How to Reduce Turnover with Speed Reading

As part of the retainment layer of my three-fold effort in building and keeping a solid team, I explore how hiring managers can decode interviewees, reducing employee turnover.

Acquiring talent and lining up prospects is hard. But it’s only half the battle. Deciphering the person behind the resume is a whole other feat. If done poorly, one bad hire can cost the company in more ways than one.

With his mark made on more than 20 companies, Mads Faurholt-Jorgensen concludes that, “Leaders spend 10% of their time recruiting and 90% of their time making up for recruiting mistakes.”

Hiring managers can make or break the momentum of companies and their teams in choosing the wrong hire, yet so little emphasis is given to this part of the employment journey. 

Making the right call begins with equipping hiring managers with a strategy comprised of psychology-based methods to decode an interviewee.

SPEED READ YOUR APPLICANT; NOT THEIR RESUME

Deducing in a 30-minute interview whether a stranger will make a good hire or not is already a tall order. On top of that, oftentimes, the interviewer’s initial perception of the candidate is based on a carefully polished resume. 

Unfortunately, according to research, that resume is 78% probable to include some lies.  

No wonder so many hiring managers get it wrong. Armed with only their gut instinct and a few common interview questions, interviewers find themselves in the same boat as billionaire John Caldwell who admits, “If I’m lucky, I only get recruiting wrong 70% of the time.” 

Recruiters must be equipped with both an intentional process and a way to speed read applicants and all the subtle tell-tale signs that reveal who a candidate is beneath the surface.

Interviewing ought to involve more than just judging what a candidate says, but tracking the body language, voice tonality and underlying messaging they use to say it. The scientific community debates on the true percentage of how much human communication is nonverbal. However, studies across decades strongly indicate that how we say something plays a significant role in what we’re saying.

Hiring managers cannot afford to neglect the story behind nonverbal cues in an interview setting. 

In speed reading, interviewers take note of three major components:

1. Gestures 

According to Vanessa Van Edwards’ research, “Gestures carry more meaning than words [because] gestures help lower cognitive load.” We understand better and pay attention longer to speakers that use their hands when talking. 

While the pressure of an interview is a special context, interviewees are still offering a preview of what kind of communicator they’ll be on a team. Interviewers, taking note of the candidate’s natural propensity to employ the use of gestures, can then deduce that an interviewee likely has the makings of an efficient collaborator on a team if they use their hands to communicate. 

An interviewee that uses gestures to answer questions, describe an experience and convey their ideas likely has the makings of a more efficient communicator. Meanwhile, a candidate that rarely uses gestures to help the listener understand their words may propose difficulty in collaborating with other team members down the road. 

2. Facial expressions

Second, speed reading involved clocking the subtle messages hidden in an interviewee’s facial expressions. And this goes beyond smiles and frowns.

Eye contact, pursing of the lips and rapid blinking are all microexpressions that convey whether or not we can trust someone. 

With the previously mentioned finding that nearly 78% of applicants lie on their formal resumes, it would be helpful for interviewers to recognize micro-expressions of dishonesty in the interview setting.

If a hiring manager can’t trust a candidate, they shouldn’t expect their team to. 

One research study’s results revealed that facial expressions significantly influences our willingness to both trust and cooperate with others. Again, if we’re hiring for a position that will require collaboration and cooperation within a team, interviewers must take into account the trustworthiness communicated within both a candidate’s words and facial expressions. 

3. Tone of voice 

The final component to speed reading is vocal tone. Tone of voice includes exaggeration of specific words, volume, inflection and pace. 

For example, individuals whose voice raises at the end of their statements–with almost a question-asking pitch–likely are unsure if the answer they gave was favorable. It communicates hesitation and insecurity. 

An interviewee with a pattern of answering questions with this rising tone at the end of their replies could be considered one who seeks constant approval for their choices in the workplace. This could potentially create frustration within a fast-paced team and hinder trust between members. 

One area that the interviewer can specifically take note of vocal tone within the interview is when an applicant describes a conflict resolution moment at a previous job. Not only do the words they select paint the situation, but the tone of voice in which they employ could reveal the true manner in which they handled it. For example, a lowered volume may indicate that the candidate still holds lasting negativity around the situation. Perhaps steps to resolving the conflict weren’t fully taken. 

This could clue the interviewer in on how a prospect not only handles conflict, but how they might carry the lasting impression of that experience into future speed bumps. 

START READING

So how can companies equip their hiring managers in cracking this human code? How can they begin to speed read applicants? 

It starts with encouraging interviewers to practice the art of catching those cues in interactions outside the workplace. Family, friends, reality TV, sitcoms, and movies can help interviewers begin to recognize the nonverbal language of gestures, facial expressions, and tone of voice. 

Thankfully, when diligently sought, nonverbal communication is one of those things you can’t unsee once you see it. Elements like the 7 micro-expressions and the 16 essential body language expressions are woven into not only a professional interview, but all human interaction. Practicing is as easy as paying attention throughout your day.

In addition to her books and online resources, founder of Science of People’s, Vanessa Van Edwards offers a slew of guides teaching readers how to detect and decode nonverbal communication.

It would behoove companies to equip their staff with courses like Van Edwards’ People School or even Charlie Houpert and Ben Altman’s Charisma University where participants are immersed in methodically recognizing these subtle, and often subconscious, cues. 

Empowering hiring managers with the resources necessary in developing the soft skill of nonverbal communication will undoubtedly return on investment. With more intelligent means of deciphering applicants, interviewers go from making an educated guess on a new hire to making a psychology-backed, vetted decision. 

TO CONCLUDE 

One of the most vital ways to reduce employee turnover is to hire the best people right out the gate. That begins with equipping hiring managers with intelligent approaches that go beyond checking off the resume box and asking a few run-of-the-mill questions. 

Reframing the tools interviewers are given to decode the psychology of the candidate brings the hiring process to the next level. Speed reading will effectively reduce the risk of hiring mistakes and will work to build a solid team that lasts.