What’s worse than wasting precious minutes – or even a few hours – on job candidates who aren’t as great as they claim to be?
Answer: Accidentally hiring them.
That’s why HR and hiring managers pay close attention to the clues that often tip off candidates who may not be good fits …
… or are out-and-out liars.
Among more than two thousand hiring managers recently polled by CareerBuilder, 49% say they can figure out if a candidate’s not right for their companies within five minutes!
That percentage jumps to 90% within 15 minutes.
It’s not always what they say …
No big surprise here, but the HR gurus don’t just put stock into what candidates say during phone calls and in-person interviews.
They pay a lot of attention to body language, things like facial expressions, posture and other kinds of physical behaviors that often suggest an applicant’s not:
- comfortable talking to and dealing with people
- open to suggestions or criticism
- nervous or slightly neurotic
- polite, or
- all that interested in the job.
Here are the top 10 physical behaviors HR and hiring managers chalk up as red flags:
- Failing to make eye contact: 65%
- Failing to smile: 36%
- Playing with something on the table: 33%
- Having bad posture: 30%
- Fidgeting too much in their seat: 29%
- Crossing their arms over their chest: 26%
- Playing with their hair or touching their face: 25%
- Having a weak handshake: 22%
- Using too many hand gestures: 11%
- Having a handshake that’s too strong: 7%
Are there are any other behaviors your hiring managers look out for? Or a recent horror story worth sharing? We’d love to hear about it in the Comments section.
