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Unemployment Rates Are Down. Unfortunately, Applicant Embellishment Rates Are Not!

Unemployment Rates Are Down. Unfortunately, Applicant Embellishment Rates Are Not!

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by Thomas Wright, Satisfaction Executive

SELECTiON.COM®

The Labor Department reported recently that the U.S. jobless rate fell to 4.1% in October, a 17-year low.

According to CNN’s Patrick Gillespie (@CNNMoney), “That’s why some experts think the U.S. economy is at, or getting close to, something called ‘full employment,’ which means employers can’t find many more available and qualified workers for open jobs.”1

With unemployment numbers that low, many companies are worried about how they’re going to fill those important positions with quality, reliable employees.

That is what makes it more important than ever for proper background checks to be a part of your screening process.

A thorough background check can make the difference between hiring an applicant who merely looks good on paper, and one whose qualifications are truly legitimate.

Criminal background checks are an important part of the process, but oftentimes it’s an education verification along with a prior-employment verification that can best weed out the less-qualified applicants from the candidate pool.

CareerBuilder recently announced that three out of every four HR managers (75%) surveyed have caught a lie on a resume.2

The most common fib seems to be embellishing skills or capabilities; 62% of respondents say they’ve come across this, and 54% say they’ve caught applicants taking liberties when describing the scope of their responsibilities.3

A quarter have seen people who claim to be employed by companies they never really worked for.

By checking an applicant’s actual employment history against the enhanced version, such falsifications can be easily spotted, but despite the obvious benefits many potential employers just don’t have the time or resources to perform such verifications.

Good news, SELECTiON.COM® can help!

Prior-employment and education verifications are performed by our most senior staff members with an average turnaround time of two to three days.

Prior-employment verification is available for previous positions held, starting and ending dates of employment, eligibility for rehire and other relevant information about the applicant’s performance.

Education verification documents an applicant’s start dates, end dates, major fields of study and degrees earned, areas that are often the most enhanced on resumes today, with an average turnaround time of one to three days.

Combine either or both with a criminal history report and a Social Security Number trace, and you have a great start to hiring the best employee for your company.

Here at SELECTiON.COM® we are a nationwide provider of background screening services. Our plethora of products and reports can help you find the best hires, even with the lowest unemployment rate in 17 years. Contact us today to see how we can make a difference.

SOURCES:

1 Gillespie, Patrick (2017, June 2). America’s job market is bit like the porridge in Goldilocks. You don’t want it to get too hot or too cold. It needs to be just right. CNN Money. Retrieved from http://money.cnn.com/2017/06/02/news/economy/jobs-full-employment/index.html

2 CareerBuilder. (2015). Employers Reveal Biggest Resume Blunders in Annual CareerBuilder Survey [Press release]. Retrieved from http://www.careerbuilder.com/share/aboutus/pressreleasesdetail.aspx?ed=12%2F31%2F2015&id=pr909&sd=8%2F13%2F2015

3 CareerBuilder. (2017). 75% of HR Managers Have Caught a Lie on a Resume, According to a New CareerBuilder Survey [Press release]. Retrieved from http://press.careerbuilder.com/2017-09-14-75-of-HR-Managers-Have-Caught-a-Lie-on-a-Resume-According-to-a-New-CareerBuilder-Survey

If Unemployment Levels Are Down, Why Are Stress Levels Up?

If Unemployment Levels Are Down, Why Are Stress Levels Up?

Blog

by Wayne J. Jung

Wasp Barcode Technologies recently released their annual State of Small Business Report and not surprisingly more than half of the 1,100 small businesses surveyed indicated that hiring new employees was the top challenge facing them in 2017.

Less than a third of those same respondents also listed hiring new employees as a strategy for growing revenue during the same period.

The high cost of sourcing and acquiring new employees certainly plays a role, as does training, motivation and retention. Just like an employee tends to avoid certain tasks that they don’t enjoy, so too do many employers.

Just like in sports, it’s never a good idea for a business to avoid upgrading the lineup with talented professionals, and that’s especially true in a competitive marketplace.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, September’s 4.2% unemployment rate represented the lowest number on record in more than ten years. And while that is good news for jobseekers, it’s bad news for employers.

A low unemployment rate means that while there is more competition for good jobs, companies are fighting against others for top-tier professionals.

It is especially tough for small businesses who cannot afford to outsource their recruitment efforts, because the time and expense to attract the right people can be prohibitive.

And we haven’t even begun to talk about the costs associated with hiring the wrong person for the job!

According to the U.S. Department of Labor, the cost of a bad hire can be as high as 30% of the employee’s first-year income. That can be a substantial hit for any company, made even more impactful when the same mistakes are repeated over and over.

If recruiting, interviewing, training and retaining that new employee is stressful, we can only imagine how hard it is to justify time and expense in the applicant vetting process.

That’s why at SELECTiON.COM® we go to great lengths to not only uncomplicate, but to provide a cost-effective solution to your hiring methodology.

With systems that greatly reduce time, eliminate manual paper filing, improve efficiency and are easy to use, SELECTiON.COM® offers customers of all sizes and in all industries a solution to their applicant vetting process.

Best of all, our solutions are priced to fit any budget and can be customized to your specific needs.

It really is as simple as you select the candidate and we’ll verify their background. That’s why we like to say, “Your SELECTiON®, Verified!”

At SELECTiON.COM® our proprietary Search America™ report is the largest National Criminal Database in the United States, with One Billion records from over 1,500 sources. It’s a multi-jurisdictional search of criminal record databases and Government Watch lists that includes correction records and Sex Offender registries from all 50 states. With this compiled database, we can help to keep your costs low and your coverage level high while providing a quality report.

Contact us today to see how SELECTiON.COM® can take your employment background check process to the next level.

NOTE: The contents of this article are not legal advice for your particular situation. You should neither act nor rely upon anything stated in this article without first consulting your own legal counsel.

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