The poll of recruiters from around 50 UK employers and headhunters found that candidates applying for a range of C-suite roles are among the most likely to make false claims in their applications
Candidates for chief marketing officer (CMO) roles are the most frequently caught out for writing false information on their CVs. This is followed by those applying for head of sales positions.
The most common lies involve the chronology of employment history and achievements in the boardroom.
Creditsafe group marketing director David Knowles told HR magazine "pressure" is often the reason recruiters and employers fail to check facts on CVs.
"Recruitment is a sales environment, so if you need to get 100 members of staff it's not always practical to check every claim on every CV," he said. "But I also think HR teams just don't know that it's possible to get the information on candidates elsewhere."
Knowles gave the examples of executive candidates and the information that is already in the public domain.
"All board members leave a footprint which you can check up on," he added. "So you can see if their claims about the company's turnover and subsequent performance is true."
