Much is said that, when it comes to wanting to get a new job, heCandidates often lie, showing their qualities and knowledge much better than they are, talking about their excellent level of English, when in reality it is basic and other jokes like that. But companies also lie and a new study shows it.
We saw a few days ago that a woman was told that had to work from home unless it was necessary to go to the office and that, when he started his duties, it turned out that it was necessary, for one reason or another, to go to the office every day.
There’s also the investor who talked about how leaders “fooled” so many people by promising to telecommute forever just because they wanted to attract talent. And now a study reveals that none of this is accidental. It is a technique of recruiters.
Today we have a survey by Resume Builder that found that bosses lie to candidates too, and the most common lies refer to the responsibilities of the position, growth opportunities and professional development opportunities. Four out of ten managers have stated that they do.
lies in job interviews
36% of hiring managers say they have lied to candidates about the position or company during the hiring process. Of this group, 75% lie in the interview52% in the job description and 24% in the offer letter.
Resume Builder says that the most common lies refer to the responsibilities, growth and professional development opportunities of the position.
92% say they have had a candidate to whom they lied to accept a job offer, while 36% of hiring managers lie to candidates in general. And 6% say they lie all the time, while 24% say they do most of the time. On the other hand, 45% say they lie only sometimes and 25% say they do not lie frequently.
The vast majority (80%) of hiring managers say lying is “very acceptable” (14%) or “somewhat acceptable” (66%) at their company.
Why do companies lie?
One of the answers can be accepted as valid. Managers say they lie to “protect confidential company information.” Another reason is “to cover up negative information about the company.”
And another of the reasons is to attract talent and get the candidate they want. Thus, in the survey, the hiring leaders surveyed say they lie to “attract job seekers, exaggerating about some benefits“; they “deliberately say things that please the candidate”; or they seek to “make the job seem better than it really is”.
The objective in many cases is to “attract more qualified candidates”. 20% lie about teleworking, as you can see in this graph:

lies work
Of hiring managers who lie to candidates, 92% say a misled candidate accepted the job offer, so it seems to work.
However, it stops doing so over time: 55% say an employee quit after being hired with false information, as a result of discovering that they were lied to in the hiring process.
And in many cases they resign before three months have passed.
Image | Photo by Amina Atar on Unsplash
In Genbeta | Meta and Google need to cut staff and resort to new methods: this is how layoffs and silent hiring are