Within most industries, the thought of someone having slightly embellished their CV doesn’t seem too farfetched. In some cases, the fabrications have been so extreme that companies have suffered severe losses due to subsequently hiring employees who were not equipped to handle the required tasks.

To protect against this, the South African government is working towards passing a law that would mean harsher punishment for those who lie on their CVs. However, before this becomes legislation, candidates continue to overstate their skills, experience and qualifications.

The reality is that one in five CVs investigated by Searchlight have proven to be inaccurate, containing fabricated educational qualifications and employment history. For this reason, Searchlight provides stringent background checks to secure against this potential threat and ensure every CV is investigated and verified.

Our Qualification Checks and Verifications include:

• Verifying whether the candidate indeed holds a Grade 12 certificate, and whether tertiary qualifications or technical certificates are valid
• Determining whether the candidate does, in fact, hold any memberships to professional organisations or institutions, as alluded to in their CV
• Evaluating employment references
• Analysis of unexplained employment gaps
• Checking of international qualifications / diplomas
• Open Source Intelligence Searches (OSINT)