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Why Education Verification Is A Must In Today’s Hiring Landscape

For those who haven’t yet noticed, there is a massive labor shortage sweeping through the United States, and some employers are practically in panic mode. There are a multitude of causes for this shortage, but it is due in no small part to enhanced government unemployment benefits established via a coronavirus relief bill signed into law by then-President Donald Trump. That bill provided for a $300 per week boost to unemployment benefits offered by the states in order to help those impacted by coronavirus layoffs. Now, it is being blamed at least in part for the massive labor shortage that we are seeing. All of this is to say that employers have gotten themselves into such a panic about the labor situation that some are forgetting to follow basic due diligence before making a hire. Those are misplaced priorities, as it is obvious that hiring the right people is still the best solution in the long run. 

Scanning Through Multitudes Of Resumes 

It might be a job-seekers market right now, but the expectation is that this will change at some point in the future. Eventually, the boosted unemployment benefits will expire, and employers will once again hold the cards as far as selecting their next candidates for various positions. Thus, they will need to scan through many resumes for each open position that they are looking to fill. Some have used resume scanning software and processes to quickly weed through applicants. This might be an acceptable way to peel away the most glaringly under-qualified candidates, but this should not be where the screening process ends. 

Verifying Details

It is unfortunately the case that many applicants outright lie on their resumes to try to boost their odds of landing a job. The precise number of people who lie to try to get ahead is unknown, but some estimates have the number as high as eighty-five percent of all applicants. That is a frustrating reality that is not likely to go away anytime soon. The only tool that recruiters have in their arsenal for combating this kind of thing is verification of education and other resume details. It certainly is possible, ethical, and legal to check that what an applicant has put down on his or her resume is actually true. Such a process should always be done to make sure that all workers are in fact properly trained and educated to do the tasks assigned to them. In certain cases, it could be a safety issue to not have properly educated employees. 

What Can Be Learned In The Verification Process? 

There is a gold mine of information waiting to be uncovered by those who take the time to use verification of education practices. It is possible to obtain records regarding a potential hire’s dates of enrollment at an educational institution as well as the date of their graduation from that institution (assuming they graduated at all). It is also possible to see what type of degree that person obtained as well as any additional certifications or official achievements that they may have accomplished while they studied there. 

The most valuable piece of information potentially available to a recruiter is a glimpse into the honesty of their potential hire. Hiring someone who is willing to exaggerate or even outright lie about information on their resume does not spell a promising future for that candidate at the company. If they are willing to lie on a resume, what else might they be willing to lie about? This is not meant to scare you, but simply to portray the reality of the hiring situation as it stands today. 

Get The Best Talent 

Given the labor situation today, it is clear that there is plenty of talent on the sidelines that will need a job at some point in the not-so-distant future. This should be reason enough to run all the relevant education verification checks. It might turn out that someone applying has an excellent educational background that is the perfect fit for the role to be filled. Resume scanners might not catch this, but a complete and in-depth education verification process might turn up some amazing candidates who might otherwise go to work for the competition. Don’t let that happen, use verification processes.

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