From the Desk of Brad Smart: HireVue AI Recommendations Miss an Essential: Honesty

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Full Blog – HireVue AI Recommendations

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HireVue, a prominent player in HR technology, has become well-known for its platform that enables companies to receive short video submissions from job candidates. Like many in the hiring industry, HireVue is now exploring how Artificial Intelligence (AI) might enhance the hiring process. The potential is exciting, but as with any innovation, there are risks. AI is indeed helping companies streamline hiring processes, but the bad news? It’s also making it easier for companies to continue mis-hiring at scale.

A high percentage of job seekers have, forever, lied on their resume and in interviews, confident they won’t be “busted,” because companies prohibit their managers – the people YOU want to talk with – from taking reference calls, for fear of lawsuits. In our book Foolproof Hiring: Powerful, Proven Keys to Hiring High Performers we published the following statistics:

  • BackgroundChecks.org: 57 percent lied about skills; 55 percent embellished responsibilities.
  • Society for Human Resource Management: 86 percent of four thousand HR members surveyed found lies.
  • Stanford experiment: 92 percent lied on both résumé and LinkedIn profile when offered prize of $100 for creating the résumé best fitting a job they wanted.
  • EmployeeScreenIQ: 50 percent had discrepancies on job history.
  • Time magazine: 43 percent lied on résumés.
  • HR conference in Hawaii: 90 percent admitted to lying on résumés.
  • HireRight: 27 percent had serious lies in résumés.
  • Freakonomics: cites literature showing 50 percent-plus lied in résumés and interview responses.
  • com: 53 percent of résumés and job applica­tions contain falsifications.
  • Topgrading, Inc.: three former background check profession­als estimate that 40 percent of applicants have at least one serious lie on their résumé.
  • Wall Street Journal: 78 percent of people admit that they would lie to get a job.

Because AI has no way of determining honesty in resumes, ChatGPT enables job seekers to apply to dozens of companies easily – they just type the company and the job they want, and Chat instantly creates “perfect” resumes tailored to the company values and the specific skills and experience the company posts for the job. Now, consider a candidate who sends out 500 resumes in a single day. How many of those ChatGPT-produced resumes do you think were edited for accuracy or truthfulness? The disturbing reality is that even A Players, who have no need to embellish, may feel the pressure to edit, only to be edged out by lesser performers with “flawless” but fabricated resumes. And during Zoom interviews, we hear reports of candidates subtly glancing away—possibly to get “perfect” answers from AI tools like Chat.

In a recent article by HireVue (click here to read), they propose several ways to mitigate cheating:

  1. Multi-stage workflow validation: Use live interviews to verify candidates’ skills and experience by having them refer to earlier responses in later interview stages.
  2. Smart interview questions: Use questions that require candidates to apply their skills and experiences, making it difficult to use external tools or shared answers.
  3. Coding challenge similarity scores: Employ algorithms to detect similar code submissions and utilize playback features to monitor behavior during assessments.
  4. Time-limited interview questions: Introduce time restrictions on responses to limit candidates’ ability to consult outside sources, although this method has its drawbacks and should be used cautiously.
  5. Transparency in the candidate experience: Clearly outline the hiring process and expectations to reduce fear and uncertainty, which can drive candidates to cheat.

All these make sense … sort of. A clever job seeker can tap dance around such methods. Meanwhile, companies are overwhelmed, receiving thousands of resumes daily instead of just hundreds.

Topgrading is the only hiring method we know of that has a Truth Motivator that really works. It assures the most valuable reference checks – calls with managers candidates reported to. Training includes coached interviews that literally cover all major successes and failures AND that valuable verification with manager calls.

Contact one of our Topgrading professionals, today.

Call: 847-244-5544 / Email: [email protected] / Contact us


Dr. Brad Smart is Founder and CEO of Topgrading, Inc. Topgrading is dedicated to helping companies of all sizes maximize the hiring of high performers. Topgrading assesses candidates for senior positions (where the costs of mis-hires are high) and trains all managers to create teams of almost all high performers.

Brad has seven published books on hiring; the most recent three (the first, second, and third editions of Topgrading) were all best sellers. Brad, and President Chris Mursau’s new book, Foolproof Hiring (Forbes Books), is available for purchase by clicking here. After just six weeks, Foolproof Hiring, achieved Amazon Best Seller status.

Brad can be reached at www.Topgrading.com

To learn more, download our free eGuide or attend our next Topgrading Webinar. Our webinar explains the most effective recruitment methods, how to immediately identify the most honest, high performing applicants, and how to (finally!) verify what candidates tell you (since reference calls are usually worthless).

Contact us to learn more.


Improve your hiring success with Topgrading. Our proven hiring process will transform your selection methodology so that you get better hiring results across all industries, including hiring HR professionals.  Our leadership and candidate assessment tools will help you assess, hire, retain, and grow outstanding team members. Contact us to learn more!

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