Same Old Story: Resume Fraud, A Timeless Classic
by Nick Fishman
While instances of those in high positions of employment committing resume fraud have been well documented over the last several years, they always seem to grab headlines. And this time, electronics retailing giant Radio Shack is smack in the middle of it as documented in this AP article which has been published by every major media outlet since the story broke. CEO, David Edmondson indicated on his resume at the time of his hiring in 1994 that he had two undergraduate degrees from Pacific Coast Baptist College in California, degrees the university says he never earned. In fact the university indicated that one of the degrees represented by Mr. Edmondson, Psychology was never even offered. Radio Shack says that when Mr. Edmondson was hired, it was not company policy to verify education. They say that they do now.
This embarrassing story is a cautionary tale employers both in and out of the public limelight. Resume fraud is committed everyday by all types of job applicants. Whether fudging dates of employment, salary, education history or job responsibilities, this practice is rampant in today’s workforce. And now more than ever, employers have the necessary tools to get to real story. Through a simple education and employment verification employers can filter fact from fiction. In Radio Shack’s case, a low cost education verification might have saved them from this embarrassing set of circumstances. It might not have been grounds for not hiring, but at least they would have known that they had be lied to.
It’s never too late! Even if Radio Shack didn’t conduct educations verifications at the time of Mr. Edmondson’s hiring, they could have developed a policy to do so for all those being promoted after the practice was instituted. In this case, it would have been caught before the damage was done. Yet even with this knowledge these new stories such as these are spit out day
Where do you think the next story will come from?
