Fake Reference Checks – They’re the Norm!
Results of the latest investigation* into nearly 1000 workers in Australia have revealed an alarming number of references are potentially fake.
According to the study by IT and sales recruitment specialists, Balance Recruitment, 39% of referees were personal friends of the candidate and 4% of workers admitted to using a fake referee. Reference checks are often the last hurdle in the all-important employment offer. For years, employers have placed unwavering trust in responses from referees.
“Believe it or not, there are actually businesses that have been set up to act as fake referees,” says Simon Hogg joint managing director at Balance Recruitment. “We have seen some pretty brazen people trying to impersonate or falsely represent themselves as referees. We had one candidate provide us with the details of his supposed referee only to find when calling the number he provided we ended up talking with him again!
“Given how important it is for candidates to continually move up the career ladder, it’s not surprising some people go to such extraordinary lengths to make sure people say about them exactly what employers want to hear.”
The survey also showed 13% of referees were happy to provide positive feedback about the person even though they weren’t any good at their jobs. Why? The reasons include, ‘they were a nice person and I didn’t want to ruin their career’, ‘to get rid of them from my business’ and ‘I was worried about future ramifications if I told the truth!’
* Survey of 895 IT and Finance workers by Balance recruitment December 2011.
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