What a Trend in Fake Job Postings Might Mean for Your Business

As anyone who has recently been on the market for a new job knows, there are plenty of postings out there. But did you ever consider they might not all be real? Companies pretending to hire is a new trend that seems to be picking up steam. In fact, a survey of 649 hiring managers released from ResumeBuilder.com notes that 3 in 10 companies have active fake postings listed, with 40 percent of those surveyed saying they posted a fake job this year. The hiring managers surveyed said that the idea to post false jobs originated from human resources (37 percent), senior management (29 percent), executives (25 percent), investors (5 percent), or consultants (4 percent). And the listings were for a range of levels, from entry-level roles all the way to executives. So, what’s the rationale behind this trend, and how might it impact your business? Let’s take a look.

The Strategy

Is the ultimate goal here to trick people? The hiring managers in the survey had a variety of motives for going down this path: 67 percent said it was to create the appearance their company was interested in external talent; 66 percent wanted to show the company is growing; 63 percent hoped to make employees think their workload would be lightened with a crop of new hires; 62 percent wanted employees to feel replaceable; and 59 percent were in it to gather resumes for later use. The hiring managers all noted that in creating these false postings they were able to improve revenue (68 percent), morale (65 percent), and productivity (77 percent) within their organizations, so it seems there was a benefit. Despite what job seekers might think, 43 percent of these hiring managers felt these deceptive practices were “definitely acceptable.”

The Impact

Here’s where practices like this can get sticky… if your current employees find out about this deceptive practice, you stand to lose a lot of trust. In the Resume Builder survey, roughly two-thirds of the hiring managers admitted that those very employees, investors and applicants who were supposed to remain in the dark eventually did find out about the fake job postings. As Stacie Haller, Resume Builder’s Chief Career Advisor notes, “The frustration candidates experience due to fake job postings exacerbates the already stressful job search process. Companies engaging in this practice not only tarnish their reputation but also sabotage their long-term prospects. Deceptive practices erode trust, dissuading potential applicants from considering them in the future as viable employers.”

A loss of trust in your company is dire for employees. Who wants to perform at their best for a company that’s dishonest? Investors would also be turned off: if your business is willing to lie to them about job opportunities, what else are you willing to be deceptive about? And when it comes to applicants who figure out the scheme? Consider them removed from your pool of potential future candidates.

Honesty is always the best policy when it comes to something as important as job postings. These are people’s careers at stake, and the data shows that a secret like this can’t be kept forever.

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