Why You Should Be Verifying Education Before Hiring New Employees

In today’s competitive workforce, applicants are doing everything they can to make their resume stand out from others in order to land a job. Resume fluffing, a common practice done by many applicants, is meant to make applicants seem more qualified for a position and attract employer’s attention.

While it is okay to use phrases and terms to boost your unique strengths and credibility, some candidates may go as far as lying on their resume, which would be referred to as resume fraud.

According to a study conducted by Career Builder, 75% of HR managers have reported that they have found a lie on a resume.

So why would a candidate lie on their resume? Well, one of the most common resume fraud elements is education fraud. Many entry-level jobs today require a college degree, and for some candidates to qualify, they might go as far as lying about their education just to get the job. While some candidates provide inaccurate information, some may go as far as obtaining a diploma from a diploma mill.

Diploma mills are institutions that offer degrees, diplomas or certificates to individuals for a fee. These institutions and organizations basically charge a “tuition,” and fast forward straight to the degree with no educational aspect required. The Federal Trade Commission provides great insight into diploma mills and what signs to look out for.

This article will explain why it’s important to verify education before hiring new employees, as well as what steps to take in order to do so.

Why Verifying Education is Important

Though as a manager you want to have trust in a candidate’s application, it’s crucial for you to properly screen your candidates to ensure you are hiring honest talent.

Here are some reasons why you should be conducting education verifications:

It saves you time and money not moving forward with a potential bad hire
It helps weed out all unqualified, dishonest candidates
Helps maintain your company’s reputation; it wouldn’t look good to hire an employee who was dishonest about their experience
Hiring an employee who lied about their educational experience wouldn’t be fair to all the candidates who worked hard to earn their education

How to Verify Education

It’s essential that your company has a proper recruitment and selection process, and education verification being one of the most important steps. Here are some ways your business can verify potential employees’ education:

Request a copy of the applicant’s official degree or diploma. Be careful with this way of verification, as some diplomas may be illegitimate and obtained by a diploma mill.
Contact the applicant’s institution directly and have them verify dates attended and degrees earned. There’s no saying how long this process will be. In some instances, it may be difficult to get in touch with someone who can offer you the authentication.
Use an employment background screening service that offers education verification. Typically, this process is a lot quicker and can give you the answers you need within just a couple of days. A full pre-employment screening can also provide you with additional information such as a background check including criminal records, credit checks, and past employment verification.

Verifying education helps you determine if the university is legitimate and exists, if the candidate attended the school during the dates they stated on their resume, and if a degree was granted during that time.

If a degree is an essential part of the qualification in a position, then do your company a big favor and implement an education verification process.

There will always be dishonest individuals in the workforce, there’s no getting around it. So it’s crucial to streamline your hiring process by implementing processes like education verification that will minimize your chances of hiring dishonest individuals.

Keep your company’s reputation in good standing by hiring genuine and reliable employees to your team that will help uphold your credibility as an honest business.

Corey Doane is a contributing editor for 365 business tips. She has a B.S in Public Relations from San Jose State University and has experience in PR, marketing and communications.