5 Ways to Detect a New Hire’s Lies Before You Make an Offer

Finding good people to work for you becomes exceedingly problematic when a candidate lies about qualifications, skills, or their personality types, leading to a bad hire. So, how do we know when a candidate is lying during the hiring process? Here are some clues that give it away.

Don’t Discount Background Screening

There are many ways to do background checks and some methods are not only highly efficient, but also completely free. Yes, this includes social media. A great number of employers have recently revealed how they decided against hiring someone because they openly bad-mouthed their work/workplace or ex-bosses, or because something that “went against” their resumes.

Related Article: Hiring the Right People

Just make sure you stay tuned to local laws and legislation with respect to social media background screening and stay within the “legal” boundaries of this practice.

Double Check With Evidence

There are countless cases in which candidates have lied about their qualifications (degrees) or where they worked before, for how long, and the salary they received. If details such as these are crucial to determining the true potential of a hire, always double check the credibility of their claims with proof. There’s no reason not to call a reference if it is provided and confirm the dates of employment and other aspects of the job history, particularly the candidate’s overall performance.

Conduct Face-To-Face Interviews

Typically all job applications require a face to face interview at some point of the hiring process. However, this becomes difficult if the recruitment takes place online and the worker will be a remote one. Regardless of where the potential employee is located, you should always conduct face-to-face interviews, even if has to be done through an online video conferencing tool. It’s easier to spot lies during a face to face interview by studying body language (fidgeting, poor eye contact, arm crossing, hand on mouth, shuffling, etc.) However, verbal cues are usually more reliable (vague answers/ few details, contradiction, seemingly scripted dialogue, etc.).

Test the Candidate

Always take a test to confirm an employee’s true skills. An unstructured, on-the-spot test is the best way to determine whether or not a candidate is lying about his true potential. Almost any skill required for the job can be tested in some way, shape, or form. Try to be fair when coming up with ways to accurately test the candidate. Consider the fact that they may be nervous which could affect their performance slightly.

Spot Anything “Off” and Probe

Lying can easily be spotted by recognizing the common structure of lies. If a candidate seems to cut short, describe something vaguely with holes in the story, or rush through examples, your gut will be telling you that something is off. This “detective sense” is enough reason to probe deeper and make sure you’re convinced.

Finally, let your gut do the deciding. This is more of an innate talent, but it can be improved on with time and practice. Of course, it may lead to bad hires in the beginning, but once you’ve acknowledged what went wrong, you’ll know exactly what to do or not do the next time you interview a new candidate.

Author: Rachelle Scott is a senior education consultant at Dissertation Corp. She’s also a passionate blogger who writes insightful posts on women empowerment, leadership, etc.