Don’t Get Caught out Like Sir Alan When Hiring your Next Apprentice
Wednesday’s edition of The Apprentice contained the revelation that one of Sir Alan Sugar’s potential apprentices, Lee McQueen, had lied on his CV about his education.
Angus Sim, director in PricewaterhouseCoopers forensics practice has the following advice for companies looking to avoid a similar pitfall:
“Clearly the discovery of fraud on Lee’s CV at such a late stage in the competition was embarrassing for Sir Alan, but he is one of many bosses throughout the UK having the wool pulled over their eyes by potential employees. Research shows that up to 25% of jobseekers in the UK lie on their CVs to impress their prospective boss.
“It is tempting to say that CV fraud has always been in existence, but there are a number of factors exacerbating this. For example, the flexible and increasingly mobile labour market makes it easier for people to leave details of their past behind as they move from one place to another. In addition, there is far greater emphasis being placed on getting a candidate on board quickly at the expense of any real effort taken to perform basic checks.
[...] the BBC in the UK, I understand it has sparked a nationwide debate on CV lies. I wrote about this last week without understanding the true impact, this guy flat out lied on national television. This story [...]