How Digital Credentials Are Used to Prevent Credential Fraud

Fraud in the employment world is a common occurrence. The most frequent examples of resume or credential fraud see candidates lie about their work history, educational level, and skill competency. An analysis of 2.6 million background checks carried out by ADP found that: 44% of resumes contained lies about their work history, 41% had lies about their education, and 23% of resumes claimed a falsified credential or license. To put that into perspective, when hiring for a role almost 1 in 3 candidates will have lied about their abilities in some way.

What is credential fraud?

Credential fraud is when a candidate lies about holding a certain credential or license, or lies about the issuing authority behind their credential. Reference checking company, Checkster, found that 40% of applicants had claimed a degree from a prestigious institution when they were a few credits short. 39% of applicants also claimed a degree from a prestigious institution they had never attended. A third of the applicants assessed had outright lied about a credential or license they had never obtained.

What is resume fraud?

Resume fraud is when a candidate lies about their employment or educational history on their resume or CV. Checkster’s analysis of 400 candidates found that 60% of candidates claimed high levels of competency in skills they rarely or never used. Half of candidates had lied about their employment history dates to show they had stayed longer in a role. 41% of candidates lied about the job titles they held, often falsifying a director level role when they were employed as a manager or similar level.

Why is fraud in the workplace harmful?

Credential or resume fraud creates risk to the candidate, to the issuing authority, to the workplace itself, and to the audience the workplace serves. The candidate is at risk of losing their job, getting blacklisted, facing legal repercussions, and depending on the role, causing harm. Any issuing authority named in instances of credential or resume fraud are at risk of damage to their reputation, causing candidates and employers to doubt their legitimacy.

Workplaces face harm to their reputation for seemingly ignoring instances of credential or resume fraud. This can affect their profit, customer base, and lead to legal action if harm is caused by an employee that has lied about their competency level. For example, if a candidate lies to gain a role that directly impacts health and safety, the risk of harm is physical and customers of the organization face injury - or worse. There have been instances of pilots, expert witnesses, and even medical professionals lying about their credentials to gain employment. Read more stories of fraud in the workplace in our downloadable guide The Impact of Credential Fraud. We have provided a link to the guide in the Further Reading section at the end of this blog.

Preventing workplace fraud with digital credentials

To solve workplace fraud around credentials and resumes, a dependable method of verification that doesn’t cost employers time or money is required. Digital credentials provide this solution through one-click verification that eliminates the need for drawn-out verification processes.

The benefit for hiring managers

Hiring managers no need to rely on contacting administration departments. Employers navigate to the live credential and can see all the details of the award or affiliation. This includes the issue and expiration dates, the validity of the credential, information regarding the issuing authority, and further detail such as how well the candidate performed and evidence of applied knowledge.

The benefit for candidates

Accredible’s digital credentialing solution includes the use of QR-codes and Open Badges. Digital badges adhere to the Open Badge Standard, which enables digital badge files to be downloaded as a .png file and then verified using Open Badge verification tools. Candidates can also add their digital badge to their preferred badge backpack.

QR-codes included on digital certificates enable recipients to print a high-quality copy of their certificate that can still be verified by scanning the link to the live credential. The option to print enables candidates to include their digital certificate in physical portfolios or to display on the wall in their office or home.

Using digital credentials, candidates have the freedom to present evidence of skill or knowledge in their preferred format without impacting an organization’s ability to easily verify the credential.

Empowering candidates to build a personal portfolio

The use of digital wallet cards alongside digital credentials enables candidates to provide a personal portfolio of competencies to their potential employer. Hiring managers are able to easily verify a candidate’s credentials. They also gain insight into what additional skills and certifications the candidate holds.

The benefit to issuing organizations

A simple method of verification also benefits the issuing authority. Administrators that previously would have been required to respond to verification requests are able to focus on other responsibilities of their role. Organizations can add further credentialing programs to their offering, without needing to consider how this impacts their staff dealing with verification requests.

In Summary

The slow and costly process of verification is outdated. Organizations feel forced to sink time and money into a process that should be quick, free, and simple. Ultimately, many organizations choose to forgo the verification process altogether. This makes it easy for candidates that lie on their resume to get into jobs undeservedly. It causes hard-working, truthful candidates to be incorrectly disregarded. It also creates high amounts of risk, particularly in jobs that directly impact the health and safety of the employees and their customers.

Digital credentials provide security and assurance for a candidate's efforts in acquiring skills and knowledge. They ensure protection against harm to the reputation of both the issuing authority and the employer. Most importantly, through ease of verification, only competent individuals are employed which drastically reduces the risk of harm to the customer base.

For more information on digital credentials, how they are used, and how they apply to your credentialing, reward, or affiliation system, contact the Accredible team or request a demo.

Accredible offers a trial account to start issuing digital credentials for up to 20 unique recipients. Start designing portable, secure, and easy to verify digital credentials to deliver to your candidates today.