Why the Job Market “Trust Gap” is an Existential Threat to Clinical Research

This week was very much like most: my team and I flagged twelve fraudulent candidates. These weren’t just “embellished” resumes or slightly padded dates. These were sophisticated, coordinated attempts to bypass the vetting process for high-stakes clinical trial roles like Clinical Research Associates (CRAs) and Mid-level Management.

And what makes this scarier?

For most clinical trial hiring managers at small to mid-sized pharmas, biotechs, or medical device companies, these twelve individuals would have looked like the “perfect” hires. But in today’s market, the “perfect” resume is often a mask for a catastrophic risk.

The Anatomy of the Job Market “Trust Gap”

We are currently operating in what I call the 80% Noise Market. Based on our internal data and the current landscape of the Clinical Research sector, the applicant pool has fractured into three dangerous tiers:

• 60% are Falsified: These candidates have faked all or part of their experience, education, or references, often using sophisticated digital footprints that appear legitimate at first glance.
• 20% are AI-Generated: These are “ghost candidates.” They don’t exist but are AI-driven personas designed to farm interviews or collect sensitive company data.
• The “Real 20%”: These are the genuine professionals with real credentials. AKA…these are the ones you want to evaluate and qualify.

If your internal HR team is drowning in hundreds of applications, they aren’t just looking for a needle in a haystack. They are trying to identify a real needle in a pile of five hundred high-quality fakes.

Why the “Fast Hire” is the Enemy of the Safe Trial

I have spent over three decades in the hiring seat, including a decade in leadership at IBM. Before co-founding our firm, I was an executive at IBM, leading projects involving over 17,000 people.

I know the pressure you are under. 

When you have a clinical trial to monitor or a department to scale, an empty seat feels like a bleeding wound.

However, in the Clinical Research world, a “bad hire” isn’t just an HR headache. It is a liability that can tank your company.

Let’s look at the Clinical Research Associate (CRA) role. CRAs are the primary line of defense for patient safety and data integrity. They operate with high independence, so a fraudulent CRA hire can go unnoticed for months, but the damage they leave behind is permanent:

• Patient Safety & Ethics: An unqualified person may miss protocol deviations or fail to verify informed consent. This isn’t just a paperwork error; it’s a direct threat to human lives.
• Data Integrity Failure: If the FDA or EMA identifies that your Source Data Verification (SDV) was handled by someone with falsified credentials, they won’t just ask for a correction. They can reject your entire dataset.
• The “Rework” Multiplier: The cost of a bad hire is often cited as $50,000. In Clinical Research, it is 10x that. Every site that a fraudulent CRA monitored must be re-monitored by a qualified professional. You are paying twice for the work and losing months of progress.
• Regulatory & Legal Fallout: We are seeing an increase in “negligent hiring” lawsuits. If a fake employee harms a study participant, the company faces millions in fines, and in extreme cases of GxP non-compliance, leadership can face criminal charges.

Finding the “Real 20%”

So, how do you navigate a market where 80% of the entries are noise?

It requires moving away from “Active” applicant pools and leaning into Passive Sourcing and Niche Partnerships. The high-quality, mid-career professionals you need are those with the resilience and adaptability to thrive in a startup or mid-sized environment. And guess what? They aren’t usually spending their time in a sea of AI-generated applications.

They usually don’t apply at all. Instead, they are working, being referred, and being vetted by people who know how to spot the “formulaic” interview answer and the “mismatched identity” red flags.

At my agency, we don’t just “find” candidates; we verify the unverifiable. We use our three decades of hiring expertise to protect your trial, your data, and your reputation.

You don’t have time to be a fraud detective, but you do have a clinical trial to run. Let’s make sure the people running it with you are the real deal. Don’t let a ‘ghost candidate’ become a regulatory nightmare. Message me today to learn how we identify high-quality CRAs in a market full of noise.

Sources and Additional Reading

• PharmiWeb: Recruitment Fraud Risks Report: Analyzes the “Applicant Avalanche” and the rise of automated/fake credentials in Life Sciences.
• CCRPS (Center for Clinical Research Practice): Their “5 Strategies to Prevent CRA Fraud” lists the specific red flags of candidates using generic “Formulaic” interviewing.
• FDA: GCP Inspection Findings & Data Integrity: Official reports highlighting how data integrity failures lead to trial rejection and market delays.
• ACRP: Elements of Fraud and Misconduct: Professional standards defining the red flags and ethical requirements for CRAs and monitors.
• U.S. Dept. of Justice: The Jessica Palacio Case: A case study on the criminal indictment of a study coordinator for falsifying clinical trial data.
• Inop.ai: True Cost of a Bad Hire: Quantitative research on the financial impact of hiring failures in specialized technical roles.
• Crosschq: Quality of Hire Report: Statistics on candidate misrepresentation and the “Trust Gap” in modern screening processes.
• Resume Builder: Candidate Survey: Data showing the percentage of applicants who admit to falsifying details on resumes and during interviews.

The post The Ghost in the Clinical Trial: A Needle in a Pile of Fake Needles appeared first on craresources.

Michelle sent an email asking if we could speak. Michelle was the Senior Director of a device company getting ready to launch a high-acuity cardiac device study. The team needed CRAs, and she had provided me with the job requirements a few days prior. Several CRAs had interviewed – a couple of them had interviewed several times.

“I am finding it difficult to obtain buy-in from all of my team,” said Michelle. 

I asked her what she meant, and she explained that her team didn’t agree with the minimum job requirements. The Program Manager felt the CRAs should have at least 10 years of cardiac device experience. The VP felt 5 years would be enough, but the rest of her team was okay with only 3 years. 

The job description asked for 3 years of experience, so while all of the CRAs met the position’s minimum requirements, there was a gap that needed to be addressed. 

