Artificial intelligence is changing recruitment in all sorts of ways, from helping candidates prepare CVs and cover letters to assisting employers with advertising and screening applications.
Most of these uses are legitimate. However, AI is also making it easier for people to misrepresent themselves during the recruitment process, raising some important questions about how employers verify who they’re hiring.
The Motivations Behind Recruitment Misrepresentation
People misrepresenting themselves during recruitment is hardly a new phenomenon. There have always been stories of candidates embellishing their experience. These days, technology has made some forms of deception considerably more sophisticated and potentially more difficult to detect.
The motivations behind recruitment misrepresentation vary considerably.
Sometimes it’s relatively straightforward. A candidate might exaggerate their experience, claim qualifications they don’t have or misrepresent previous employment to secure a position they might otherwise struggle to obtain. Others may arrange for someone else to complete an assessment or participate in an interview, particularly where technical knowledge is being evaluated.
At the more serious end, individuals may seek employment to gain access to company systems, confidential information or financial resources.
These are very different situations, but they reinforce the importance of knowing who you’re employing and confirming that their experience and credentials are genuine.
A Rather Extraordinary Recruitment Story
You probably read about New Zealand’s National Cyber Security Centre reporting a case involving a North Korean IT worker who had secured remote work with a large New Zealand business using a false identity and fraudulent documentation.
The individual had even arranged for someone in New Zealand to receive and operate the company laptop, helping conceal their actual location.
When the deception was uncovered and the arrangement terminated, the worker claimed to have obtained commercially sensitive information and threatened to release it unless they were paid.
It’s an extraordinary example of how sophisticated misrepresentation can become.
AI Adds Another Dimension
AI can now produce convincing CVs, cover letters and professional profiles. It can also be used to create or manipulate images, voices and video, making some forms of impersonation more difficult to detect.
Of course, using ChatGPT to improve a CV or prepare for an interview isn’t inherently dishonest. Many candidates use these tools sensibly, just as employers increasingly use technology in their own recruitment processes.
The concern arises when AI is used to fabricate experience, provide misleading information or impersonate someone else.
Employers need to look for evidence that someone has the capability they claim, and that they are who they say they are.
Practical Steps to Reduce the Risk
Fortunately, businesses don’t need elaborate technology or complicated recruitment procedures to reduce their exposure. Many of the most effective safeguards are simply good recruitment practices applied consistently.
Verify identity: Confirm that the person being employed is the person who participated in the recruitment process. Check appropriate identification and work eligibility, and ensure the person commencing employment matches the person interviewed.
Explore real experience: During an interview, ask candidates to describe specific situations, explain their individual contribution and talk through how they approached particular challenges. Follow-up questions can help establish the depth of their knowledge and experience.
Check qualifications and employment history: Where particular qualifications, registrations or previous experience are essential, take reasonable steps to verify them rather than relying solely on the application.
Conduct meaningful reference checks: Speak directly with referees the candidate has authorised you to contact. Confirm their identity and relationship to the candidate, and explore responsibilities, performance and employment history.
Be careful with remote recruitment: Where interviews and onboarding take place remotely, establish a consistent process for confirming identity and securely issuing equipment and system access.
Follow up on inconsistencies: Differences in dates, responsibilities or other information don’t automatically indicate dishonesty. There may be a perfectly reasonable explanation, but significant discrepancies deserve clarification before an appointment is confirmed.
Any pre-employment checks should be relevant to the position and carried out in accordance with privacy and employment law requirements.
Good Recruitment Practices Still Matter
The vast majority of candidates are genuinely looking for employment and want to present themselves in the best possible light. Employers should be able to embrace useful technology without approaching every application with suspicion.
However, as recruitment processes become increasingly digital, some of the checks that were once taken for granted deserve renewed attention. Taking the time to verify information and get to know the person behind the application remains just as important as ever.
A structured interview, appropriate identity verification, thorough reference checking and a little professional curiosity can go a long way towards reducing risk.
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