A survey by employee screening company Powerchex has found that lies on CVs have halved in a year. In 2006 31% of CVs contained discrepancies, a figure that has now fallen to 13%. The change runs counter to a trend of rising dishonesty over the previous five years, said the firm.
The only category to have risen is that of hidden criminal records, which spiked by 431%. The company said that this is because of the increasing use of temporary employees, or temps.
"This can be attributed to the increased screening of temps, a group which companies rarely screened in the past. Most of the undisclosed criminal records were found in that sector," said the report. In fact 89% of the undisclosed criminal records the survey found were in the CVs of temps, despite their making up just 20% of the survey sample.
The study looked at 2,960 job applications to financial institutions in the UK between June 2006 and May 2007 and compared them to a sample of 2,487 applications submitted in June 2005 to May 2006.
It found that 1.24% of this year's applicants, or 36 of them, did not disclose criminal records. It said that 89% of that group, or 32, of the people involved were temporary employee applicants.
“Most financial firms have become good at screening their top employees,” said Powerchex managing director Alexandra Kelly. “But an army of unchecked workers are potentially inside the nation’s banks and financial institutions. And as our findings show, potential fraudsters are more likely to come in as temps.”
The survey found that women were more likely to have discrepancies in their CVs overall, with discrepancies appearing in 13% of theirs compared with 10% of men's. Young people were also more likely to mislead on CVs than older people.
The Office of National Statistics says that financial services companies are now using 176,000 temporary or contract workers, including in the IT department.
“Computer workers pose the biggest threat," said Kelly. “Their backgrounds should be checked through the same process as anyone else who works in a bank.”
The Financial Services Authority warned as long ago as 2004 that criminal organisations were targeting financial institutions through temporary workers. “There is evidence that organised crime groups deliberately target firms to place staff to commit financial crime, particularly identity theft. Firms must vet staff carefully before confirming their appointment," it said in its Financial Crime Report in 2004.