The Real Challenge: Getting the Team In Alignment

The real challenge isn’t finding a qualified candidate. It is agreeing on what ‘qualified’ means. It seems logical that if you want your team to agree that a candidate will be a great fit, you must first make sure the team agrees to the position’s job requirements.  

But how many companies engage their operations team when crafting a job description? And, is engaging the entire team overkill? 

Let’s dig into this concept.

Who Should Be Involved In Establishing Job Requirements? 

Does the entire team need to be involved? Not necessarily. But there can be benefits to involving everyone who will interact with the new team member’s function. 

Improved Accuracy and Quality

Fostering collaboration when creating the job description ensures the requirements will reflect diverse perspectives. In essence, you will have more confidence that the majority of relevant details about the role have been captured while avoiding unconscious bias that may creep in if there is only one author. 

Team members who interact with the position should provide insights into the responsibilities. Tools and workflows should also be assessed by the broader audience with relevant hard and soft skills outlined in the job description. 

Shared Responsibility and Team Buy-In

Distributing the workload among team members can streamline the process while reducing the burden on one person. And importantly, team members who have helped create the job description will ‘buy in’ to the overall position requirements. 

Enhanced Understanding of Role

Collaboration also ensures a deeper understanding of how this role will fit within the team and organization. Team members can learn from each other’s perspectives, which may help refine the role and better align it with organizational goals.

The Challenges of Engaging the Broader Team

Time Coordination

Organizing schedules for collaborative meetings can be challenging, especially if multiple people are involved. This may temporarily disrupt normal workflows. It also means the job description will take longer to create.

If involving the entire team using formal meetings is impractical due to time constraints or size, consider soliciting feedback through other methods such as email or via a Google document. Once the feedback is collected, have HR or the hiring manager draft the description based on collected input and then review it with key stakeholders for final approval.

Be Prepared for Lack of Expertise

Team members without experience drafting job descriptions may unintentionally include irrelevant or non-compliant details. Provide proper oversight, training, or templates so this issue can be mitigated.

Best Practices for Effective Collaboration

Identify Key Contributors

Focus on involving individuals who will have direct interaction with the role, thus knowing the tasks specific to the position. Examples include current team members performing similar tasks, managers, team members taking work direction from the role, and HR representatives.

Use Templates and Guidelines

Standardized formats and clear collaboration guidelines help ensure consistency and compliance across job descriptions. Using templates will also ensure your job descriptions meet legal requirements. 

Appoint a Project Leader

A designated leader can manage input from various contributors, compile feedback, and finalize the document.

Establish a Review Process

Putting a formal review process in place will ensure accuracy, inclusivity, and alignment with organizational standards before finalizing the job description.

Checklist for an Effective Job Description

While individuals experienced with crafting job descriptions will understand what should be included, novice professionals may not. Here is a quick checklist of items to include when drafting your job requirements. 

Position Details

• Job Title: Does everyone agree on the title of the position?
• Flexibility: Are hours or location negotiable? For example, for the right candidate, would you consider remote work, flexible hours, or accommodating family needs?
• Employment Type: Have you confirmed whether the role will be contract, permanent, or temp-to-perm? Consider the pros and cons of each option.
• Compensation: Is there agreement on salary or hourly rate? Has this been approved by finance and senior management?
• Start Date: Is there a clear start date (and end date for temporary roles)? What factors could delay or jeopardize this start date (e.g., project delays or funding issues)?

Internal Processes

• Internal Candidates: Have you considered filling the position internally? Are there any company policies requiring you to prioritize internal candidates?
• Hiring Freeze Risks: Is there a chance of a hiring freeze or financial restrictions that could impact this hire?

Job Skills, Qualifications, and Personality

• Key Qualifications: What are the most critical job requirements? Ask your team to prioritize these and identify which are “nice-to-haves” versus mandatory. Stay with this task until you have consensus across your team. In Michelle’s case, she would have had a faster hire if her original requirements met everyone’s expectations. This is important: You can’t find a ‘great fit’ if the team doesn’t agree with what a ‘great fit’ is. 
• Soft Skills and Personality Fit: What soft skills and personality traits are important for this role? For example, does your team prefer someone bubbly or reserved, chatty or focused? Do you need someone with leadership capabilities? A problem solver? 
• Work Style: Should the candidate work independently or as part of a team? Don’t assume—ask your team!
• Company Background: Does your team prefer candidates from large corporations, small businesses, or specific industries? Past experiences shape professionals differently, so make sure you understand your team’s preferences.
• Career Goals: What career ambitions should your new hire have to align with your team’s long-term goals?

Key Takeaways

When hiring, it’s crucial to clarify both hard requirements (skills, experience, education) and soft requirements (personality, work style, background, career goals). By asking the right questions and aligning expectations within your team upfront, you’ll be well on your way to finding the perfect addition to your workplace family.

Need help writing job descriptions? We are here for you.

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Is it possible for someone to shout over social media? Chris certainly seemed to be shouting at me. Why? Because as the hiring manager, I had just rejected him. 

Chris accused me of being too picky. 

But let me ask you this: Is it wrong to want to hire someone perfect? I see gaggles of posts from disgruntled job seekers complaining that the hiring manager should stop looking for the perfect candidate. 

Why can’t we search for the perfect candidate? Why should we settle? Don’t we advise job seekers to look for their perfect position? Isn’t that the concept of a dream job? The hiring manager has the same right to hire perfect team members in an effort to build a dream team. 

But…

Perhaps We Should Define Perfect

A sponsor approached me several months ago, asking if we could provide CRAs with Parkinson’s experience. Her current recruitment agency had told her, ‘No one has conducted Parkinson’s studies for years, and therefore, we can’t find CRAs with that experience.’

Wait, what? 

I often hear this. Clients are told they have to settle for CRAs who don’t have the desired therapeutics or who are in the right location. A perfect candidate fits all of the important soft and hard skill ‘have-to-have’ criteria, which usually includes experience with certain therapeutic experience and living within a specific location. 

