Source: theHRDirector
Date: January 2006 

In the 21st century, science, or at least technology, plays an increasingly important part in filling vacancies but there is still an art to bringing in the right people at the right time. Are you up to the challenge? Some of today’s candidates can themselves be quite ‘artful’!

You can’t take anything at face value these days. It is difficult enough dealing with the concept of serial saboteurs (of which, more later) but
now a new challenge presents itself.

The candidate sitting opposite you may look supremely fit and healthy but there is every possibility that he or she is, in fact, dead. Now there’s a new slant on the issue of diversity in employment!

Admittedly they don’t look dead. There are none of the tell-tale signs so often associated with deceased status - a fixed stare, inability to move or lack of conversation - but that candidate has indeed shuffled off this mortal coil.

That is the message coming from Karen Webster, product director at deceased fraud prevention software specialist, Halo, which provides
an identity screening service to businesses.

Apparently, ‘deceased impersonation fraud’ is now the fastest growing type of fraud in the UK, with more than 70,000 cases recorded
in 2004 and up to 100,000 expected this year.

Why are they doing it? The reasons are legion it seems, but principal among them are: covering up a criminal past; assuming the qualifications and experience of someone else; or setting the scene for some future criminal activity. But whatever the reason, say the people at Halo, it is a very real and present danger for would-be employers. And checking applicants’ identities against deceased persons’ records should be a standard part of the recruitment process.

“sophisticated criminals produce fake identification”

“It’s amazing just how many people are prepared to try it,” says Webster. “The cost of employing someone who turns out to be a fraudster, dismissing them and then re-appointing someone else, far outweighs the cost of carrying out a check on every candidate.

“All industries can be affected, but those storing personal, sensitive and confidential information are particularly vulnerable and should know exactly who is working for them. Growth of the EU and an increase in the number of migrant workers in the UK means employers must work extra hard to verify identities and track down qualifications and references.

“New technology, including modern computers, scanners and printers, mean it’s never been easier for sophisticated criminals to produce fake identification and certificates to fool employers in an interview.”

The recent conviction of ‘Christopher Edward Buckingham’ for an identify theft straight out of the pages of ‘The day of the Jackal’ by Frederick Forsyth, shows just how easily such deception can be accomplished. ‘Christopher’ had lived the lie for 23 years and the authorities still do not know his true identity
or the motives behind his actions. He was jailed for 21 months earlier this year.

The motives of others might be more easily explained by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), whose latest study reveals that the majority of employers won’t recruit from ‘core jobless’ groups.

Their latest quarterly Labour Market Outlook cites more than sixty per cent of employers as excluding groups with certain characteristics from the recruitment process. Most likely to be excluded are those with a criminal record, those with a history of drug or alcohol problems and those with a history of long-term sickness or incapacity.

"it is reasonable to believe that the incidence of ‘deceased impersonation frauds’ could - and would - decrease significantly from the forecasted levels"

This not only makes identity theft an attractive proposition for some but, with fewer recruitment opportunities in the labour market, it also makes it far harder
to move people from these ‘core jobless’ groups into work.

“Widespread reluctance on the part of employers to recruit the core jobless highlights the magnitude of the task facing the Government as it strives to get more economically inactive benefit claimants - especially those claiming Incapacity Benefit - off welfare and into work,” says John Philpott, the CIPD’s chief economist.

“Current Government initiatives, such as Pathways to Work, are to be welcomed. But even a relatively slight cooling in the labour market, as now seems underway, is bad news for those at the back of the job queue, and for ministers who may find it harder to meet their welfare reform objectives. As a result, the Government will have to reinvigorate its welfare to work agenda by making greater efforts both to improve the employability of the core jobless groups and to address negative employer attitudes to people in these groups.

“The extent of exclusion of the core jobless is not always justified on the basis of their potential. For example, of employers with experience of employing ex-offenders, 87% consider them at least as productive as other workers and 75% consider them at least as reliable. This would suggest that people with criminal records and individuals from other core jobless groups are, in many cases, being unfairly excluded from the recruitment process. More must be done by policy makers, working with employers, to address negative stereotypes.”

If more can be done by employers for those in ‘core jobless’ groups, then it is reasonable to believe that the incidence of ‘deceased impersonation frauds’ could - and would - decrease significantly from the forecasted levels. The definition of employment diversity really should cover more categories than those of sex, age, nationality, race, religion and disability, important though they all are.

Difficulties associated with the accuracy and validity of CVs are no easier to resolve when dealing with more institutionalised bodies. Recent research by the Engineering Council UK (ECUK) of 2,500 engineering employers discovered that 30% of them find it difficult to verify the CVs of applicants for engineering and technical posts.

