Do You Work How You Dress?

Last week, I talked about Facebook profiles and what they say about potential team members you may be hiring (or about you, to potential supervisors).  But what about a low tech work influencer like your clothes?

We’ve all been given some form of advice about “dressing for success,” such as dressing “one step up” from your current position so that senior executives or administrators can more easily see you as one of them.  Most workplaces have a dress code and most of the time that code is about communicating what your clothes say about your organization.  “Business casual” clothes can send the message that you are a laid-back or fun organization while more formal attire or a uniform (such as a doctor’s coat) can send messages about authority and expertise.  Did you know, however, that how you dress at work can affect not only how others see you but how you actually perform?

New research shows that people do better on certain cognitive tasks when they are dressed in clothing that they associate with positive qualities like attentiveness or professionalism.  I have used this advice in the past when I had a phone interview I did from home.  It’s tempting to put on something casual for comfort, but I’ve found that wearing interview attire even when the interviewers can’t see me helps me get in the right frame of mind for the conversation. 

There’s a catch to all this, of course.  (Isn’t there always?)  To have such a positive influence, you have to be wearing clothes that you associate with professional qualities and that varies somewhat across individuals.  Wearing a suit, in other words, does not mean the same thing to everyone.  Read here to find out the full story and to start your thinking about the workplace attire of you and your team.

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Facebook Profiles and Job Success

We’ve all heard the advice to clear our Facebook pages of compromising photos and we know that potential hiring authorities peruse social media to see what we may have posted that is publically available.  If you’re in charge of hiring, you are doing this as well for your prospective hires and for current staff if a problem emerges.  (Some are even going too far by asking for their potential employees’ log in information, but that is a topic for another time).   These efforts are aimed at finding “dealbreaker” information about job candidates, such as a tendency to broadcast risky behavior.  It speaks to your maturity and judgment and can be used against you, as a Secret Service agent found out recently when he posted unprofessional comments on Facebook about his time protecting Sarah Palin.

But did you know that other things in your or your team members’ Facebook profiles could do more than predict failure, that those profiles could indicate success factors, too?  Researchers had participants take personality inventories that measured conscientiousness, emotional stability, agreeableness, extraversion, and openness.  Three raters looked at their Facebook profiles and rated them as well.  Six months after getting hired, supervisors rated each participant on job performance and there was a correlation between the Facebook ratings and performance, even stronger than the relationship between the personality inventories and success. 

Two quick caveats should be noted:  One, correlation is not causation, so no one is saying that having a great Facebook profile that shows how open to new cultures or fun you are causes success.  They are saying that the two are related, meaning that who you are in terms of those five characteristics and your likelihood of success are reflected in things like your Facebook profile.  Two, this is a small study so wholesale changes to screening policies based on these findings should wait until more research is done.

This story does provide you with a good chance to evaluate yourself, however.  You’ve already scanned for compromising things, but take a moment and look at your Facebook page as objectively as you can.  What does it say about you, when viewed through the lens of a potential employer?  Do you have lots of arguments with friends, venting or other caustic comments, or are you supportive and happy?  Do you talk about reading a smart new book (or classic old book)…or the latest trashy novel?  Do you have pictures of yourself on your trip abroad…or pictures of yourself doing something that would put off most supervisors as they picture you at a conference or trade show away from the office?  Take this opportunity to use Facebook as a mirror, showing you habits or trends in your life that you might want to rethink or change.  This type of feedback is vital to improvement.

Want to know more about the five characteristics mentioned here, in terms of this research?  Look here.