This is why there is value in a well-written job description.  

Can you hire the ‘perfect candidate’ without a well-written job description? I don’t believe so. The perfect candidates are those who meet your ‘have-to-have’ requirements as listed in the job description, and if you and your team haven’t agreed to those firm requirements, how will you find a candidate the entire team believes will fit? 

Seems simple, but the ‘perfect candidate’ as defined in this context is exactly what the hiring manager should be looking for. 

Why?

Because Hiring The ‘Runner-Up’ Is Dangerous

We just had a situation where one of our clients made an offer to their top candidate, and he declined it. All of us knew he was perfect for the position. We were surprised he didn’t accept, and our client was extremely disappointed. 

The next morning, in a panic, he reached out. He told us he realized he had made a bad decision. He wanted to know if the offer was still on the table. 

The answer was no. 

Why? 

Because our client had already made an offer to their runner-up, and that candidate had accepted it. 

Our client’s thought process? The runner-up ‘would do.’ They urgently needed to fill this position, and there weren’t any major red flags (maybe some pink ones). The minor issues they had noted were things they could overcome. 

Right? 

Why Hiring the “She will Do” Candidate is Problematic

I believe hiring the ‘she will do’ (otherwise known as the mediocre) candidate is worse than engaging a bad hire. You will keep your eye on the bad hire. However, a mediocre hire will cost you time because you will give them more independence and leeway.  Leadership will have to put more effort into her training. Even though she excels in some tasks, she will not perform as expected in others; therefore, your team will also have to fix more issues. And when you decide to manage her out of the business, it will be hard to justify. 

After all, she isn’t that horrible. Right? 

Wrong. Settling for less than the best sends the wrong message. It damages the morale of your team and could impact your shareholders’ or investors’ perception of the way you select your team members and manage your operations. 

Don’t make a significant investment in someone who isn’t a keeper. If your top candidate gets snatched up by another company, don’t settle for a runner-up that falls short of what you have already defined as a ‘perfect candidate.’ 

Keep looking. 

How to Keep Searching Without Annoying Your Team

I understand how hard it is to keep a position open for a long time. But if you aren’t finding the perfect candidate, here are some things you can do.  

Review the Job Description

Have your team re-review the job description and confirm their agreement to the ‘must-have’ and ‘like-to-have’ requirements. 

Note that this isn’t an act of settling. This is a task to ensure clarity across all parties. Now that you have interviewed candidates, your requirements may have changed slightly; therefore, take the time to tweak the job description as appropriate.

Assess the Job Title and Re-Post the Position

You never know what titles candidates are searching for. Therefore, making a slight change to the job title will attract candidates with different backgrounds and experiences. For example, instead of posting the position for an Administrative Assistant, perhaps call the role Administrative Operations Specialist, Administrative Coordinator, Project Coordinator (if relevant), etc. 

Re-Interview Your Runner-Ups

Now that you have reviewed your job description, reposted the position, and are attracting new candidates to consider, perhaps bring your top runner-up candidates back for another interview. Dig deeper into the areas that may have been pink flags during the first interview. 

Maybe the answer is still no because you don’t want to settle. But you also may see something different in the candidates during their second round of interviews. 

But Before You Extend an Offer

Don’t side-step the basics. Be extra diligent when checking references and conducting a background check. Once you have gathered all the details, sit down with your team and make a team decision. 

Break out the pros and cons, and if the team is sure about a ‘perfect’ candidate, make an offer. If not, work with the entire team to obtain buy-in and start the search over again. 

What Really Happened With Chris

I want to close the loop on the story I started telling about Chris. I didn’t reject him because he “shouted” at me through LinkedIn. Chris has submitted three resumes to our firm over the past four years. The most recent two resumes were just submitted this week, and his employment didn’t match across all three resumes.  

The differences between the resumes were egregious.  

While a date error can happen here and there, the mismatching employment history wasn’t something we could attribute to a grammatical error. As an example, one resume stated he worked for PPD, while another stated he worked for IQVIA. The dates of all of his employments were so different across the three resumes that it was obvious Chris was quite creative (or had a very crooked pencil). 

I was respectful. Instead of ghosting him, I told him we couldn’t represent him because of the resume discrepancies.

His Response? 

He responded that I didn’t understand the difference between a CV and a resume and that he was going to broadcast to his network that we were outdated and too picky. 

My response? 

I do understand there are differences between CVs and resumes. However, there are also many similarities, the primary one being that you should honestly and accurately represent your employment history. 

I then told him I would appreciate him broadcasting to his network about our ‘pickyness’. Folks who falsify their employment should know that we compare current resumes (or CVs) with past ones and will pull them from our candidate pool if the employment history doesn’t match. 

After all, it isn’t complicated. You either worked for PPD, or you didn’t. Start dates are start dates, just like end dates are end dates. Providing accurate employment history on your resume (or CV) isn’t just important. It is a firm requirement. 

In Conclusion

I encourage hiring teams to be clear about what they are looking for. Writing a detailed job description and obtaining buy-in from your team is a great starting point to outlining the firm skills and competencies that qualified candidates will possess. 

Then stay focused on these ‘must have’ qualities to find the perfect candidate. Don’t settle, and never accept fraudulence (or candidates who shout at you across social media platforms). 

Need help? We are here, and yes, I will gladly write your job description for you.

The post How Picky Should The Hiring Manager Be? appeared first on craresources.

Before we can dig into the current contract CRA salary or hourly rate, we should first understand the difference between a candidate-driven and employer-driven market.  

Once the industry kicked back into gear after COVID, we experienced a strange resourcing situation. The demand for field monitors was exceptionally high…much higher than the number of available Clinical Research Associates. The high demand coupled with the shortage of available CRAs meant that Sponsors and CROs were competing for this limited CRA pool.  

Therefore, we dove head first into a candidate-driven market.  

