Two in every five Hong Kong employers have received resumes that contain lies, and 20 per cent of them cited bogus academic qualifications, a survey shows. But the problem is twice as bad over the border.
Hudson Global Resources interviewed more than 1,500 employers across Asia - including the mainland, Hong Kong and Singapore - in August. Almost 70 per cent of mainland respondents said they had encountered dishonest job applicants. The proportion was 40 per cent, or barely half, in Hong Kong.
But when it came to falsification of degrees and other qualifications, the gap was even bigger.
Of the employers who spotted false applications, 42 per cent on the mainland said they included bogus academic qualifications, more than twice the 20 per cent in Hong Kong.
In both regions, pay and job responsibilities are the information most likely to be distorted on applicants' resumes. The industries that see the most falsification are not the same in both places, though.
On the mainland, media, public relations and advertising companies are the most likely to see candidates who exaggerate or falsify information, with 91 per cent of employers from these industries saying they had seen dishonest applicants. But the same industries in Hong Kong are fairly close-knit and dishonest applicants relatively uncommon.
