6 Red Flags You Should Be Aware of During the Hiring Process

Hiring a new employee carries some risk for most businesses. You can’t really get a good feel for how someone will be as an employee until they’ve already started. At that point, it will be a pain to have to fire them and go through the entire hiring process again. 

While most potential job candidates are on their best behavior during the hiring process, there are several ways you can identify some red flags. 

Photo by Sora Shimazaki from Pexels

Take a look at these six flags you should be aware of during the hiring process.

Obvious lies

One of the quickest ways to weed out a bad hire is to catch them lying. By no means should you be trying to set up someone to lie, but if you catch them, it’s a different story. 

Lies are most evident by conflicting stories or facts. For instance, if someone said they worked at a company for five years, but then backtracked and said they only worked for three years, that’s pretty suspicious. Sure, you could ask for clarification, but it does raise some suspension.  

Another red flag is if they provide fake documents. For example, if a potential hire provides a fake vital record, like a fake birth certificate or driver’s license, that’s a major red flag, and you should disqualify them.

Late arrival

Okay, emergencies happen, and sometimes people are late. However, you really need a good reason to be late for a job interview. It almost has to be a life-or-death situation to not show up on time.

Even worse, we live in an age where you can message someone in an instant if you’re running a few minutes behind. Sure, it’s still rude, but if a job candidate can’t even do that, you should pass on them. It shows they can’t follow a proper schedule and have poor communication skills.

Silence and not asking questions

Nothing is more awkward than silence during a job interview. People can be shy when meeting someone new, and that’s okay, but a job candidate still needs to converse during a job interview. At the very least, they need to be asking questions. 

Not asking questions can be a sign a job candidate is not that interested in the job. Nearly everyone is bound to have a few questions about a workplace they are unfamiliar with, so it’s a red flag if a job candidate isn’t asking follow-up questions.

Inappropriate attire or speech 

A job candidate should dress and act to impress. This typically means dressing in a nice suit, skirt, or blouse. They should be dressing in something that shows they’re taking this interview seriously. 

A job candidate also needs to avoid acting too casually too quickly. They shouldn’t be talking like they’ve been friends with you forever or putting on a nonchalant attitude. By all means, job candidates should not be swearing during an interview. It’s a major sign of disrespect. 

Unexplained gaps in job history

It’s not entirely unnatural to have a job gap nowadays. We’ve had to deal with some crazy things in the last 15 years, like the Great Recession or the COVID-19 pandemic, so it’s somewhat acceptable for a job gap to exist. 

What is a red flag is when someone can’t explain why they have a job gap. What’s even worse is if they have multiple unexplained job gaps. It shows they might not be the most reliable employee around. 

Upfront demands

Any candidate who starts asking for tons of things upfront should raise a red flag. This could be like asking for extra vacation days, paid parking, gas mileage covered, or odd working hours.   

It’s one thing to ask what the benefits are, but if a job candidate is already putting in demands before they even have the job, you should avoid them. 

Hiring a new employee takes quite a bit of effort. There are no guarantees things will work out. 

The best you can do as an employer is to take the proper precautions. You should take into account some of the red flags identified in this post, as well as your own gut feeling about a potential hire. 

Leave a Comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Scroll to Top