Hiring practices and instruments: Investigating CV and LinkedIn Profiles as Tools of Personnel Selection.

This doctoral thesis investigates the inferential processes recruiters use when evaluating applicants through curriculum vitae (CVs) and LinkedIn profiles, focusing particularly on personality traits inferences. The three studies described, examined the elements involved in such inference-making process from different perspectives. First study investigates the validities of cues retrievable in CVs, in particular the relationships with self-reported personality and job performance scores. In collaboration with an Italian public transportation company, we analyzed data collected in past selection processes across three occupational families and 787 applicants. The findings highlighted significant correlations between CV cues and both personality traits (e.g., number of languages spoken indicative of openness) and job performance (e.g., coherent training certifications positively predicting overall job performance). However, cues taken from previous literature also showed limitations in the generalizability to present sample, with many indicators studied showing no significant relationships with both criteria (personality and job performance). The second study delved deeper into the utilization recruiters do of CV information, examining how specific cues (i.e., the presence of teamwork skills and volunteering activities) affect raters’ perceptions of candidates’ personality traits. Through manipulating CV content, we observed that these cues significantly influence perceptions of agreeableness (with additional impacts observed on perceptions of extraversion and openness) supporting the effect that the availability of specific cues can have on the subsequent utilization and, consequently, on personality inferences. The third study assessed the impact of a training session designed to improve the accuracy of personality trait ratings from LinkedIn profiles. Participants, divided into a control group (who did not receive a training before the assessment) and an experimental group (who received a training on cue validity and utilization), rated the personality traits of LinkedIn users, with their assessments compared against a composite score of self- and friend-reports and experts’ evaluations of the same profiles. The trained group showed greater accuracy in discerning personality trait variations within profiles (i.e., profile accuracy), than the control group. However, the ability to compare different profiles’ levels of specific personality traits (i.e., trait accuracy), was improved only when using experts’ ratings as the criterion of interest (and only for the traits of conscientiousness, agreeableness, and openness). Although these findings do not support the substitution of classical assessment tools for personality evaluations, like personality questionnaires (nor had this purpose), they collectively offer empirical evidence related to cues validity and their utilization, also exploring the possibility to improve screening practices, advocating for more informed and structured approaches in assessing applicant information.