Would you hire someone who misrepresented their education credentials?

Summer is a busy time for employers. Many are looking to hire students coming out of the winter semester for internships or recent graduates for junior positions. And given Canada’s current tight labour market, competition for this fresh talent is going to be fierce.

With that being said, it’s crucial you’re hiring the best candidates so you’re not setting yourself up for failure. Education verifications help you hire confidently by quickly confirming institutions attended, degrees and licenses obtained, and attendance dates.

A survey of 400 job seekers revealed that 78% misrepresented themselves. More specifically:

  • 60% lied about being proficient in an in-demand skill.
  • 49% of college graduates inflated their GPA by at least half a point.
  • 40% listed a degree from a prestigious university before they’d completed their program.
  • 39% said they’d graduated from a more prestigious university than the one they’d attended.
  • 39% said they had a degree from a prestigious university after taking just one online class.

With so many job seekers lying about their qualifications, employers need to be leveraging education verifications.

Why You Should Be Using Education Verifications

The survey also included 400 hiring managers. Interestingly, 22% of these hiring managers said they’d still hire a candidate who lied about their GPA. And nearly 30% said they’d hire someone who misrepresented themselves in any way so long as there was a good explanation.

Of course, every situation is different, and perhaps you’ve hired someone you caught mispresenting themselves and they turned into an excellent employee. But it’s important to understand the risk of hiring an underqualified or deceitful applicant.

The US Department of Labor estimates that the average cost of a bad hire is at least 30% of that employee’s first-year expected earnings.

You have to take into consideration:

  • Time spent during the initial recruitment stage.
  • Time spent training this new employee.
  • The loss of productivity due to poor performance.
  • Resources spent managing poor performance.
  • Impact on team morale.

And this is just if they’re underqualified. If an applicant is willing to lie on their resume then it’s reasonable to assume they’ll lie about other things. A dishonest employee is a threat to not just productivity but also to workplace culture as a whole. A toxic work culture will drive other more productive employees to leave.

While this may sound dramatic, over the last five years, 20% of employees have left their jobs due to toxic work cultures. Establishing a strong work culture starts with hiring the right people. And hiring the right people means doing proper due diligence.

Industry-Lead Education Verifications

If you want to integrate education verifications into your recruitment process, you’ve come to the right place. With relationships with thousands of global education institutions, Triton provides thorough education verifications with industry-leading turnaround times. We help you hire with confidence.

Want to request a demo of our solution? Visit our website today.