Sam DeGrave
It’s no secret that employers look at social media sites like Facebook to screen job applicants. However a new N.C. State study indicates they might be looking at the wrong information when searching for reliable workers.
The study, titled “Big Five Personality Traits Reflected in Job Applicants’ Social Media Postings,” was published July 1 and tested 175 companies.
Will Stoughton, a Ph.D. student at N.C. State, is the study’s lead author.
The study was co-authored by N.C. State psychology Professor, Lori Foster Thompson and Adam Meade, and associate professor of psychology at the University.
Stoughton said they were inspired to study the employers’ side of screening process because most employees focus on the supposed wrongdoing of the applicants.
“A lot of people look at the applicants side and warn them, ‘clean up your Facebook page’,” Stoughton said. “Facebook is a good place to make personality attributes that are vaguely accurate and (employers) are weeding people out for the wrong reason.”
Their research tested employers to see what traits they look for in job applicants, including conscientiousness, agreeableness and extraversion.
Participants were then surveyed to see how they interpreted a candidate’s personality through their Facebook behavior.
According to the study, a major reason employers screen a job applicant’s Facebook is to look for drug and alcohol use. If the applicant’s page contains this behavior, they are often seen as irresponsible or unconscientious.
But Stoughton says the research doesn’t indicate a correlation between having Facebook pictures with drinking, drugs or partying and being a bad employee.
“Employers are weeding out highly conscientious people (due to his or her Facebook pictures)…which they would likely hire otherwise,” Stoughton said. “People with high conscientiousness are just as likely to post a picture of chugging a beer as people with low conscientiousness.”
The study also found that extraverts were particularly prone to posting pictures involving alcohol and drug use. Because of this certain companies looking for personable employees, like marketing or sales firms, are limiting the talent they can bring in.
The researchers did, however, find some Facebook behavior that does indicate someone will be a bad worker.
According to the study someone who frequently “badmouths” people on Facebook isn’t agreeable, making them a poor employee. Highly conscientious people were not found to participate in this badmouthing behavior.
“If employers plan to keep using social media to screen job applicants, this study indicates they may want to focus on eliminating candidates who badmouth others – not necessarily those who post about drinking beer,” Stoughton said in an interview with the N.C. State Newsroom.
Student are also concerned about how they are perceived by companies, including Zach Combs, a senior in chemistry.
“I always hear that employers won’t hire people because of pictures on their Facebook,” Combs said. “I don’t why it matters unless you have something really inappropriate on your page.”