Peter Jackson column

Jun 9 2005 By Peter Jackson, The Journal

There are lies, damn lies and CVs. Or at least according to the latest figures released by the Chartered Institute of Personnel Development, CIPD, there are.

No fewer than a quarter of the firms interviewed by the CIPD say they have withdrawn job offers after discovering that prospective employees had told porkies on their CVs or application forms.

And, management in about the same proportion of firms said they had fired staff after finding out they had lied to get the job.

Bad as this may be, it may only represent the tip of a positive iceberg of mendacity, for, nearly half of the firms interviewed by the CIPD rarely or never check candidates' academic qualifications.

In fact, the CIPD's findings only confirm a trend which has been around for a few years.

Back in August, 2001, Mori found that about a fifth of applicants lied about their personal skills and qualities, 28pc lied about their salaries, 3pc lied about their criminal backgrounds and a whopping 47pc lied about their leisure activities. As far as the last category goes, I think we can assume this is largely not a question of hiding boring, weird, or disgusting pastimes, but rather of claiming to do a spot of white-water rafting most weekends.

Mori also found that those who were male and under the age of 34 were most likely to tell untruths.

In 2003, The Risk Advisory Group, TRAG, discovered that two thirds of job seekers submitted applications containing factual inaccuracies - a rise of 10pc on 2002. This might look like things are getting worse, but, as TRAG conceded, most of the discrepancies were honest mistakes.

However, something like one in 10 involved serious issues such as lying about criminal convictions, fraud against previous employers and even terrorist links.

Personally, I can't help thinking that if someone has terrorist links it's not unreasonable for them to fail to declare it on a job application, but perhaps my standards of honesty are too lax.

Actually, maybe too many of us have double standards when it comes to honesty.

Another survey earlier this year, by the Aziz Annual Communications Index, found that 37pc of UK bosses find it acceptable for employees to tell lies to customers and nearly half thought it acceptable if it would safeguard the company.

A case of reaping what you sow?