Four in five applicants have lied on their CV to secure a vacancy, while a similar amount have lied during a job interview, a new survey has found.

The research, conducted by Portfolio Payroll and Peninsula, found that nearly half of employees had lied on their CV to land their current job, with 65 per cent feeling that the untruth had improved the chances of their application.

Other key findings in the study include:

  • Nearly seven in ten applicants asked a friend to act as a referee on their CV.
  • Candidates lied most about their qualifications, closely followed by their skills and experience.
  • Almost two-thirds of applicants got outside help to compile their CVs.
  • Just over half of job seekers spend time researching a company prior to an interview.

The apparent widespread lying by applicants on CVs and in interviews will be worrying for employers, who have suffered from a lack of skilled employees in the UK workforce.

Portfolio Payroll said the situation was made worse by the fact that nearly half of managers have previously admitted to not properly checking out CVs to root out untruthful applicants.

Danny Done, managing director of Portfolio Payroll, said that he recommended that businesses spend time and energy developing a process for verifying applicants’ qualifications and previous experience.

“The employment of a recruitment team that scrutinises job applicants will help to avoid these hiring mistakes.

“I know that appointing a dedicated member of staff to handle recruitment issues is beyond the means of smaller firms - a simple call to an ex-employer will give you an idea of the personality and work-rate of the prospective employee.

“Managers are running scared as the amount of employment legislation increases and feel it is getting increasingly difficult to get rid of bad staff, making the original decision more important.

“Perhaps it is wise for companies to impose a probationary period on successful job applicants that will act as a trial.

“This will mean that the company has no obligation to employ the candidate long-term and gives them a chance to see if the selection was a wise one,” he said.