Facebook profiles could provide clues to job performance: study

Bosses now have a way to predict how job candidates would perform on the job, from their Facebook page

A new study by researchers from Old Dominion University (ODU) in Virginia revealed that Facebook profiles could provide vital clues for job performance with the same accuracy as self-reported personality tests

The study compared personality traits gleaned from Facebook profiles to job candidates' self-reported personality tests, to check which method was a better predictor of job performance.

According to Katelyn Cavanaugh, one of the study's authors and a doctoral student at Old Dominion, not only could one find very current information on someone's social media profile, but one could also access a record of the person's past behavior.

Business News Daily quoted Richard Landers, an Old Dominion assistant professor and the study's co-author, social media gave employers a realistic photograph of the person, so the information was more authentic than what a personality test could reveal.

He said on self-report measures, applicants could generally figure out what the company wanted them to be and answer to reflect that. On social media, that was much harder, he said.

While employers could learn a lot about potential hires from social media, according to  researchers there were some legal concerns, especially when profiles containing information about protected characteristics, such as race, age and sexual orientation were being accessed.