Emotional Intelligence in the recruitment process
During the interview process, the IT recruiters do not only evaluate technical skills but also soft skills. At this point, it is important to take into account the “Emotional Intelligence” concept
What does it mean?
Daniel Goleman, an American psychologist, defines Emotional Intelligence as “the ability to recognize and understand emotions in oneself and others. This ability also involves using this emotional understanding to make decisions, solve problems, and communicate with others”.
This was a revolutionary concept in 1995. Moreover, he said that Emotional Intelligence was the cause of success in people's lives, especially in the workplace.
Sometimes, EQ can be more important than defining a candidate’s IQ (Intelligence Quotient) given the fact that if people recognize emotions such as happiness, sadness, anger, they will have the possibility to work on how to manage them and they will make the best decisions in their work team.
Why is it so important to incorporate EQ when you are evaluating a candidate?
It is very important because you can predict the future performance of the candidate in their work team, how they will get along with their colleagues, how they will receive feedback and how they will explain a difficult concept.
Then you can give them the best option to develop professionally in your company. Designing a career plan according to their emotional characteristics.
What are the specific points that we take into account in Simplex interviews to identify emotional intelligence?
In the interviews carried out by the Human Resources team, we take into account 3 points:
Effective communication
We evaluate the ability to listen and communicate orally, by observing the candidate's communication style, considering if they understand well the questions we ask, and how they handle their emotions when we cross- examine. Also, we observe their non-verbal emotions (body language) and the impact they have on the interviewer.
Empathy
This is evaluated by taking into account if the candidate respects the interviewer’s time and is punctual, if they describe their attitude in previous work experiences, and finally if they are honest when they do not know an answer, allowing themselves to be wrong and not to waste time. It is important to be adaptable and creative in the interview obstacles.
Leadership capacity
We evaluate this through their introduction : if their speech has the capacity to influence the interviewer and if it is possible to capture the added value they can give to those who work with them.
We pay special attention to the words they use and how they express their ideas. We celebrate candidates who have self-confidence, motivation to work towards a goal and take pride in the path achieved.
One last reflection and desire
Remember, Emotional Intelligence is the concept that we should all incorporate in the recruitment process. It is important to promote other skills for a company and to increase the feeling in our members of self- belonging, which is the key to finding the success that we look for as well as the commitment in the quality of our productions.
In HR we have a double challenge, to know and ask the correct questions to identify the EQ, and to continue studying and reading about human emotions.
If you feel that you do not have a place for your emotions, here, in Devlane we have a space for you.
Join us! We are waiting for you!