It seems that many employers of engineers lack the time and/or the personnel to properly check candidates’ qualifications and experience, despite the potentially serious consequences that can result from appointing misrepresented individuals. Loss of business and long-term damage to a company’s reputation are one thing, but areas impinging on individual or public safety take the consequences into a completely different sphere of responsibility.

Fortunately, life has become just a little easier for hardpressed HR staff in engineering companies. A database of accredited UK engineering degrees, higher nationals and other qualifications has now been created by Technical Qualifications Validation (TQV) Ltd, a newly-formed joint venture between ECUK and the engineering institutions that are its licensed members.

It is, they say, a simple matter for TQV to check whether a qualification cited by an applicant actually exists and whether it appears on the ECUK’s list of accredited engineering degrees and other courses. In the case of a person educated overseas it would establish equivalence with a qualification gained in the UK. Crucially, it is then able to check that the individual holds the qualification claimed – regardless of whether it was awarded in the UK or overseas. If required, it can also arrange for a candidate to undergo a probing interview by an appropriate panel of experts.

Andrew Ramsay, chief executive of the Engineering Council UK, anticipates strong demand for the new package of services: “Many engineering employers
stand to benefit from using TQV. When recruiting people to senior positions even major companies with large HR departments are likely to find it valuable. Potential clients include the increasing number of UK companies setting up overseas operations. They face particular difficulties when trying to recruit locally –
difficulties that this innovative service can help to solve.

“The fees charged by TQV are relatively insignificant compared with the generally high cost of recruitment. And recruiting a person who is not up to the job can turn out to be a great deal more expensive.”

Whether or not such a database will defend against the serial saboteurs mentioned earlier is another matter.

"Legal sources have stated that hundreds of job seekers who have a genuine disability, or who are from a racial minority group, are posting multiple applications with slightly differentiated identities to try to ensnare unaware employers"

These so-called serial job-seekers are hoping to trigger legal claims for discrimination, and employers are increasingly at risk from them, warns Felix Stroud-Allen, a director of Projectix and head of sales and marketing at Recruiternet Europe.

Recruiternet is a US-based enterprise that, through Projectix, markets applicant tracking software (ATS) which, they claim, is a solution to the serial saboteur and ensures their clients are protected against such potential frauds. Their European operations are now headquartered in the UK.

“Organisations are at risk from multiple job applications submitted by the same candidate but with subtle differences, each of which are intended to catch them out,” says Stroud-Allen. “But proper utilisation of hiring management technology, coupled with a robust, well documented and communicated recruitment workflow process, could help identify this threat from ‘serial saboteurs’ and ensure that organisations are not caught out by these bogus CVs.

“Legal sources have stated that hundreds of job seekers who have a genuine disability, or who are from a racial minority group, are posting multiple applications with slightly differentiated identities to try to ensnare unaware employers. They then go on to make legal claims for discrimination with low sums – mostly between £1,000 to £1,500 – so that companies are unwilling to take the cases to employment tribunals. Local authorities have been identified as a group that has been particularly targeted by the perpetrators of this ploy.

“The saboteurs post multiple applications, typically citing the same work experience and education, but change the personal information on their CV while creating a unique online email address for each application. If the organisation selects one of the false applications – which has different details about race, sex or physical ability to the genuine one – the applicant then makes a claim that they have been discriminated against under the Disability Discrimination Act or the Race Relations Act.

“Given the onus on discrimination within the employment market, employers are justifiably nervous when such a case is brought against them. Therefore this desire for minimum publicity and the small sums involved mean that the knee jerk reaction is to settle the matter away from the public glare of a tribunal. An out of court settlement allows the serial saboteur to remain anonymous and to use this potent sting on another unsuspecting HR department in the future.

“One of the key reasons that organisations are helpless against this threat is that they lack the tools to ensure that candidate selection is not made using personal details, either explicitly or implicitly. But technology can be utilised for this purpose and can go a long way towards promoting the robustness of the recruitment workflow process.”

This, of course, is where Recruiternet and its ATS product step in to help out.

“If an organisation was confident that their recruitment process, and the tools they used to support it, did not allow candidate selection processes to incorporate data that could result in a discrimination claim, then they would not immediately settle out of court. Instead, they could provide evidence to a tribunal, including a full audit trail, demonstrating that the decision was not based on these criteria.

“Crucially, such technology enables an organisation to mask all personal details from a hiring manager. This means that when they make their selection of candidates that are to progress to the next stage of the recruitment process, they can only make that decision based on work experience and education. Furthermore with the ability to produce an audit trail on every single action, an organisation that is using this technology then has the confidence to take on the serial saboteur in the courts. Technology cannot provide the end to end solution per se, it can only support and deliver a comprehensive recruitment workflow process.”

At the end of the day, when all applications have been properly sifted and interviews have been conducted with meticulous care and scrupulous fairness, your last line of defence against discrimination claims will be your vital and comprehensive monitoring, measuring, profiling and data collection systems.