The following article was first published on Shipman & Goodwin‘s Employment Law Letter. It is reposted here with permission.
Employers across the country are increasingly confronting a frustrating trend: a stark disconnect between what candidates promise on paper and what they deliver at work.
In a competitive labor market, more job applicants appear to be inflating their skills, padding their years of experience, and claiming proficiencies they do not actually possess.
The pattern goes like this: a candidate’s resume and application materials describe an ideal hire, the candidate interviews well, and an offer follows largely on the strength of those represented qualifications.
Within weeks of the start date, however, supervisors discover that the new employee cannot perform core functions of the role at the level represented, triggering a familiar cycle of corrective action, performance management, and, too often, an early and costly separation.
Several forces are likely driving this trend.
The widespread use of online job boards and one-click applications has made it easy to apply for many positions quickly, and candidates feel pressure to tailor, and sometimes embellish, their materials to clear automated keyword screens before a human ever reads them.
The growth of remote and hybrid work has reduced the informal, in-person cues that once helped employers gauge a candidate’s true capabilities.
In addition, generative AI tools now make it effortless to produce...
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