Padded resumes
Posted by Douglas Eisenhart at 10:06 AM

'Tis the season when college seniors are pounding the pavement and resumes are flying everywhere. Many others are also out looking to land a job. But just how much of what recruiters and hiring managers see on those resumes - whether hard copy or electronic - can they believe these days?

According to "Getting wise to lies" in this week's TIME magazine, the answer is: less and less. Sadly, it holds true for those already on staff, as well, and at all levels of the organization::

Leery of executive Pinocchios lurking in their boardrooms, employers are stepping up efforts to spot them and weed them out. In the field of industrial and organizational psychology, figuring out why and how job applicants lie is a hot research topic, and new studies are warning companies about the dangers of employing a liar. As a result, 96% of businesses now conduct some sort of background check on job applicants, according to the Society for Human Resource Management (S.H.R.M.), a trade group. Meanwhile, the ranks of third-party screeners have exploded in the past 10 years into a $2 billion industry.

For further information, check out these articles from NEHRA on BostonWorks:
Background basics
Background screening for future success
Best practices in hiring, part 1: looking beyond the resume
Best practices in hiring, part 2: testing and reference checks