There are hundreds of articles published annually regarding the cost of a bad hire and/or the negative impact of a bad hire on team morale, productivity, revenue, and profit. There are also millions of dollars invested in applications, platforms, and assessments designed to help companies avoid those bad hires.
Why? Because hiring the right people really matters. However, despite great tools and our best efforts, we still sometimes miss the mark. So, what’s been the missing link? We’ve not been able to hire for Emotional Intelligence … until now.
According to the Harvard Business Review, “One of the reasons we see far too little emotional intelligence in the workplace is that we don’t hire for it. We hire for pedigree. We look for where someone went to school, high grades and test scores, technical skills, and certifications, not whether they build great teams or get along with others. And how smart we think someone is matters a lot, so we hire for intellect.”
The most successful hiring managers and organizations know that to make a great hire takes much more than looking at resumes, experience, assessments, and a solid interview process. It’s also about understanding the organization, the people, and the type of people needed for success.
Why is it some people just get along with others, respond carefully even in the face of challenge, and truly connect with people? They are proactive, balanced, operate with integrity, and have great insight into themselves and others. All these come from a set of skills called Emotional Intelligence, or sometimes referred to as EQ.
The case for Emotional Intelligence is clear. EQ competencies are learnable, measurable, and valuable at work – especially in complex roles – and they can be improved through training and coaching. Research into EQ has shown:
- Increased sales performance through the recruitment and training of more emotionally intelligent salespeople,
- Improved customer service through recruiting higher EQ customer service representatives,
- Superior leadership performance by developing and recruiting for executive EQ, and
- All the above result in better team performance with higher productivity and profit growth.
People with higher emotional intelligence achieve significantly better outcomes than people with low emotional intelligence. The World Economic Forum publishes a new report every five years outlining the list of top skills essential for success in the coming years. In the past, Emotional Intelligence has come in at number 6 and it’s predicted to be even higher in the next report.
If you search “Hiring for emotional intelligence” or “The importance of emotional intelligence in hiring,” you’ll find an abundance of articles from hiring experts and psychologists on WHY it’s important, but not HOW to do it. The Genos Emotional Intelligence Selection Report is the best (and only) measure of how often a job candidate demonstrates emotional intelligence in the workplace. The report allows hiring managers to utilize Emotional Intelligence measurements and open-ended behavioral based interview questions as an additional means of avoiding bad hires and, when combined with the PXT Select assessment which measures for job match, the combination of these two assessments is unbeatable.