the last six months admitted that they were either misrepresenting themselves or considering considering misrepresented self on the application. So 78% job,

Jonathan (1m 13s):
Eight out of 10, almost eight out of every 10 applicants is telling you something that’s not true or considering telling you something that’s not true. Let’s be clear. They’re not necessarily, you know, they they’ve got a devious mind, but they’re not sure whether they want to push play.

Phil (1m 25s):
Exactly. And I always tell people, some people are going to be well, it’s a resume. It’s a white lie. It’s a little lie. I was, my studies have shown in the 25 years in the business that once a person lies, it’s like breaking that dam. It’s like, you can’t go back. They’ve shown you that they will lie. So it’s easier for them. So when you hire them and you ask them if they locked up, if they did this, if they did their job responsibilities, you know, we say in my business, a leopard doesn’t change their spots. So once they’ve made that conscious decision to lie on a resume, if it comes push comes to shove again, they will lie again. And you can go roots in hiring a good screening company like ourselves to keep these people out of your company.

Jonathan (2m 2s):
As I often use the phrase, same analogy tip of the iceberg, you know, if they’re going to lie on that, what’s going to happen. When, when it comes time to cookies missing from the proverbial cookie jar, who was

Phil (2m 12s):
It’s so true. We just had an applicant this week where they admitted to some criminal charges to our clients and they said, they’re okay with it, but let’s do the background check anyways. And I used the exact same line tip of the iceberg. And of course, what they admitted to was just a little slight introduction into the whole story. And they were much more charges and much more involvement in much more seriousness than they admitted it.

Jonathan (2m 32s):
So really interesting. I want to pull back the layers on the onion, cause I know you’ve got some stats behind the stats, but you just raised an interesting point for me. So somebody has a, we’ll call it a checkered past a blemish on their record, you know, always better to find that out in advance. And I think your point is, you know, follow up, follow the th th th the smoke and see whether or not there’s fire behind it. Or if, you know, they’re telling the truth in regards to that. So, you know, we’re all human, you know, the longer you’re on this planet, the less the, the greater, the likelihood, well, maybe hope, hopefully not the older you get, maybe the wiser you get and, and hopefully not. But you know, everybody’s got some sort of blemish on their record in some capacity, but I think to your point, as long as they’re forthcoming with that, you know, we can nip it.

Jonathan (3m 15s):
We can address it and see whether or not it has any implications for their employment.

Phil (3m 19s):
I just had this conversation yesterday with the client. And again, you know, we’re, we’re not big brother. I’m not going through someone’s trash or closet. Everyone has has issues. As you said, the longer you’re on this planet, you acquire things that, that happens to you, but it’s what we can live with. And again, it’s the line, it’s the so serious nature of it. So whether they have some issues and I applaud the person for admitting to it, but once again, they still showed you. They still didn’t come clean. The best applicants I see are ones that admit to what occurred exactly as it occurred. And then we find out in this last case that it was just the tip of the iceberg, as you stated, it was much more severe. And they knew that they knew not to tell the whole story. So it sort of throws out there a little bit of honesty that they threw out there in the interview.

Jonathan (4m 3s):
Honestly, feel the wigs in my closet are just for Halloween use. Let, let, let’s go a little bit behind the numbers. You said 78% and you’ve got a proverbial top 10 list. Or,

Phil (4m 13s):
And so at the top, these are the eight areas that the, they admitted to lying. And they are Jonathan, as I list the first series, having a mastery of skills that they barely use, like Excel or a former foreign language, 60% admitted, they did that working at a company longer than they did.

Jonathan (4m 28s):
We’ll talk to you because that’s going to be really common. And again, such a core piece, you know, you’re talking about skills. You know, I, I would imagine a means to mitigate that is there’s a lot of tests online, you know, check out people’s skillsets. If they, if they’re giving you that I’m a master in this, we’ll have them do a proficiency test.

