When you’re hiring a candidate for a potential role at your company, you hope that they’re truthful in the interview. Unfortunately, the majority of people embellish their answers. While some of these overstatements may be harmless, others might cause you to make a hiring mistake.
To get to the truth, a suggestion is to start every interview by asking the candidate this question: Will you confirm your contact information?
“Candidates should be comfortable sharing this because they want to be contacted,” Michael Reddington, a certified forensic interviewer says. “This answer can provide you with a baseline. You can see what they look like and hear how they sound when they are comfortable providing an answer.”
When someone is comfortable communicating, you can learn their natural tone or speed. As you ask questions, you can watch for answers that deviate from this norm. While these changes in speech pattern don’t necessarily mean that someone is lying, they can give you an indication that you should stay with the question longer, says Reddington. “If the person normally talks quickly and slows down and becomes more methodical with an answer, choosing words carefully, it’s a good time for a follow-up question. This is an area where you want to dig deeper.” The way you structure a question will have a significant impact on the amount of information a candidate will share. Don’t combine two questions into one, rather ask one at a time, also being sure to use the correct order of questions, where each builds on the one before.
Lastly, an interview is not your only tool – always ensure you also carry out references and background checks.
