Finding realism can be a pain....

Recruitment is not an exact science, which is something we all know (and if you don’t, well now you do). Having watched Oceans 13 more times than I can count (and no I am not telling you why I have eye-balled it so many times!); I cannot help but wish that machines and software did exist that could measure skin temperature and pupil dilation to tell when someone is lying or not. I wish there was an algorithm one could run or a code written that could tell me, how much of what they are saying to me is true or is it all a wish list of unreal responses?

I am envious of Al Pacino's character in the movie, because he had access to the "Greco" – a fictional surveillance system created to monitor gamblers and predict if they were trying to cheat the house or no. If such a tool were real, that to me as the best form of scientific predictability in behaviour ever and is a piece of kit I would give my teeth to have (figuratively speaking of course)!!

But that is not the case. In real life, as a recruiter, I have to rely on a combination of simulations and enquiries in a hope to produce a reaction that will help me make the decision, look across the table and say - "it’s you".  And even then, I will still run checks and ask questions about “you”; to confirm that what “you” told me during the selection process is really…… well…. “you”. And then, I (or someone in the organisation) have to manage “you” ; and if there is a problem with the “imaginative scenarios” (read absolute porkies) that “you” have told me at the start; well that’s when the honeymoon ends and I will begin contemplating separation or even possibly divorce. And given the cost of recruitment and the additional cost (and there are costs!) to letting people go, I would prefer to have dealt with this in the interviewing room or the assessment centre. Simply put, at that stage I wish with all my heart I could look people in the eye and ask “are you lying to me?” and magically, somehow, my words would compel them to tell the truth.

But I am not in Ocean’s 13 and sadly, the Greco is not real and I guess I will have to keep using my guts in determining what is real and what’s fabrication. But, at the rate at which organisations are using lie detector tests as part of their investigations to employee allegations or disciplinary matters (see April 2013, People Management article “LIES! Getting to grips with your biggest workplace problem”) is it ridiculous to believe that at some point in the future, taking a lie detector test might become part of the assessment process when applying for a job? It might just happen.