Study after study confirms that an alarming number of applicants are blatantly lying ontheir resumes, and a new study reveals many of these folks are likely to get away with it.That’s because 48% of HR professionals admit to not always checking an employee’squalifications, according to a recent study by Adzuna, a job ad search engine company.

Plus, just 62% of HR staffers believe you should check references.Some other eye-opening stats about HR pros’ habits:• 30% of HR pros admit they waive qualification checks if the candidate has previousexperience• 35% of companies believe the responsibility for uncovering resume/CV lies rests withrecruitment agencies• just 6% of HR pros check the social media accounts of candidates, and• more than half (53%) of HR pros say they’re worried by the poor performance of under-qualified staff.

When it comes to the job-seekers, the study found that 37% admitted to lying on theirresume at some point during their careers.Of those individuals, 83% said the lie/lies didn’t stop them from getting the job, and nearlyhalf (43%) said it directly contributed to them getting the job.The top industries in which job-seekers are likely to lie on their resumes are:• marketing or advertising (17% of candidates)• retail (14%)• finance (12%), and• law (12%).Lying on a resume is also most prevalent among candidates (cited by 58% of respondents)between the ages of 25 and 34 years old (34%).

All of this goes to underscore the overwhelming need for background checks. Withpotential applicants lying without restraint and HR employees not doing their job, there isno real way to establish a reliable hiring mechanism without including professionalbackground screening as a part of it. And this needs to be done by a reliable company, onethat can verify its results to make sure that they are accurate.This means that online background checks don’t cut it.The only way to do this is to hire an NAPBS affiliated background check company, one thatadheres to a proven set of standards and can help ensure that everything is done legally.