In a candidate-driven market, jobseekers have the advantage and can demand higher compensation and better job perks. In the post COVID rush, we saw the hourly rate for contract CRAs come close to doubling for monitors experienced with hot skills like CAR-T and gene-therapy. 

With that being said, our current market is heavily employer-driven because there are more qualified candidates than available positions. Therefore, employers are more able to negotiate compensation and job perks. In today’s market, I have seen salaries for specialized CRAs drop by roughly 20%.

Why Is This Important?

Hiring managers and clinical research associates should continually assess the market. An understanding of the current contract CRA hourly rates and CRA salaries is important for various reasons. 

As a Hiring Manager, knowing the current market compensation ranges can help you quickly detect fraudulent candidates. It can also protect you from those CRAs who ‘poach’, thus protecting your budget. 

And as a CRA, having this knowledge can help you understand how to maintain competitiveness while still being able to demand an appropriate range. It will also help you look beyond the rate so that you can secure positions within compelling companies on exciting projects. 

Any way you slice it, to hire high-quality CRAs or get hired by great sponsors, you must be aware of the current market value of a Contract CRA.

Jump to CRA Info

Hiring Managers: How to understand the Contract CRA Hourly Rate

When you understand current compensational market trends for CRAs you can:

Prevent attrition

Every Sponsor and CRO is competing for top talent.  While you shouldn’t pay more than market value, offering an aggressive rate can go a long way in ensuring your CRAs will not leave for greener pastures. 

Said differently, expect attrition if you are underpaying your CRAs. Attrition rates for CRAs have been exceptionally high in the past few years, and while inadequate pay isn’t the only reason for high attrition rates, it is one of the largest driving forces behind the high turnover volume. It is certainly one of the easiest factors that you can control in mitigating negative attrition.

Detect fraudulence

Several years ago we noticed a trend of CRA candidates asking for well below the market rate or salary.  As we explored deeper, we realized this trend was directly related to the candidate fraudulence we had started identifying in our industry. If a CRA is asking too little, dig deeper, as this is a clear sign of an amateur at best and a fraud at worst.

Alternatively, even if the candidate isn’t committing fraud, if they undervalue themselves so much as to ask for a below-market rate or salary, they may be desperate. And my experience shows that desperate people make desperate decisions. You likely won’t be satisfied with their work, but even if their work isn’t subpar, they will leave you as soon as the next best offer comes around.

Protect your budget

There is a pool of CRAs who are known to overvalue their services when given the opportunity. It is common for these CRAs to ask for compensation far above the current market’s contract CRA hourly rate. In our experience, however, a higher rate doesn’t necessarily mean a better CRA. For cases like these, being aware of competitive compensation ranges will help you protect your budget and avoid overpaying. We have continually seen that if a CRA is genuinely passionate about the industry, other position perks mean something to them.

How do you know if the individual is looking for a long-term home or just haggling for money’s sake? Consider these qualities over a high asking price:

• Has the CRA expressed a personal passion for the industry? 
• Is it clear the CRA has researched your company and products, and clearly expresses a desire to contribute to your team’s mission?
• Does their resume represent long-term contracts or repeat clients?
• Have you received positive feedback from previous contract references?

When engaging a new contract CRA, speaking with supervisors from previous assignments is another extremely valuable resource. Check in with past contract references to vet each new hire, ensuring that the CRA has not left a contract before it naturally ended because this is a telling sign.  This means that while good CRAs do leave contracts early for multiple reasons, a large percentage of CRAs who end their contracts early do so because they found a better deal. 

How craresources can help

While finding, interviewing, and vetting potential CRAs can seem daunting, you don’t have to do it alone. craresources does all of the hard work for you, cutting down on your workload and helping to eliminate fraud by interviewing and recommending only those CRAs who have passed our stringent qualification process. 

Because of the volume of CRAs we place, we are extremely familiar with the ever-changing market. Therefore, you will pay a competitive rate without overpaying. Additionally, we not only ensure that the CRAs who pass our rigorous process are as qualified as they claim to be, but we also provide options so that hiring managers don’t have to settle for less than the best. You never have to settle for a CRA located in the wrong area, without the specific skills and qualifications you need, or whose personality doesn’t fit with the rest of your team.

CRAs and the Contract CRA Hourly Rate

As a CRA looking for well-paying opportunities that you can be passionate about, it’s important to know what contract CRA hourly rate you should be asking for. Knowing the current market rate enables you to expect strong compensation while competing with other CRAs. It will also help you look beyond the price tag to make better long-term career decisions.

Understand the market rate

In the current employer-driven market, the contract CRA hourly rate has stalled and salaries have dropped. While markets are constantly changing, it is important that you see beyond the current ‘ebb’ or ‘flow’ by focusing on your overall career goals. 

Think ‘long-term’ by building strong relationships with companies and sponsors. Be sure to meet your commitments by not bailing on contracts because you have received a better offer.  Instead, think about your career aspirations and stay in control.

Look beyond the high rate with craresources

What should you look for in a sponsor besides money?

One of the best ways to provide for yourself long-term is to build a relationship with a firm like craresources that will offer a partnership along with repeat placements. We put in the time to get to know you, and we care about your fit, ensuring you are placed in an environment that will enable you to succeed and grow your skills. With a firm like craresources, you can rest assured we will always be available to provide support, as you being able to smoothly transition into your new assignments is one of our primary goals. 

We understand how important CRAs are to our industry and realize a good CRA assignment is more than just the hourly rate. It is also about the science, the culture, and the work environment; so we make it a point to get to know our CRAs before recommending positions to them. This helps to keep you happily engaged, enabling both you and the sponsor to be satisfied. That satisfaction is why we’re worth the effort. With craresources, you’ll get the best gigs with the best clients, all tailored to fit your needs and skill set.

