Emotional intelligence and its importance in employee recruitment

What factors influence professional success? Why is often just knowledge and high qualifications not enough to get your dream job? Until recently, the so-called the candidate's hard skills. If he met the requirements described in the job offer, he had a good chance of being employed. In recent years, however, soft skills and emotional intelligence have gained in importance. More and more employers appreciate their value in employees, paying attention to them both during employment and promotions.

Emotionally intelligent employees, i.e. who?

Emotional intelligence is the ability to recognize and manage emotions. It is about both your own and other people's emotions. Everything starts with self-awareness and self-control, because knowing and understanding our emotions, we are able to control them. Another component of this type of intelligence is social skills. By recognizing the emotions of others, we can influence them through conscious behavior (e.g. motivate or resolve conflicts). Numerous studies show a correlation between high emotional intelligence and professional success. So what characterize emotionally intelligent workers?

Well, people with high EQ are more composed, especially in stressful situations. They can manage their emotions, so they don't get angry in difficult times and they calm down faster. This makes them more effective in resolving conflicts with others, if not at all. They also know their strengths and weaknesses very well, so they can withstand criticism better and are able to convey it properly themselves. Empathy with assertiveness at the same time makes it easier for them to communicate with colleagues and adapt to the culture of the organization. They are also characterized by high resistance to changes. It is not difficult to guess that emotionally intelligent people become leaders more often, which means that they can also count on an attractive salary. Thanks to their predispositions, they are also particularly desirable employees in professions that require close and frequent contacts with other people (e.g. salesman, teacher, recruiter or customer advisor).

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how to measure the emotional intelligence of a candidate?

By employing people with high emotional intelligence, we have a greater chance that the new employee will quickly find himself in the workplace and will be successful there. Therefore, it is extremely important to examine this factor at the stage of recruiting employees. One way is with tests (e.g. multiple choice). Another option is to ask profiled questions for this purpose, e.g. about his previous experiences (how he dealt with the conflict or with criticism directed at it). You can also go through a hypothetical situation in which we ask the interlocutor how he would behave. Here, however, one should remember to deepen the candidate's response so as to get to the bottom of his behavior. So let's ask how he felt in a given situation or how the other party reacted.

As can be seen from the above comment of the expert, emotional intelligence not only can, but should even be proven. The Assessment Center method seems to be the most effective tool for this. Thanks to it, we are able to see how the future employee will cope with various tasks through simulations related to a given job. By observing it in action, we can spot the behavior that proves a given competence.

By recruiting employees with a high EQ level, we get staff that has a better chance of being successful. For this reason, we must carefully look at this aspect and check this aspect with the candidate during the recruitment process. The modern labor market requires us to have appropriate soft skills to be successful. Emotional intelligence can, and even should be shaped and developed, because it makes us good bosses and valuable employees.