Interview

Stretching the Truth like Silly Putty

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During recruitment interviews, HR professionals would love to give potential future employees a 100% rating, but not for the reasons one would think of.

A research study from the University of Guelph has identified that 100% of employment candidates lie, stretch the truth, or exaggerate during the employment interview process. These results should have all HR professionals asking questions like:

  • What conclusions can be drawn from this?
  • Does this mean all potential employees are liars?
  • Is a certain amount of lying acceptable?
  • Is this a systemic issue with HR’s recruitment methods?

What should be done to address this pervasive lying from potential employees? The research does not provide many answers. The study, however, does suggest that the level of competition may play a factor in the tendency for the candidate to lie, but not in the way one would think.

The research shows that if there is a fewer number of candidates competing for a job position, the tendency to lie during an interview will increase. For more details, click here to read the CBC article.

Perhaps the only way to overcome this is with direct confrontation, where recruiters can leave a copy of this research for the candidates to read at the start of an interview, and at the end of the interview, ask the candidate, “Was there at any time during this interview that you lied, stretched the truth, or exaggerated?” If the candidate answers “no,” since 100% of employment candidates lie, now you will know the “truth”!

Discussion Questions:

  1. Research how to make employment interviews more reliable and valid. Make a list of potential ideas for improvement that you find the most beneficial.
  2. Imagine you are a recruitment consultant who is making a pitch to a potential client about why your recruitment methods are better than your competitors’. Complete a 5-minute presentation to outline your methods.

Don’t Forget Your Manners

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There are so many elements that go into making an interview process successful.

From the HR side, the planning and preparation focuses on making sure all of the procedural elements are in place, which include asking the right questions. From the candidate side, the planning and preparation focuses on making sure that they are ready to answer all of the possible questions that will come their way.

Sometimes, what gets missed in the midst of all of this planning and preparing, is for both the HR and the candidate side to review the unspoken and yet expected etiquette that is inherit in any interview scenario.

Anna Post provides some practical tips for candidates in the following TedTalk:

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NKBlWanXzGE[/embedyt]

While the tips Ms. Porter provides target an audience of perhaps a ‘younger’ job seeking candidate group, the message for any candidate is about meeting the expected expectations that HR recruiters are looking for.

Candidates are told to be prepared; to dress professionally; to be on time; to shake hands; to show respect by standing up when being greeted; to put their phones away during the interview; and to send follow up thank you e-mails after the interview.

If this is this is the expected etiquette which candidates expect to receive, what is the HR professional/recruiter doing to ensure that they are fulfilling these expectations?

Any interview process is a two-way interaction that reveals as much about the organization through the actions of HR professional with the candidates they meet.  It should go without saying that the organizational recruiter, the HR professional, should also be prepared; dress professionally; be on time; shake hands; follow up with candidates to let them know the outcome of the interview; and most importantly show respect by focusing their full attention to the candidate in the room. There is no place for distractions, such as a smart phone, when the purpose of an interview is to engage in conversation which is ultimately, a process of mutual respect.

Discussion Questions:

  1. How often to you shake hands with others when meeting them in a formal setting – is it a comfortable thing for you to do?
  2. What do ‘manners’ mean to you?
  3. How will you model interview etiquette as an HR professional?
  4. Thinking of your own interview experience as a candidate, which of Anna Post’s six interview tips do you need to work on in order to improve your professional image?

Time is the Answer

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Hands holding clocks
Source: Rawpixel.com/Shutterstock

The question is, how do we, as Human Resources professionals, make the recruitment process successful for both parties?

Time can be our best friend or our worst enemy, especially as it is one of the key components of any recruitment strategy.   In a recent LinkedIn post, Scott Case states that we need to ‘get real’ with candidates about the actual skills, culture, and work environment that are involved in any interview process.  More importantly, he identifies how quickly we expect the interview process to proceed and the pressure that is in place to make the hiring decision as soon as possible.

Click Here to Read the Article

Making sure that the interview process is transparent, however, does not just happen.  A commitment to transparency about the types of skills, culture and work environment that the organization really wants, comes from a well-planned, and well-timed end-to-end strategic recruitment process.  It is true that the candidate really does need to understand what the potential workplace is like.  After all, the employment decision is not just on the side of the employer.  The candidate too has to make the big decision whether or not this particular job, with this particular employer, is the right fit for them based on their own personal values and workplace experiences.

When we think about making the big decisions in our own lives, most of us need lots of time to think about the pros and cons of that decision. When decision-making is rushed, the end result often does not work out well for anyone involved.  When hiring decisions go wrong, the impact has significant negative ripple effects on all of the parties involved.  As Human Resources professionals, we need to ensure that the hiring decision goes the right way, by allowing everyone involved to have the time to make the decisions they need to make, based on well planned, thoughtful, and transparent processes along the way.

Discussion Questions:

  1. Thinking about your own approach to decision making, what steps do you follow to make the ‘right’ decision for you?
  2. After going through a recruitment process as a candidate, have you ever decided that the position you were interested in was not the right one for you? What happened during the process that helped you make that decision?
  3. As a Human Resources Professional, identify how much time is needed for an end-to-end successful recruitment process.
  4. Why is it important to ensure that candidates have a clear understanding of the required skills, work culture, and the environment involved for any position in any organization?

Interview Do’s and Don’ts

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Man with large eyes holding his head
Source: Everett Collection/Shutterstock

Thanks to expansive social media and internet tools, employment candidates are able to access a plethora of materials to prepare them for a job interview.  The amount of detail and scope of information can be overwhelming.  There are valuable insights to be gained, if candidates are able to sort through all of the available internet advice.

A common theme for candidate interview preparation is knowing what questions will be asked and how to to give the ‘real’ answer in response to those questions.

A recent article, provided by Workopolis’ editor-in-chief, Peter Harris, identifies what hidden meanings are behind typical interview questions and how candidates should respond to avoid the traps of what is really behind these types of questions.

Click Here to Read the Article.

If read this article from the perspective of an employment candidate, it seems that the set up for the interview process is just that, a bit of a set up.

If, however, we read this article from the perspective of a Human Resources professional, there is a clear message that the questions we are asking candidates in interviews are not the right ones.

We need to do a much better job in preparing ourselves, as Human Resources professionals, for the interview process. We can do so by preparing questions that are straightforward and clear in purpose.

Human Resources professionals have excellent skills in many areas.  We are not, however, gifted with super-power mind-reading insights that allow us to discern what interview candidates are meaning to say in response to misleading questions which appear to be full of hidden meanings and tricks.

Let’s stop asking the questions that give us the answers we don’t want and start preparing questions that give us the answers that clearly identify what we do want.

This way, we can leave the super-power mind-reading skills alone, for now.

Discussion Questions:

  1. What are typical interview questions that, as a candidate, you think should not be included in a job interview process?
  2. What types of questions, from an HR perspective, do you think could be used more effectively in an interview process?
  3. What types of prompts can the HR professional use during an interview that encourage candidates to answer the questions in the ‘right’ way?