We use a classic icebreaker – tell two truths & one lie about yourself and see if the group can guess which one is the lie. Do you realise you are playing the same game when recruiting new staff?

Hirescores.com conducted some research to find out how many candidates lie on their CV. 69% of 1,277 respondents said they had told untruths to secure a position. Nearly one third admitted it was because they had left their previous employer on bad terms.

69% is a staggering amount. A typical HR or line manager doesn’t have time to check the 100s of CV’s coming through the door as a result of high unemployment.

So how do you extract the truths and discover the lies? Dig deep and probe. It’s the only way to get to the truth behind the rehearsed and backup answers a professional candidate will have up their sleeve.

Ask how, not why. One of the best predictors of future success is past experience, but only if we understand how the candidate went about the achievement. For example, a salesperson may have doubled their sales but did they increase sales to existing clients or did they spend every day cold calling?

It may mean the difference between success and failure at your organisation. Not because they are a bad salesperson but because you need them for a specific type of sales.

The same can be said for line managers, forklift drivers and CEO’s. Your organisation, culture and management style is unique so make sure the people you take on have demonstrated the right behaviours.

You can get a head start with employee profiling – often referred to as psychometric testing. Tests like The McQuaig System™ will give an interviewing manager all the ammunition needed to draw out past examples of their success stories – not just the edited highlights they have listed on the CV.