Digital badges can save organisations a lot of wasted time and effort this new financial year by providing them with direct access to view qualification certificates. Article by Amrit Saroya, head of membership at AXELOS.

As we enter the new financial year, the publication of organisations financial results can often be a trigger for many individuals considering their career options and potentially looking for new opportunities. Their first step will be updating their CVs to reflect their gained experience and certifications and for organisations receiving these applications, it is important to ensure that those applying for jobs are appropriately qualified and that their qualifications can be verified.

The importance of this verification process is highlighted by our own research, which found that over the past three years false CV claims have cost organisations up to £40,000 in rehiring costs. What’s more concerning is that there are organisations that justify not proactively checking candidates’ qualifications. Nearly a third (30 percent) of organisations believe checks can be waived if the candidate has previous experience in the role they are applying for. One in ten organisations will also waive checks if the candidate has been recommended by someone senior in the business.

While this may often be perceived by organisations as relatively low risk, an underqualified employee could be a very real reason behind poor performance and reputational damage.

One way to ensure qualifications are verified, that is increasing in popularity and is championed by AXELOS, is digital badging. This technology provides HR managers instant verification of prospective employees’ qualifications. For the individual, digital badges and can be easily shared across email signatures, online CV’s and social media sites such as LinkedIn and Twitter.

Organisations need to recognise that an increasingly competitive environment will result in exaggerations from prospective candidates to secure their dream job. Organisations are increasingly finding value in digital badging as a way in which to find the right candidates. While digital badges are not necessarily aimed at replacing the need for CV’s, they do help organisations in accessing relevant and accurate information in a quick and easy way.

ⁱⁱ The research was conducted in July 2016 with 500 UK-based HR professionals across the public and private sector.