What defines a great employee? Persistence, attention to detail, a drive to succeed? The list could go on, but here's a new addition you likely won't find on a resume — choice of Internet browser. A recent study found that employees who use Firefox or Chrome are more likely to be doing better on the job than those who use the computer's default browser.

The study, conducted by software company Cornerstone OnDemand, looked at about 50,000 people who took its 45-minute online job assessment and were subsequently hired through the software. It found that those who took the test on a nondefault browser such as Firefox or Chrome — both Mac and PC users — stayed at their jobs 15 percent longer than those who used a default browser like Internet Explorer or Safari. The former group also performed better at their jobs.

Michael Housman, Cornerstone's chief analytics officer, said while he doesn't know exactly what's driving the phenomenon, he does have a theory.

"The fact that you installed a browser that wasn't the default on your computer may tell us something about you: perhaps that you're a relatively informed consumer, perhaps that you're more tech savvy than the average individual, perhaps that you are focused enough on your efficiency that you will install a browser that you think makes you more productive," Housman told MultiBriefs Exclusive.

The study included people applying to about a dozen different companies (including telecommunications, finance, retail and hospitality) — mostly for sales and frontline customer service jobs.

The findings came out as a larger study that Housman and other researchers originally began as a white paper on technology usage and adoption. Though the paper was never published, Housman and his team found that the browser information seemed to be the most valuable piece to share with the public.

But Housman doesn't necessarily recommend that companies take a candidate's Web browser choice into consideration when making a hiring decision. He noted that the findings are simply correlations, not causal.

Instead, employers should take away a different message.

"When you collect data on your employees and then use that data to try and generate insight about what keeps them longer and makes them more productive, there's an opportunity to learn new and exciting things that you can use to allow your people to reach their full potential," he said.

So which types of companies could benefit most from this information? Service-based organizations where frontline employees are the most valuable strategic asset, Housman said.

At the least, it gives them something to think about, right?

Internet Explorer has been panned for years for its slow speed compared to other browsers, as this cartoon illustrates.

And speaking of Internet browsers, there’s more in the news this week.

It's long been known that Internet Explorer is the unwanted stepchild of browsers compared to its speedier, more attractive counterparts — namely, Firefox and Chrome. But it appears that Microsoft is looking to shed that image in an effort to go up against its rivals.

When Microsoft introduces Windows 10 later this year, Project Spartan will launch with it as the new default browser. Spartan will replace Internet Explorer, even though IE isn't entirely going away, the company announced March 24.

"Based on strong feedback from our Windows Insiders and customers, today we're announcing that on Windows 10, Project Spartan will host our new engine exclusively," the company said. "Internet Explorer 11 will remain fundamentally unchanged from Windows 8.1, continuing to host the legacy engine exclusively."

This differs from Microsoft's original strategy announced in January, in which the company laid out plans to use the new rendering engine to power both Project Spartan and Internet Explorer on Windows 10, with the capability for both browsers to switch back to the legacy engine when they encounter legacy technologies or certain enterprise sites.

The company says Project Spartan was built for the next generation of the Web, and its testing has shown that Project Spartan is "highly compatible with the modern Web, which means the legacy engine isn't needed for compatibility."

Read more about the announcement on the company's blog.