Whether conducting pre-employment screening, a claims investigation, a deposition or another formal inquiry to validate information, the first contact sets the tone of the relationship. Therefore, every effort should be made to ensure that it is positive. At the same time, understand and appreciate that you will most likely inquire about one or more snapshots in time for relevant details, and you should be prepared for untruthful responses!
A significant percentage of interviewees will intentionally provide false information, or they will “shade” the information to their benefit. For example, claims fraud roughly follows national employment falsification averages. In that regard, it is estimated that CEOs and CFOs submit inaccurate resume’ information 5%-15% of the time, and non-supervisory applicant falsification is estimated to occur 22%-25% of the time. Sadly, most of the embellished / fake information goes undetected. The range variance relates to the level of lying that takes place. Michael Josephson, President, Josephson Institute of Ethics, Los Angeles says, “lies are like potato chips. You can’t tell just one!”
That’s the bad news, and that’s the challenge to overcome! The good news is that there are steps you can take to minimize these statistics since most people who lie are amateurs. How you present yourself and how you conduct the questioning can elicit verifiable responses.
Herein below and in upcoming Newsletters, I will provide some suggestions to help you identify truthful responses. If you are already employing one or more of these techniques, consider this as validation of your own process.
- It cannot be stated too often that a good interviewer must be an effective listener. One can obtain more accurate and complete information through simple listening. Get in the habit of allowing the interviewee to complete his / her entire answer without interrupting / injecting the next question. This procedure demonstrates that you care about what is being said, and it helps establish a positive rapport.
- Observing and recognizing telltale signs of deception in someone’s body language is key to uncovering lies. Be aware also that your body language is equally important and potentially telling to the interviewee. Pay particular attention to softening your appearance in how you dress, your facial expressions, how you position yourself and your own movements / physicality.
- Police interrogators have long studied how to formulate questions for the purpose of eliciting accurate responses. For instance, a suggestive question can definitely influence a response. Witnesses who are asked to describe an event in their own words provide their best understanding. Their thinking is not shaped by a complex question. Listen to the full story without interruption, and then follow up with specific passive questions triggered by your careful listening.
- Remember that throughout the interview, you should continue to set a positive tone in your questions and in your remarks. You will get the most accurate and complete information by asking non-threatening and simple questions first to “lock in” recollections. For example, “tell me about yourself” or “what happened” can be good openers. Let the interviewee completely respond without interruption, and then follow up with questions based on missing elements of the information provided.
Interviewing is an art, and the more you do, the better you get. Watch for my next Newsletter on interviewing techniques; meanwhile, experiment with some of these suggestions in both your personal and your professional lives. The more you practice, the more matter-of-fact these techniques become.
Research North, Inc. (RNI), is a professional private detective service providing support to the business community, the insurance industry and individuals in Michigan and Wisconsin since 1981. The company also offers pre-employment background checks to small and medium sized businesses through a subsidiary called Backgroundcheckswork.com that is fully staffed by professional investigators who are retired from law enforcement.
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