Leave it to the Experts at craresources

Whether you’re a hiring manager or a CRA, knowing the current market’s contract CRA hourly rate can help you make the best decisions for yourself and your firm or career. However, the market is constantly changing, and it can be hard to keep up. But at craresources, it’s our job to understand these fluctuations to serve you better. 

If you have specific questions about market rates, reach out to the experts at craresources. Engaging us to answer the hard questions and do the legwork for you will benefit you every time. Reach out to us today to learn more about how we can connect you with the most experienced CRAs and the best sponsor work environments time and time again.

The post What is the Current Contract CRA Hourly Rate? appeared first on craresources.

Diploma mills have been in operation for decades. Just last December, a story reported that non-accredited Florida nursing schools sold 7,600 fake diplomas. Defendants linked to the Palm Beach School of Nursing participated in a scheme to sell phony academic credentials so that individuals could apply for a nursing license without completing required clinical instruction and coursework.

Another jarring story broke several years ago when CBS outed physicians holding fake degrees from Corllins University, a known diploma mill.

Imagine your mother or child being treated by someone who purchased an MD or nursing degree instead of earning it! 

The Trend of Fake Degrees

While the above reports are frightening, they represent an ongoing trend. Unfortunately, it is easy for individuals to represent they have a degree when they don’t. It is fast and relatively inexpensive for individuals to purchase a bachelor’s, master’s, or doctorate from diploma mills. Diploma mill applicants are not required to complete coursework, and while some diploma mills require the individual to complete a quick “life experience” survey, the only firm requirement to obtain a degree is to pay the fee. 

Havocscope is an online organization that monitors black market products and activities, and they report that selling fake diplomas as a ‘product’ is currently a 1 Billion dollar industry! They also state that bachelor’s and master’s diplomas can be purchased for around $500. And according to John Bear and former FBI agent Allen Ezel in “Degree Mills: The Billion-Dollar Industry that has Sold Over a Million Fake Diplomas”, it is estimated that more than 50% of individuals claiming to have earned a PhD purchased a fake degree from a diploma mill.

The most frightening aspect of someone falsifying their education is that a 3rd Party Background check may not identify degrees from Diploma Mills. 

What are Diploma Mills?

Diploma Mills operate without supervision from a state or authoritative agency, therefore they do not meet educational standards. Some of these institutions will claim accreditation from non-recognized agencies to make them appear valid. However, don’t let an ‘accreditation’ fool you as there are hundreds of fake accreditation agencies, which makes it more difficult to tell which educational institutions are real.  

Get Educated is currently tracking more than 300 active diploma mills. The FBI established a dynamic Wikipedia site that tracks over 400 Diploma Mills with another 300+ websites offering counterfeit diplomas.

Many diploma mills look authentic because most of them have a professional-looking website. They also have staff who answer phones and verify the Job Seeker “earned” the degree listed on his/her resume, making it virtually impossible for a 3rd Party Background check to identify the degree is fake. Some of these diploma mills even have online databases where you can enter the Job Seeker’s name and instantly “validate” the degree purchased.

How Do You Spot A Fraudulent School Or Degree?

Accreditation is important. 

Valid educational institutions should have proper accreditation. For example, in the US, when a job description requires a degree, the unspoken requirement is that you have obtained a degree from an accredited university.  

Said differently, a bachelor’s from a non-accredited university (or a university accredited by a fake accreditation agency) will not qualify you for a position that requires a bachelor’s degree. In the US, most often the accreditation expected will be from a regional agency. The six regional accreditation boards in the US are:

• • MSA – Middle States Association of Colleges & Schools
  • NASC – Northwest Commission on Colleges & Universities
  • NCA – North Central Association of Colleges & Schools
  • NEASC – New England Association of Schools & Colleges
  • SACS – Southern Association of Colleges & Schools
  • WASC – Western Association of Schools & Colleges

You may also see educational institutions with national accreditation, but these aren’t viewed to be as rigorous as the regional accreditation agencies. The three most common national accreditation agencies are: 

• • Distance Education & Training Council (DETC)
  • Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges & Schools (ACICS)
  • Accrediting Commission of Career Schools and Colleges (ACCSC)

There are also specialty accreditation agencies for theology training programs and careers governed by state licensing boards. 

While it is good advice to be familiar with the types of accreditations available, the easiest way to tell if a US-based educational institution is accredited is to contact the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA) or the US Department of Education (USDE). We use the US Department of Education’s Database of Accredited Postsecondary Institutions and Programs (DAPIP) to validate someone’s US Degree.

Confirm the educational institution offers the degree. 

Once you confirm the school is accredited by a valid accreditation agency, verify that the degree is offered by the institution. For example, a CRA candidate listed a Bachelor’s in Chemistry from a small school I hadn’t heard of. After confirming the school was accredited on the DAPIP site, a quick phone call confirmed the school doesn’t offer a Bachelor’s in Chemistry. 

Demand Clarity

The Government Accountability Office reports that their: “ability to identify degrees from unaccredited schools is limited by several factors. First, diploma mills frequently use names similar to those used by accredited schools, which often allows the diploma mills to be mistaken for accredited schools. For example, Hamilton University of Evanston, Wyoming, which is not accredited by an accrediting body recognized by ED, has a name similar to Hamilton College, a fully accredited school in Clinton, New York. Moreover, federal agencies told us that employee records may contain incomplete or misspelled school names without addresses. Thus, an employee’s records may reflect a bachelor’s degree from Hamilton, but the records do not indicate whether the degree is from Hamilton University, the unaccredited school, or Hamilton College, the accredited institution.”

Always ask for additional information when a candidate lists an institution that has a similar name to others. For example, there are over twenty valid institutions with ‘Cambridge’ in the name, but according to the FBI’s listing of Diploma Mills, there are three that are known to be fraudulent. 

