Qualification Fraud: What you need to know

The hiring of new employees offers challenges to most companies. While it is important to find the right candidate with the necessary qualifications and integrity to do the job, it is not always easy for businesses to accept potential candidates at face value alone.

In South Africa, recent media reports highlighted a few high-profile cases of qualification fraud in which top executives and board members were unmasked as not having the claimed qualification.

This started a debate around hiring processes and the verification of qualifications around the country in all businesses. The South African Qualifications Ahorityut (Saqa’s) offers a verification service, which checks qualifications against the National Learners Records Database. According to Saga, school-leaving certificates are the most faked qualification at 41%, followed by degrees at 32% and diplomas at 13%.

Each industry requires its own checklist but there are a few checks that should be non-negotiable when considering any candidate for employment. Often job seekers bolster their resumes in order to seem more attractive to potential employers. However, as an employer, you want the truth in order to be aware of the capabilities and limitations of potential employees.

ID Verification
Fraudulent acts and instances of fraud are on the rise in South Africa. Now more than ever it is important that potential employers obtain ID verifications of the candidates applying for the vacancy in their business. Simple ID verification will confirm if the person is who they say they are by validating that the ID has been issued by the Department of Home Affairs and that the algorithm found in that ID number is correct.

Criminal Check
With commercial crime up by over 45% in the last nine years and human resources fraud at 42% in South Africa compared to the global average of 15%, it is important to use a reliable criminal-vetting process for recruiting and managing human resources. Although it would probably be unconstitutional to deny a person the right to employment purely on the grounds of a criminal conviction for a range of positions, certain types of criminal convictions can be specified as rendering an applicant ineligible. For example, a conviction for any theft or fraud offence can rule out a person for a job involving handling money or financial transactions.

Qualification Verification
In South Africa we have numerous businesses whose primary function is the verification and validation of educational qualifications. They make use of various tools, including the National Qualifications Register that allows them to reference any qualification against a substantial database. It’s important to verify employees credentials in order to recruit the very best of the best, with peace of mind that these employees are up to the tasks assigned to them.

Many organisations do not carry out systematic and careful screening of external candidates for vacancies. Excuses such as urgency of filling the vacancy, lack of budget and lack of management time are used. However, screening is one of the most basic risk-mitigation strategies that must be in place in any organisation.

If you need assistance in the recruitment process and the screening of your candidates, we can assist.

Communicate Recruitment is a specialised recruitment agency in the Finance, IT, Engineering, Supply Chain and Freight industries that only represent candidates that have been carefully screened to ensure we deliver the very best quality to you. Contact us today with your recruitment needs.

Credit: FreeDigitalPhotos.net by Mister GC