New employee is a fake, where to go from here?

[londonnotlangdon]

It's a large organisation and I just had to send off her paperwork, passport, things like that

She was given the job after her second interview last week.

However, she has emailed me these documents (fine), and her birth certificate says born in September 2002?

That makes her 19?

This is a problem because, for example, her CV says she was an Executive Assistant to a Director in 2018? When she would've been in school?!

I've asked HR, who haven't replied properly, I've asked them to call. But someone replied to my email of concern with 'so you don't want this new me ever of staff? Why not?'

What can actually be done about this?

Did your HR advisor also lie on their CV?

They would usually advise caution and checking out things that don't add up.

Thinking back to when I took redundancy a few years back. I was given a printed reference as part of my package and had payslips, a p60 at year end and a p45. If I'd had to, it wouldn't have been difficult to show my employment history.

@DogInATent not true. She’s still having the ore checks and they don’t have her references.

'Memories with my girls' is exactly what a group of school girlfriends would post about a photo of them together.

No linked in profile sounds very dodgey to me.

Have you checked out the references on linked in? To see if the names match the companies? Any other way of contacting them other than the email addresses she has provided?

How strange! I would love to get to the bottom of this too. If she has lied about her previous experiences...would this mean her offer would be withdrawn? It would also make me question all her academic acheivements too, when did she get them?!?!

Really? Not everyone has a linked in profile. I don't, my dad who is MD of a successful company created an account then deleted it, and I don't think any of my work collegaues do either.

The plot thickens...

Honestly though OP, tread carefully on this one.

You can ask for clarification on work history but that's about it, and you can frame the question as "I noted in 2015 you worked here, was this full time employment, and what were the hours of work?"

Then move on to the next question for the next job that falls within her GCSE years, again ask "was this full time employment, and why were the hours of work?"

You can then approach the school her GCSE's were sat at and ask "was she in full time education?

Then you can go to HR dependant on her answers and ask "can I get some clarification on how someone can be in full time education and full time employment 9-5 Monday to Friday?"

Age was never mentioned, just the concept of she was apparently in two places at the same time. 🤷🏻‍♀️

What if she's not great?

What if she lies on the job as well? What if she says she's sent that contract regarding that million pound deal and she hasn't? One person can cause A LOT of problems. Then you have the issue of getting rid of her.

By all accounts, she is 19. She left school less than a year ago. She is not ready for a £40k PA job by all accounts.

You have got to be kidding. My boss hired a consultant to get us all removed from bloody LinkdIn, we hate it and god they make it difficult to unsubscribe.

You interviewed her. Twice...
based on the interviews, you offered her a job.

Let her get on with it.
if she is rubbish then deal with that before the notice period is up.

Don't look for faults in everything she does just because she's young and you don't think she has the skills...

I was just thinking the same, I have no Linked in account 😳 didn't know this was a professional error. 😂

@londonnotlangdon
Dates not adding up across her CV/documents does not equal a bad identity check. If the documents are genuine, then she passes the identity check (and presumably the RTW check).

You're challenging her CV/application, but you've already accepted those. No issues were flagged either pre interview, or during two interviews. The problem is, you've made the job offer. If you're going to withdraw it on the grounds of false representation in her application than you need proof, not a hunch. After all, until you knew her age you had no issues with her expected competence.

All you can do is flag to HR. There are additional checks that can be made, if that was judged to be necessary. But. presumably she's coming in to a probation period with progress reviews that would flag any capability issues?

I agree with this. Ask her directly to clarify due to some discrepancies, that is not unreasonable at all. Sounds like she had greatly exaggerated work experience of some sort. And has used a friend as a reference for the places that closed down. I am still friends with my old boss from when I was 16, and she has given references for me in the past despite our old workplace closing down.

Does her CV have the dates that she worked at these places? Does it say if she was full or part time?

Her passport must document her age. Does it match with the BC? You can ring up the BDM registrar in the area where it was lodged and get a copy, just to make sure.
You can ask where she went to school and ring them to find out her age. Many many ways to check. You just need to go through them or else ask her outright. You're panicking when a few phone calls would sort it.

This all sounds so odd. I hope you get to the bottom of it.

It is not age discrimination to verify the truth or otherwise of the facts a potential employee states on their CV. That response from HR is strange.

The birth certificate and her date of birth casts significant doubt over the details of her earlier work experience which conveniently is with a company that has gone out of business. This employment history is sufficiently recent that she should have tax records associated with this time. At the very least, you could require her to provide proof of this employment.

even if she actually DID work for these big companies at age 13, she is being misleading if she didn't say it was part time, or weekends only (but who needs a weekend PA)

Are you basically now saying HR will force YOU to employ her and have her on your team? is there not a line manager above you who you could call this out on.

As claiming to have been a PA in a big company at 13 is clearly a lie/very distorted, the only way it could really be true is if its your dad/mums company!

I would ask her for her GCSE certificates. That will give you a better indication re her dob.

It does look dodgy to be fair.

Thanks.

If a new employee turns up without a P45 then the employer has to apply for one, using the NI number and DOB given. At this point HMRC would either confirm [provide a tax code] or inform you that details were wrong.

What happened to the application for the tax code?

For goodness sakes

Also there’s the dodgy email address to consider

If you're going to withdraw it on the grounds of false representation in her application than you need proof, not a hunch. After all, until you knew her age you had no issues with her expected competence.

I would be interested to know which large blue chip companies employ 13/14 year olds though?

I had an employee who faked driving license to say that he was born in the UK but he had been born in Jamaica. We didn't find out for a long time!

As a potential employer, you have the right to withdraw the job offer if you are unable to satisfy yourself that the employee is trustworthy based on the information that you have received as part of the employee on boarding process. Fear of being accused of age discrimination makes no sense when the alternative is the risk of employing a person who jas committed CV fraud which in theory could be prosecuted.

Surely you're not allowed to work at 13yo, apart from paper rounds! You don't even have an NI number. I would ask her to clarify her salary on her first job. I think she'll twig at that point and disappear.