Many of us know the costs we can face if we find that the person we've recruited doesn't have the skills, experience or attitude they said they have when we interviewed them. Once you've dismissed that employee, having to advertise, interview, appoint and induct someone else can be a costly business, never mind the wasted salary of the person we shouldn't have hired, and the potential loss of business / productivity.
Trying to work out if your candidate isn't being honest at their interview isn't rocket science. In our personal lives, we are probably better at spotting whether someone is telling us the truth, and then dealing with it. In our professional lives, whilst we can probably spot the lies, we find it more difficult to challenge. However, at interview, in an environment where you need to be professional, polite and supportive, it can be difficult. To help you avoid costly mistakes, we've listed below some of the giveaway body language signs that your candidate may not be being honest:
- When answering a question, they do one of the following behaviours: They suddenly shuffle about in their seat and change position as if they have become physically uncomfortable. This is because they are literally uncomfortable answering your question. This very often, but not always equates to untruthfulness.
Movement of the hands like “dry hand-washing” can be an indication of untruthfulness. They literally feel dirty telling a lie directly to your face so they are “washing their hands” of the lie. If they move in a more measured fashion, or they suddenly start holding their hands quite tightly, this is sometimes a conscious effort to suppress the hand washing action.
They move their hands towards their face or neck, possibly pretending to scratch an itch. This again is body language that is very heavily associated with lying. Touching the neck in particular is a sign of insincerity. The underlying reason that people touch their neck when they aren’t being truthful is because of the physiological sensation of becoming hotter when you lie, and heat accumulates at the collar/neck area.
- Eye contact and movement changes - those individuals who find it difficult to lie will look away from you when giving an answer to your question. They could look at their hands, the papers on the desk in front of them, out of the window or indeed their eyes could move from side to side as they shift between being creative and remembering the truth.
The converse can also be true. People who consider themselves to be good liars will hold your eye contact too long, as they know that looking away and looking “shifty” can be a sign of lying. This overcompensation catches many out and exposes quite a lot of lies and liars. They think they are belong clever but the opposite is actually true.
- Their tone of voice changes - a dramatic change in tone could be a sign of nerves when asked a difficult question, but it can also be a sign that the candidate is feeling awkward about what they are saying.
Their breathing could change (a sign of being uncomfortable) which can also affect their speech, their voice can go higher and they could talk very quickly.
- And finally, they talk too much! Some people have a tendency to over-elaborate to give the impression of truthfulness, embellishing statements with far too much detail, in the hope you'll believe them.
It’s not just that they talk too much, it is how they talk. The formality of what they say will increase. They will use more words to convey their point and stop using contractions as much as they did before. “I didn’t” will become “I did not”.
The classic illustration of this is former US President Bill Clinton’s “I did not have sexual relations with that woman” when he was asked about an affair with his former intern Monica Lewinsky.
So, if you spot any of the above and wonder what to do about it, then read on:
- Firstly, you'll probably think you can't be 100% sure whether you're being lied to or not, so you should steer clear of saying 'I don't believe you' in an interview situation. That'll help avoid a very uncomfortable discussion.
- Then, find ways of getting the candidate to answer questions around what they have told you. This is called 'probing' and generally involves you trying to find out more details, asking questions like 'what made you take that course of action', 'what were the results of the project', or 'what was your personal involvement in the task' etc.
- If they have rehearsed the answer a particular way in their head then mixing up the way the questions are asked can knock them off-balance a little and make the lies easier to spot. Of course, you could find that their body language continues to indicate an element of dishonesty, or things could change and they could settle back into more regular patterns of behaviour, in which case it was probably just a moment of nerves. It is possible they weren’t expecting the question at all and that is why they were knocked off their stride and that far from seeing someone lying, we are seeing someone asked a question they just didn’t see coming and scrambling to formulate an answer.
Finally, remember that regardless of what you are told in an interview and how that meets the criteria you're selecting against, you don't have to appoint someone if you don't believe they are right for the job. (If you are still in doubt, you could also ask for a very detailed reference from their previous employers in which you seek confirmation of the candidate's tales.)
However, once you've made your decision not to recruit, you would need to find a set of words for feedback which give a clear idea that you weren't convinced about their experiences or skills, otherwise you'll find yourself being dishonest to them.
