Despite living in a world of instant verification, a large number of job applicants continue to fudge their qualifications.
An annual screening index released by ADP Employment Services found that although there was a 12 percent hike in employers prescreening prospective workers last year, 49 percent of applicants still embellished their credentials.
ADP, which has a branch in Owings Mills, performed 4.8 million background checks last year.
The consistent rise in the number of background checks performed by employers is evidence that companies want to reduce the chances of hiring a dishonest applicant, according to the report.
Over the last five years, The Porter Group Inc., a Columbia-based sale executive recruiter, has seen an increase in the prescreening of clients.
“Unlike the past, when an applicant usually stayed with one company for a long period of time, today?s applicant changes employment frequently,” said Andrea Eckardt, a senior account executive for The Porter Group. This has increased the importance of prescreening, Eckardt said.
“Plus, companies today invest millions in training their employees, so they want to protect their investment,” she added.
Eckardt says she is not surprised so many applicants lie about their qualifications, even though she always advises them to be truthful.
“They take a chance,” she said.
Prescreening is also a way employers can get information about a prospective employee that employment laws would forbid them to ask for during an interview, said Audrey Mross, an employment lawyer at Dallas-based law firm Davis Munck Butrus PC.
“They see it as a safe way,” Mross said. “An interview is subjective, while prescreening is objective.”
Still, the fact that about half of applicants lie about their qualifications does surprise Mross.
“It?s really puzzling,” she said.