You also want to demand clarity when a candidate lists an educational institution but no degree, a degree without a year of graduation, or a degree without a specific area of study. Examples include:

• • Faber College; 1989 – 1992 (what degree?)
  • Faber College, BS Chemistry (what year?)
  • Faber College, Bachelors of Science; 1992 (BS in what?)

Other things to watch for:

Always compare degrees listed on the Job Seeker’s Social Media profiles to what they have stated on their resumes. You should also compare older resumes to newer ones. We often see where the candidate will change their degree in order to appear more competitive. 

International degrees can be tricky. Unfortunately, no single authority oversees the recognition of foreign degrees in the US. And while we have several clients who accept foreign degrees, we have just as many who don’t.

While I would NOT recommend you refuse candidates based on the origin of their degrees, I do advise that you be extra diligent when validating degrees obtained in other countries. 

Resources to Help Identify Diploma Mills

The key is to know what to look for and what questions to ask to validate the Job Seeker’s education. Here is a listing of the resources referred to in this article: 

• • US Department of Education – Diploma Mills and Accreditation Resources and Publications. 
  • The US Department of Education’s Database of Accredited Postsecondary Institutions and Programs (DAPIP)
  • Wikipedia’s list of unaccredited institutions of higher education.
  • Get Educated’s current list of active diploma mills.
  • Wikipedia’s list of unrecognized higher education accreditation organizations.

Quick Note About Certifications

Many clients and candidates ask about certifications. I am a fan. But be careful because there are many fake organizations offering certifications. I ran across one the other day that was charging three times as much as an industry-known certification from the ACRP, SOCRA, or IAOCR…and they didn’t even define the CRA role correctly. 

It is smart to obtain an industry certification or accreditation but stick with reputable organizations. 

Need Help?

Reach out to craresources. We are happy to help where we can!

The post The Rise of Diploma Mills and Fake Degrees appeared first on craresources.

As we continue the discussion on how to identify fake job applicants and applicants representing a fake background, I am constantly asked, “But why not just call and verify past employment?” Seems like a reasonable question, doesn’t it?

Many Clinical Operations Managers who are aware of the candidate fraudulence epidemic feel they are protected because their company does background checks. I agree that you should do background checks. But conducting background checks and employment verifications isn’t always going to protect you from candidates who present a fake background or job history. 

Here’s why…

The Existence of Non-Existent Fake Companies

Never assume the companies listed on candidate resumes are real businesses. And be aware that these ‘fake companies’ have folks who will answer the phone and “verify” employment. We first noticed this trend in 2010 when candidates from certain “companies” consistently failed our competency assessments. As we dug deeper, we realized the companies didn’t exist and that the candidates were fake job applicants who were using these bogus companies to represent monitoring experience they didn’t have.

To date, we have identified 47 of these phony companies…with an additional 119 classified as highly suspicious. The trend of candidates using fake companies on their resumes is one of the most elusive and alarming trends we have seen.  

Why?

Because it is sometimes hard to identify that a company is fake (which is why we have so many categorized as highly suspicious). These shell companies have websites, and the individuals who establish these counterfeit companies trick Google into assigning locations to them. Business Insider first reported on this issue in 2015, not only confirming what we were already seeing in our industry but also blowing the whistle on an organization that admits to creating hundreds of phony companies.  

And don’t underestimate how committed these fraudsters are. Not only do they have staff members who answer phones to “verify” employment, but for an additional fee, they will provide positive references from “past supervisors”.

How to determine if a company is real:

It is easier to confirm that a company is real than it is to prove it is fake. However, there are specific steps you can follow that will provide insight into a company’s validity.  

Check State Registrars.

As a rule, if you have never heard of a company, you should search for its registration. If a company has legitimately been organized, it will be listed on the appropriate state’s registry. However, realize that companies do not always have to register their business where the business resides. For example, our company’s headquarters is in Florida, therefore, our business is registered with the state of Florida and can be found on Florida’s Division of Corporations site. But we were once registered in Georgia and would also be qualified to register in the state of Delaware. 

So, while you want to start with the state where the company’s headquarters is located, you may have to broaden your search if you want to rule out fraud. 

This brings us to Manta and OpenCorporates.

If searching the Secretary of State or Divisions of Corporation site for the state where the company resides doesn’t yield results, consider using the Manta Business Directory. Manta scrapes each state’s corporation database and also allows companies to register with them directly. While not as reliable as the Secretary of State listings, it can be a good resource if you are unsure which state a company may be registered with.

One of my personal favorites is to use OpenCorporates.  Their database consists of filed corporations across the globe and is extremely accurate. However, if you use this resource often, you will be required to pay a membership fee. But if you hire CRAs, the fee is worth it. 

What isn’t likely to be found:

Fictitious Names and Trade Names can be difficult to trace. For example, while you can easily find our corporation name on our state’s corporation site, you won’t be able to find our trade name. This means that while trade names are required to be registered, they aren’t easily searchable like corporation names are. Much like single-member LLCs, they can be difficult to track down and even more difficult to prove as fraudulent. 

What happens if you can’t verify that the company is real?

If you are unable to verify the legitimacy of a company through a corporation search, you can certainly research its online activity. 

Start with a LinkedIn presence. While not all valid companies have LinkedIn, if the company does have a LinkedIn presence, you will be able to gain insight into its validity. Start by assessing how fleshed out the company’s profile is. Then, take a look at the individuals who are connected to it, along with their titles, etc. You should know that anyone can build a fake LinkedIn company page and have many people connect to it, but real people will be posting as well as sharing information about company milestones. LinkedIn companies also include an Insights tab that will show a history of employees connected to it.   

If the company is a sponsor claiming to conduct trials in the US, you can also check out clinicaltrials.gov. Just be aware that not all studies are required to be on this government site. You can also search for press releases, and check out other resources such as Crunchbase. 

We also keep a history of companies we can’t verify (note the 119 companies I referred to as ‘suspicious’ at the beginning of this section).  Let’s just say that trends will start to reveal themselves if you just track history. 