Phil (4m 44s):
There is there’s a girl from Boston is 28 year old Stacy. She admitted to our, she put on her resume. She took one level Mandarin class while she was doing a semester abroad in Hong Kong. And she put on her resume that she was elementary proficient in Mandarin. So of course, after they hired her, they had a case come up where they needed a Mandarin speaking person and they turned right to her. And she again had one semester’s worth of,

Jonathan (5m 6s):
I’m guessing Mandarin’s not a language that you want to embellish. I’m suspecting. You’re not mastering it in a semester.

Phil (5m 13s):
No. And then what occurred was she got in trouble with the company and ultimately ended up getting terminated. So again, we’re constantly these people that, that may get you in the door, but if it comes to, to shed some light on it, when it comes around full circle, it could really be a problem for you and a big embarrassment. So

Jonathan (5m 31s):
Excellent. So I’m sorry. I interrupted number two on the list. Number

Phil (5m 34s):
Two is a big one for me because a lot of people go to me and they shrunk, but it’s working in a company longer than they did in order to admit another employer, 50% admitted to doing that. And we surface that all the time gaps in employment, longer claims of employment. A lot of people go, so what, you know, they claim they worked six months. We’d find out it was two months. It is a big. So what, why say that in the first place, most times there’s a reason and choosing not a good one. And then also it fills in the holes. So what were they doing during these holes? I’ve actually had some people will cover being in jail for three years, cause they claimed the red, an employer. And there, there usually is a reason that they consciously reported a gap and, you know, hit a gap in employment by extending employment with their, their other jobs.

Phil (6m 17s):
It’s a big issue. People can’t just push that aside.

Jonathan (6m 19s):
So I would imagine, again, we’re back to the same issue. You know, if you’ve got gaps in employment best to come clean and what the issue is. I mean, you know, again, we faced a number of economic challenges, the pandemic, et cetera. You know, people had gaps in their employment, Caring for a child, a family member, a parent, et cetera. All those types of things are, you know, again, legitimate reasons. But I, I think your point come clean.

Phil (6m 44s):
Exactly. And employers will actually understand that. And you go into a much better situation where common sense takes over. And so many people I think got a fare to get the job will embellish lie, high things and, and going that route is just down the wrong road, absolutely down the wrong road.

Jonathan (6m 60s):
Excellent. So what we’re all about here is as you know, radio entrepreneurs is giving people tips and tricks. So number three, on the list, this is for perspective,

Phil (7m 9s):
Jonathan, having a higher GPA by more than half a point 49% said that obviously, you know, that, that just people just do that. And many of my friends have done that as well. And it’s a common area, but not really necessary. You know, they don’t look that closely at it. They just want to see that you have the degree most don’t care, what your GPA was. Another one is holding a director title when the actual role was manager or equivalent, lower level, 41% do that. That’s a big one for me. I’ve many times talk to a supervisor said, no, that’s my job. That’s what I do. When it’s the person claiming that everybody, you know, one time they take out the trash and they’re, you know, they elevate their position to another area. So that happens often.

Phil (7m 50s):
And you know, I would tell people your final title that they pay you for. That’s the title you have to put down as your previous position in the competency icon embellish don’t, don’t give yourself the raise that you didn’t have.

Jonathan (8m 2s):
Do you have a statistics on the flip side? How many companies actually, and this is an interesting one because I find all the time actually follow up on employment references. I’m guessing that the number is less than the majority that they may ask for them, but whether they actually follow up and do a very good job as another question,

Phil (8m 19s):
You’re exactly, it’s a huge number. It’s a high percentage where they may ask and they may not even reach out. Or it’s a cursory reach out a very quick call or it’s not a professional. It’s the HR person just sort of checking a box. Oh, I did speak to Jonathan’s reference. And I always tell them, let me do it. Let me try to reach the supervisors. That’s who we want to speak with. Not the three references. I’ve had people in prison. Give me three good references. When they hand you references 99% of the time they’re going to be favorable or they’re really not the brightest person of all to give you someone that’s going to be negative. That’s not what I’m going to talk to him.

