by Sonya Skipp

Fraudulent qualifications are constantly being uncovered and we see the stories every day in the news. It seems no industry is safe from this epidemic. We’ve seen doctors, teachers, government officials, and more with fraudulent qualifications. All this begs the question, why this is happening?

We could look at the obvious reason that jobs require qualifications and if you have no qualifications, you can just make it up. Our government has even set the precedent for this. Our own qualifications verifications have picked up that the most falsified qualification is a matric certificate, probably because this is the qualification needed to get one’s foot in the door of the job market.

However, it’s important to point out that the vetting and screening market is skewed. Most people we screen daily are potential employees or new employees in entry-level positions. This may be due to the higher levels of turnover with entry-level employees. Often these are not the employees who have fraudulent qualifications.

Those with fraudulent qualifications, like we’re seeing in the news, are not entry-level employees. They’re middle management, upper management, and senior employees. These are employment levels that don’t see as much turnover and are often forgotten during the screening process.

Say you are the HR person in charge of vetting and screening. The people you’re going to focus on when screening are the newest employees, the people you don’t know yet and thus don’t trust. You’re looking for people who could have a criminal record or could be incompetent at their jobs. Add onto that duty, the huge number of other tasks you need to get done in a day and you’re not going to even consider that your bosses may not have the MBA needed for their job. Or maybe the qualification has become necessary during the time they’ve held the position, but they’ve always been perfectly competent. They’re your boss and they’ve been your boss since you started at the company.

Why on earth would you think of including them in your screening process?

As a matter of fact, pretty much all current employees who are competent at their jobs are probably safe from being screened. This is how senior executives and the like, can fly under the radar when it comes to fraudulent qualifications.

We at iFacts believe that this is why so much qualifications fraud is occulting in that employment level. There needs to be a more holistic approach to screening and vetting future and current employees. In-house vetting also needs to happen more than it does as things can change regarding an employee’s ability to represent your company in a manner that reflects well on you. It’s possible that all this qualifications fraud is being uncovered when an in-house lifestyle audit or screening is done, making inhouse screenings even more valuable.

When screening your employees, you should be using a basket of checks to ensure your people are the best people for the job. Our most requested check is criminal record checks, however, to have a record, the criminal needs to be caught and convicted of the crime. South Africa’s conviction rate is rubbish so that makes a criminal record check much less valuable as no criminal record does not indicate a lack of criminal intent.

We suggest a CV verification, a criminal record check, a qualifications verification, and an integrity test as a bare minimum when screening and vetting your future and potential employees. Don’t allow your company to become yet another headline in the fraudulent qualifications section on IOL. Let iFacts screen and vet all your employees for ultimate peace of mind.

As the General Manager at iFacts in South Africa, Sonya Skipp has the responsibility to oversee the daily operations of the company at an executive level. From marketing and sales to finance and administration, Sonya helps ensure that the business is strengthened through new products, operational system skills, and consistent development. Sonya and her team are always seeking effective corporate security strategies for iFacts clients that will help develop their businesses, while reducing risk and ensuring the introduction of proactive and innovative solutions for the future.