Even if the Company is Real, Be Diligent in Background and Reference Checks

I am finding more and more companies failing to conduct thorough reference and background checks. And here’s the problem…often, the operations managers don’t know these important steps are being skipped or side-stepped. 

If you are an operations manager, find out what the background and reference check processes are.  We provide some important items to consider in a different article, but here are a few important things to confirm.  

See if there is a financial threshold for background checks. 

I just spoke with someone last week who told me their HR would only pay for a ‘first level’ employment verification. Some of our larger industry CROs and Sponsors require a verbal employment verification, and background check companies will charge extra for that extra step. 

In this particular instance, my friend told me that she had gut churns when interviewing the candidate and was counting on the employment verification to either confirm or deny her suspicions. She didn’t know human resources wouldn’t conduct an employment verification if it required an extra charge. Unfortunately, sidestepping this employment verification resulted in a bad hire. She later found out that the individual had never worked with the large CRO represented on his resume.  

Being thorough in the background check would have avoided the situation.  

Find out if there is a limit to how much your company will spend on any aspect of the background check. Keep in mind that a thorough background check goes well beyond a criminal history and employment verification analysis. If there is a threshold set for any portion of the background check, either obtain permission to exceed that threshold or speak to your leadership about alternative methods of obtaining a thorough result. 

Always do both. 

Companies will often skip reference checks, but as noted above, background checks aren’t always effective. Because of our experience with fake job applicants, we actually put more stock in reference checks if done properly.

Especially when it comes to confirming the experience of contractors. Just know that background checks aren’t going to be effective in some instances, and reference checks aren’t effective in others. Do both, and you will increase your chances of confirming the candidate’s qualifications. 

Reference checks should always be verbal. 

Why? For two reasons. First, references can be easily falsified. Fake job applicants will go to great lengths to represent someone as a past clinical operations manager when they are really a sister, a wife, a friend, a colleague, or someone from their ‘fake company’ arrangement. 

Business emails can be spoofed, so even if the candidate is using an email from a well-known company domain, don’t assume it is valid. Create a reference template that includes open-ended questions that cover hard and soft skills. Then, verbally speak to each reference. Verify the candidate’s title, the dates they worked together, and the company where they worked together. Then, dig into the reference questions. Be sure to listen with your ears and with your gut. Pay attention to what they are saying as well as their pauses while also tuning into energy shifts. If you are ‘using your gut’ during these calls, you will be able to feel it if something is amiss.

This brings me to the second reason why you want to check references verbally. People are more likely to be forthcoming with the truth when in a verbal discussion versus responding to a questionnaire through email. When you ask a direct question, honest people will want to answer it. They may still pause, but they will still be more honest with their answers.  

Was the Company in Operation when the Candidate ‘Worked’ there?

I just had an applicant whose resume showed she was employed by a company two years before it was formed. We also consistently see folks state they worked for a company after it was no longer in business. Always make sure the candidate’s employment dates align with when the companies were active so that you can catch fake job applicants who claim they worked for a company before or after the company existed.

We have also seen a strong trend where candidates list multiple companies on their resumes that did exist but have been acquired or gone out of business. This act alone doesn’t necessarily mean fraudulence, but digging deeper to verify employment can be a challenge. And in some instances, impossible. 

In Conclusion

You are probably thinking that being thorough with background checks (especially employment verification) and references is a lot of work.

It is.

We analyze every candidate who crosses our threshold using the above steps. Every time. Being thorough in our approach is how we have been able to identify that approximately 60% of the candidates applying to our open positions are fake job applicants. This qualification process is time-consuming and can be overwhelming. But it is important because our practice of being thorough has enabled us to build history on candidates and identify fake companies. 

It takes time to identify those candidates who are valid. And while it isn’t always possible to prove that a candidate is fake (until it is too late), knowing who is ‘real’ and truly qualified is extremely important.

Make sure you and your leadership team are diligent because fake job applicants can pass a background check. If you see something that seems off and would like our advice, just let us know. We are here to help! 

The post Fake Job Applicants Can Pass a Background Check appeared first on craresources.

Blowing the whistle can be one of the most difficult decisions anyone can make. According to the Office of the Whistleblower Ombuds (a government site), blowing the whistle can have long-lasting personal impacts for the whistleblower as well as their loved ones. This makes the following detail something that I seriously appreciate because I feel her story will help many hiring managers in our industry.  

Not too long ago, someone reached out to me because a close personal friend of hers had participated in what she believed to be a Fake CRA program. To protect this whistle-blower, I am going to refer to her as Amanda. Here is her story: 

I Would Have Never Believed It…

Hi Angela – I happened to run across your article about fake CRA candidates being relatively (unfortunately) common in the market. Happy to provide more detail, but long story short, I know someone who went through a paid “program” to become a CRA. He did online classes for 6 months, was provided with a resume with 13 years of job experience that didn’t exist, and this person somehow made it through the interview process and got a 6-figure offer. 

This “program” also is somehow apparently able to get these candidates through the employment verification process (if one is even conducted). It’s the craziest thing I’ve ever heard of and I wouldn’t have believed it unless I saw the process happen right in front of me. 

While Amanda’s story is concerning, I also find it refreshing that the industry is starting to accept that CRA candidate fraudulence is a big problem.  

Blowing the Whistle on the Program

The impact of Fake CRAs on our industry.

While Amanda understood that her friend was being unethical by misrepresenting his experience, she wanted to know exactly what harm or danger he (or others like him) could cause. 

From a cost perspective, if a CRA is fake and has to be replaced, it costs the company money to remonitor the work. But what if the CRA is fake and not immediately identified or replaced? What if the FDA conducts an investigation and finds the study wasn’t monitored properly? 

