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?

Have only read OPs posts. You say HR are worried about being done for age discrimination.
Why are they not worried about employing someone with fake references and CV? it is bizarre. Age discrimination isn't when you go "please give us a more detailed timeline of when and where you worked, for our records"

As an ex manager the worst thing you can do is employ someone that you have doubt about as they moment they set foot inside the company they are hard to remove.
Particularly when a HR department doesn't even know what to do when the reference and document check comes back with issues.
You cannot proceed knowing some of her info is fake.

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.

But the canditate needs to provide proof they DID work at those companies - a P60 would cover that or anyone from linked in who can vouch for her.
Its not for the employer to have to proof they are lying, its for the candidate to prove she is telling the truth

And honestly who thinks a 19 year old is going to launch an age discrimination claim? at this stage its questions about how she managed to work full time for Big company 1 at 13. Which is a reasonable question to ask.

Either she provides evidence that its true (but odd) or its proved she lied, and has no claim. If its true then you can employ her and hence no claim again.

You can work part time from 13 and you don't pay national insurance so wouldn't need an NI number. There's also no minimum wage for that age so asking salary would be pointless.

The CV is fake if her ID docs all stack up. Did she apply direct or via an agency? You could try searching online for the past job titles, dates and employers and see what that brings up. If she's used someone else's CV, etc? If she has the gift of the gab, she'll likely lie her way out of the discrepancies if they are raised with her.

I don't see it as a bad thing that you're waiting for someone more senior in HR to be available - this needs to be handled correctly.

I don't see it as a bad thing that you're waiting for someone more senior in HR to be available - this needs to be handled correctly.

^ this.
There's some very bad advice on this thread suggesting the OP acts on this alone.

www.gov.uk/child-employment/restrictions-on-child-employment

This link might be helpful in clarifying if what she has said is plausible.

I don’t think age discrimination is of any relevance. I wouldn’t employ her.

Or maybe they know shes 19 but they don’t do age discrimination, if she’s capable of the job and it pays £40k, then what’s the problem?

I can’t understand how her age was not apparent at interview. What questions were asked that made you think she was 28 when she’s actually 19!? Like, ‘so you left school, and what was your first job?’ Then she’d say ‘exec assistant’. There you go - timeline established 🤷🏼‍♀️

I missed this bit. My autumn 2001 daughter was the first year to take the 9-1 GCSE's. The previous year maths and English were 9-1 with the other subjects A*-E. Someone born in Spring Summer 2002 would be in my daughter's year at school and someone born in Autumn 2002 would be the year below.

OP - do you have any other jobs going? I’ve been at a bit of a loose end since I sold Twitter to Elon Musk.

The problem is the frequent and blatant lies?

You don't have a PA job at 13 ffs

What about the dodgy reference and incorrect email address?

Less easy to prove the fact that she's clearly not 19!

How frustrating!

Surely you can request her GCSE certificates? They will be dated, if she only did them 3 years ago when she was supposed to be working full time then obviously she[s lying.

She is obviously lying. Either she has taken someone else’s identity for some reason, or she has completely made up her CV.
None of it adds up, there are clear alarm bells. Of course many people big themselves up on their CV but this is much more dubious than that.

Thinking more about this - could you suggest you get her to fill in an official application form? again my experience is only small business scale (no HR) but recently went to start a new job and on my first day, was quite plausibly asked to fill in the company's application form on 'completing the paperwork'.

I'm really laughing at some of these 'just give her the job' responses.

Some people have clearly never worked in a professional environment.

This is v outing but I went to this school!

@TheHatinaCat or have lied themselves 🤔

Do you remember a class mate who was taking business calls and booking flights whilst in GCSE History class? 😂

Was Mr Brown the teacher ok with this? Can imagine it was a bit distracting to have the hold music to Delta Airlines going whilst discussing pre Nazi Germany and the rise of Hitler.

Having seen her age on her passport, and asking her how come she was 13 when she had a job at XYZ is a breach of GDPR. You only know she is 13 because you read her passport - you are not entitled to share her data, discuss her data, use her data, you are not even entitled to personally know her data. She gave you her passport for one specific professional reason - you cannot use it for any other reason.

From my experience I'd never underestimate the lengths people go to get a job. We have a drugs test before comfirming employment, all very clear from the outset. Candidates are told we take a hair sample. One chap decided to shave all his hair off before the test.

OP I think the simplest thing to do it to contact company 3.

Call the head office and ask to speak to the person who you think has sent through a reference and ask them to confirm the email you have received. If the receptionist cannot find anyone of that name listed then speak to their HR dept and ask them to confirm whether or not your candidate and this referee have or have ever worked there. If they deny any knowledge of these people then ask them to put it in writing in an email. I think you could easily have this wrapped up before the end of the day.

Have you looked her up online? I always check potential candidates to see if they have a Linkedin page and check the CV matches up. If in doubt, do a FB/Instagram search, see if she matches any of the photos for people if that name. I would also ask to contact the HR department of her old job and ask them to send a letter confirming her dates of employment, job title and line manager. I once employed someone on the basis of a glowing reference from her manager but after a few weeks, it was pretty obvious something wasn't right. When I contacted the HR department where the referee worked, it turned out that he wasn't hers or anyone else's manager, he was just someone she worked with and he had changed his title in his email signature.