Emotional Intelligence In The Workplace Team
Emotional Intelligence has become an increasingly popular topic in recent years as we have started to see businesses around the world try to effectively integrate it into their staff engagement and retention strategies. Employers are starting to see the value in testing and further developing the emotional intelligence of their people in the workplace. Emotional Intelligence tests can tell us a lot about how someone will operate within different environments and how they will usually interact with others around them. But how can we tell how they will adapt to a specific job, with very specific emotional demands?
Testing Emotional Intelligence – How does it work?
TEIQue is an emotional intelligence test that integrates emotions, personality traits, and intelligence in 15 specific facets under 5 key clusters: Well Being, Self-Control, Emotionality, Sociability and Independent. It measures an individual’s capacity to understand and control their own emotions and recognise and manage those of others.
Emotional intelligence testing helps to give us a better idea of how we function emotionally and how we communicate with and relate to others.
Benefits of Developing Emotional Intelligence
- Improves Self-awareness.
- Promotes better people skills and communication practices.
- Develops more productive teams and working relationships.
- People with higher emotional intelligence have been found to cope better with stress and conflict.
- Equips leaders with the skills needed to perform at their best.
- Improved engagement and motivation.
The benefits simply put, make it an invaluable tool for businesses to build a more effective and engaging work environment—and this is why it has become so popular in recent years. Each job has very specific needs in terms of emotional functionality however, and someone who performs well in one role may not have the same experience in another. This is where Job benchmarking comes in.
Benchmarking Emotional Job Demands
The Emotional Job Demands test is the company equivalent of the TEIQue. It allows the business to create a benchmark for the specific job they are recruiting to, against which the individual’s results can be compared. The case study below gives a perfect real-life example, where matching the individual against the job has greatly benefited the business.
A Case Study in Matching Emotional Intelligence to The Job
Our client decided to measure the emotional intelligence of two people they were considering for a position.
Both candidates completed their TEIQue tests. The business was additionally asked to complete an Emotional Job Demands assessment, drafting a profile with the specific demands for what they needed in the role. This is where the real strengths of the tool started to shine!
Both candidate’s results were matched against the Emotional Job Benchmark and were good fits (over 70%). The candidate results were overlayed with the Emotional Job Demands (EJD) to see exactly where they landed within the bounds of each trait for the job.
As we can see in the image above, their results aligned well with those of the organisation. The interesting part is where they didn’t quite align however. While both were obviously good fits for the job, the assessment also highlights the areas of development needed to most effectively fulfill the function of the job. It tells us exactly which areas they may struggle with.
Developing Emotional Intelligence In the Workplace
In the scenario above we can see Candidate 1 may struggle most with Emotional Regulation, and to a lesser extent Social Awareness, Self Motivation and Adaptability.
Meanwhile, Candidate 2 will likely struggle most in his/her Self Esteem and Adaptability.
Now that the assessment has pointed out exactly WHERE these individuals may need further development the manager can work towards improving these areas and coaching them to become an ideal fit for the job. Once they feel this has been accomplished, both could be asked to complete their emotional intelligence test again at a later point to see how they fit.
Conclusion
Psychometric tests like TEIQue certainly help in the recruitment process and take a lot of the guesswork out of it. However, their utility doesn’t end there—and they are also vital for forming strategies to develop and motivate staff post-recruitment. In this way they ensure you find and retain the best people for the job.
Learn More About TEIQue
Should you be interested in learning more about the TEIQue assessment consider taking a free test yourself.