And what about the safety of the patients involved in these studies? Do you want your mother taking a chemo drug that wasn’t properly monitored? It goes without saying, but in an industry where patient safety is paramount, do we really want to sidestep this issue? Isn’t having well-trained and highly qualified clinical research associates monitoring our studies critically important? 

Some might argue that poor-performing CRAs can cause similar issues. I agree. But why settle for either when you can avoid both?  

Amanda’s details on the program: 

I’d prefer not to share the name of the person I know who went through the program as it’s, unfortunately, a close personal situation. But I do hope that the program overall will be found out and shut down so that they don’t continue this cycle of fake candidates on the job market. 

I did see that there were about 30 students in the virtual class. They are given different versions of resumes tailored to different roles they are applying for under various English names. Upon offer, they give their legal name with the explanation that the name used is just an English name. I assume this is so they can pass a background check. 

The experience that was put in the resume of the person I know was with [ removed the list of CROs ]. 13 years of roles in total. He’s never worked at any of these places, or in this industry at all. 

In fact, he has never had a corporate job at all. Has been unemployed for the last 2 years and before that, helped with a small family business. 

Interviews Will Not Always Identify Fraudulence

What we find is that these organized groups spend considerable effort training these fake CRA candidates on how to pass interviews. Additionally, many of these programs offer substitute ‘proxy’ interviewers. Alternatively, they often have someone on standby to feed the answers to the candidate through headsets or on-screen messages.

We provide an extensive interview fraudulence checklist in another article but I do want to state this: even if a proxy isn’t used, if the person conducting the interview doesn’t dig deep enough, the candidate may seem highly qualified. We just recorded a podcast that speaks to how difficult it is to identify a fake CRA through an interview alone because these candidates have been taught how to answer the basics.

One of the reasons an employment verification may not protect you:

I’m not sure if they falsify the employment verification. Perhaps they create the resume by listing companies where they know people that they can pay off to falsely verify employment. Or maybe they just hope companies do not verify the employment history. 

[ Removed CRO’s name ] is one company that interviewed him. They conducted an employment verification and he didn’t get an offer so I’m not sure if they caught the lies or just didn’t end up having an opening. He has now been placed with a medical device CRO as a Senior level CRA. 

I hope this information helps to stop at least one of these programs from continuing. 

Amanda’s Story Isn’t Unique

Amanda’s story is one we are unfortunately quite familiar with. Currently, 50-60% of the CRA candidates applying to our open positions are found to be fraudulent. And for clarity purposes, we classify candidate fraudulence as someone who has completely falsified all or part of their credentials. It could include fabricating their employment history, stating they have a degree they haven’t earned, or providing false references. 

That is up from 21% when we first identified the issue over a decade ago. 

We Want to Hear Your Story

While our firm is actively providing checklists to companies so they can protect themselves against candidate fraudulence, I don’t believe those checklists alone are going to resolve the situation. If we want to gain control over the CRA candidate fraudulence that is plaguing our industry, we have to band together.

We have to dialogue about what is going on and share solutions to address the issue. What experiences do you have that would be helpful for others to hear? 

Blowing the whistle can be hard. But this topic is important to our industry and I will ensure your confidentiality. I hope to hear from you soon.

The post Blowing the Whistle on Fake CRA Programs appeared first on craresources.

About twenty years ago I had a mentor who told me that interviewing was the worse way to identify talent. I thought he had lost his mind. But with the rise of the fake interview, I see some wisdom to his point.

Now I am not going to go on record stating that we should throw out the interview. But I will state that an effective vetting process starts long before scheduling an interview. And when it comes to the actual interview, strict guidelines should be followed to ensure the interview is effective and the results are trustworthy.

We just had a candidate who couldn’t get his speakers to work during a video interview. After fifteen minutes of troubleshooting, the issue seemed to generally resolve itself, but his sound kept going in and out throughout the entire discussion.

Perhaps the issue truly was technical. But if you had heard the many fake interview stories that I have heard, you would be suspicious.

We were. 

So how do we, as recruiters and hiring managers, make sure we are giving job seekers a break when they are genuinely experiencing an issue during an interview? Alternatively, how do we know to classify the interaction as a fake interview?

This is an important topic because I feel that many recruiters and hiring managers are so shell-shocked from interview fraudulence that they are ruling out good and honest candidates. Join us for this week’s round table where we dig deeper into the topic.

Listen to Secrets of a CRA Recruiter on:

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When your candidate pool is too large, you are at risk of missing the highest-quality candidates.

I was speaking to an HR manager at a mid-sized CRO and she was in tears. Her operations team desperately needed CRAs for an upcoming project, but for each position she posted, she received over one hundred applicants.

She couldn’t get through all of the resumes, much less determine which candidates should progress to the interview.

This begs the question, how do you effectively fine-tune a large candidate pool so that you are able to only focus on the best and the brightest?  In the narration of an article that provides a table and checklist to help you sort through hundreds of job applications quickly, one of our beloved team members provides some hiring hacks.

Listen to Secrets of a CRA Recruiter on:

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In today’s market, it isn’t uncommon to have hundreds of job applicants apply for a single job. But who do you want to speak with?

It is our estimate that at least 25% of your job applicants will be fraudulent, another 25%(ish) will be underqualified, 48% will be qualified but…well…ermmm, and 2% will be awesome!

Ang’s Job Applicant Bell-Shaped Curve

If you are like us, you are looking for the 2%…but how do you quickly get through the hundreds of applicants in order to identify the top 2%?  After all, those super awesome CRAs won’t be on the market for long.

Whatever you do, don’t interview the Job Applicants…Yet

Before you spend any time on the phone talking to these folks, spend some time pre-qualifying them in order to shortlist the top candidates. Here’s how:

My last thought…

Who has time to interview hundreds of different candidates?  And honestly, why would you want to if you can fine tune the pool into the fully qualified or top 2%? Feel free to download this checklist and share.

Need help? Contact us – we are here to help!

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