Jonathan (8m 51s):
And, and I think, yeah, exactly. And I think a lot of employers don’t take the time. I mean, they may recognize, but they’ve got the opportunity to push back and say, you know, Hey, let’s look at this past experience in your resume. I’d like to talk to somebody from here.

Phil (9m 6s):
There’s no doubt about it. And Jonathan all comes down to names against the people saying you’re like big brother and going over above and beyond. No, it’s not. You’re just trying to meet someone and bring them into company. That’s an honest person, shaking your hand saying, hi, Jonathan, nice to meet you. I’m Phil Sharkey and I’m lying to you or I’m not. So it’s your initial introduction, your initial way in the door. And I know why they do it, but even as bad as these numbers are, there’s still many people that don’t. So to me, a background check is really information. It gives you the best decision to make on your hiring situation. You judge them how they dress when they come in, how they handle themself, their knowledge and their resume. And the background checks is just one more step in that process just to make sure they are who they say they are.

Phil (9m 46s):
It’s not very complicated.

Jonathan (9m 48s):
Absolutely. Next on our list.

Phil (9m 50s):
We’ve got earning a degree from a prestigious university when they actually were a few credits, short, 40% big one, people do this all the time for us. The next one, after that is earning a degree from a prestigious university instead of where they actually went. We have some people where, you know, there’s nothing wrong. I mean, massive two-cents based company with graduating from Bridgewater state and they’ll put down, it was UMass Amherst. I don’t know why they would do that because it’s very easy to check.

Jonathan (10m 15s):
I would imagine that’s a pretty simple one to verify one way or another.

Phil (10m 18s):
It’s a very simple one. And people falsify that all the time in the last school, when we have our new degree from procedures university, when they’d only taken one class online, 39% said they did that. So again, with the ability of online education these days, people go way overboard thinking that, well, it’s really not checkable and I can get away with this one without any repercussions at all. No, it’s very easy to check out and we do it all the time.

Jonathan (10m 43s):
So, so again, the summary and the, the findings here is, you know, trust, but verify good, good adage to use in terms of employment. But to your point, there’s a lot that employers can do to verify the information and ask questions and follow up. And for, for prospective employees, best honesty is the best policy.

Phil (11m 6s):
Absolutely. Jonathan and I always tell people that these members are from people that know a background check is going to be conducted. So even if you’re out there looking for it, and you’re thinking about this, once they put down the release form in front of you and tell you that you’re going to have a background check conducted, then it’s time to really think about what you’re going to do because all these numbers, 35% that we see 78% that claimed that they would lie. Once they tell you that we’re going to do a background check. Now you’re given fair warning and still we get these numbers, which is that’s, what’s really shocking. They’re not just randomly grabbing people. He said, no, we’re going to check.

Jonathan (11m 38s):
That really is frightening. This has been the Sharky report was sheriff Sharkey. Phil, always a pleasure to have you on always a pleasure to talk to you. If people want to reach out and talk more about your employment screening offerings and various service that you offer and how to engage you, what’s the best way for them to reach you

Phil (11m 52s):
Jonathan’s routes through the web higher off.com. That’s H I R E a U T h.com. You can email the link right there. You can also call the office. And this is strange in my industry. You actually get a person that answers the phone. So that’s at (508) 238-5901. And we’re ready. You only have senior level investigators that do our work. So I’ll give us a call and then we’ll make sure you’re protected

Jonathan (12m 13s):
As always. Great to see you. Great to hear your insight into the industry and best practices and always a pleasure to talk with you, Phil.

Phil (12m 19s):
Thanks, John. Have a great one.

Jonathan (12m 21s):
You as well, and we’ll be right back with another segment on radio entrepreneurs.