Recruitment Tips: How to Spot When a Candidate is Lying
Posted: Tue Jan 07, 2025 6:12 am
According to a recent recruitment survey, 58% of hiring managers have caught lies on a CV. Nor do the lies stop there, with 4 out of 5 people lying about their professional attributes during job interviews. The rabbit-hole of candidate lies goes deeper than you might think, with the most commonly found subjects to ‘pad out’ being experience, skills, start/end dates and academic credentials. Whilst a certain degree of self-embellishment is expected from candidates trying to find a new job, it goes without saying that nobody wants to hire a liar or employ a candidate on the basis of untruths.
So, how can you separate the facts from the slippery realm of fiction when making cambodia whatsapp phone number your next hire? We’re sharing our top 5 recruitment tips on how to spot when a candidate is lying.
1. Use social media as a screeningc tool
More and more employers are wising up to the benefits of social media as a free, speedy and highly efficient background-check tool. Social media can be used as a powerful research resource, not just for digital marketing jobs but also for any industry you can name. In fact, social media as a pre-screen tool is proving so effective that almost 68% of recruiters have decided against hiring a candidate after checking out their online presence.
Don’t think of this as a privacy invasion: think of it as a practical and economical way of finding out whether a candidate has been glossing the truth. It’s fairly certain that a candidate’s LinkedIn profile will match up with their CV, so make sure you check their Twitter and Facebook accounts as well as doing a quick Google search to uncover any potential inconsistencies. If, for example, a candidate has described themselves as a “focused, target-driven individual with an energetic work ethic” but their Twitter account shows dozens of updates about boredom during office hours, you’ve probably got somewhat of a fibber on your hands.
2. Get chasing
No busy working professional has enough time to verify every last sentence within a candidate’s application. Performing a quick spot-check of key facts, however, is a worthwhile task and one which will help you distinguish reality from mere wishful thinking.
So, how can you separate the facts from the slippery realm of fiction when making cambodia whatsapp phone number your next hire? We’re sharing our top 5 recruitment tips on how to spot when a candidate is lying.
1. Use social media as a screeningc tool
More and more employers are wising up to the benefits of social media as a free, speedy and highly efficient background-check tool. Social media can be used as a powerful research resource, not just for digital marketing jobs but also for any industry you can name. In fact, social media as a pre-screen tool is proving so effective that almost 68% of recruiters have decided against hiring a candidate after checking out their online presence.
Don’t think of this as a privacy invasion: think of it as a practical and economical way of finding out whether a candidate has been glossing the truth. It’s fairly certain that a candidate’s LinkedIn profile will match up with their CV, so make sure you check their Twitter and Facebook accounts as well as doing a quick Google search to uncover any potential inconsistencies. If, for example, a candidate has described themselves as a “focused, target-driven individual with an energetic work ethic” but their Twitter account shows dozens of updates about boredom during office hours, you’ve probably got somewhat of a fibber on your hands.
2. Get chasing
No busy working professional has enough time to verify every last sentence within a candidate’s application. Performing a quick spot-check of key facts, however, is a worthwhile task and one which will help you distinguish reality from mere wishful thinking.