3 Ways to Implement Emotional Intelligence Practices When Hiring
Emotional intelligence, or EI, is gradually becoming a more regularly used word in recent times. More people are coming to the realisation that Emotional Intelligence is an immensely helpful tool in all aspects of business, it can help leaders and employees alike navigate the people side of the workplace and make for a better overall work culture where people can share their ideas and feel respected by their peers.
However, What Is Emotional Intelligence? A Mental Health Organisation defined EI as the “ability to manage both your own emotions and understand the emotions around you.” EI comes in various forms, including self-awareness, empathy, and social skills, and can be applied to various facets of one’s life, including both the personal and professional.
The concept of EI is tied to the complex web of emotions that underlie everyday situations and it offers best practices on how to navigate them. Beyond this, EI can also be extremely helpful when navigating the process of talent acquisition. Here are three ways recruiters hire smarter thanks to their above-average emotional intelligence.
1. Take an Empathy-Driven Approach in Interviews
Throughout the entire process of recruitment from interviewing to the final yes or no empathy should be at the heart of every discussion. Let’s start with the interview.
While we at Pause Factory and many other recruiters interview candidates day in and day out, candidates don’t always come with as much practice. That’s why recruiters with high EI consider the nerves that applicants might be feeling during the interview process and understand that first impressions do not always paint the full picture of who a candidate truly is. After all, how many of us are not 100 percent our true selves during a first date, for example? The same can be true for the early stages of a recruitment process when candidates are keen to put their best foot forward but may be presenting an overly curated version of themselves.
Furthermore, recruiters with high EI practice active listening rather than racing through a set list of questions with rigidity. The latter can make the interview feel more like a rote list of chores to cycle through rather than a genuine conversation between two people. Keeping this in mind can allow both you and the candidate to focus on the actual content of the conversation itself, and make the process more organic overall.
With an empathy-driven approach, the hiring process feels less transactional and impersonal; rather, it feels like the employee and employer have a vested interest in finding the right professional fit for themselves.
2. Find Out What Deeply Motivates Applicants
Taking motivation into consideration can help you uncover an additional level of depth to applicants that you would have never gotten from their résumés alone.
Understanding the story that goes behind a candidate’s work history and education is critical in developing a more involved understanding of their deeper motivations as a professional. This can help you ensure that there is a match between the applicant and the position that they’re applying for, leading to less friction between role expectations and reality.
Understanding an applicant’s motivations can also serve as leverage in the negotiation process. Each candidate will value certain elements of the job more than others. Perhaps what motivates one person is consistently challenging work, whereas for another it might be flexible work arrangements. Each new hire will come with a unique set of drivers for performing their best in the workplace. At Pause Factory, we find this critical when it comes to discussing the specifics of their contracts, and it certainly contributes to smarter hiring in the long run.
3. Expect Emotional Intelligence from Applicants
As much as you’re practicing EI skills in any given interview or interaction with a potential hire, it’s also important to evaluate how well they’re able to reciprocate these skills.
Looking for EI at the hiring stage can involve anything from seeing whether they took the time to craft a truly personalized cover letter to whether they sent a thank you note or acknowledgement after an interview invitation. It can also mean seeing whether they offered uniquely creative responses to interview questions.
While these signs of a good candidate are more intuition and soft skills oriented, they are only based on the theory that EI offers good insights into what the candidate is like to work with.
Authored by Pause Factory
