Organisations increasingly seek a competitive edge in identifying and selecting employees. In a labour tight market, being recognised as an Employer of Choice means organisations can continue to attract the best candidates. Emotional Intelligence provides organisations with a competitive edge.

Workplace research shows that Emotional Intelligence predicts levels of employee performance for many important workplace variables. For example, Emotional Intelligence accounts for a significant portion of the variance in employees' effectiveness for the following:

Workplace performance indicator % of variance*

• Leadership effectiveness 36%
• Sales success 23%
• Teamwork 14%
• Stress tolerance 19%
• Organisational commitment (i.e., intention to stay) 22%
• Job satisfaction 24%
• Organisational Citizenship Behaviour (i.e., employee loyalty and engagement) 28%
• Absenteeism 29%
• Innovation and employee creativity 12%
• Customer service quality 12%

* Percentage variance accounted for by Emotional Intelligence is statistically significant at the p<.0.05 level.

Employees higher in Emotional Intelligence are more effective when performing many workplace roles and accountabilities. Emotionally Intelligent organisations provide the opportunity for newly hired employees to quickly assimilate into the workplace culture.

Indeed, the construct of Emotional Intelligence is considered to be meta-cognitive. Put another way, Emotional Intelligence has utility whenever a person experiences or utilises emotion in the workplace (i.e., in all workplace situations and interactions). Therefore, assessing an individual's level of Emotional Intelligence skill should be mandatory for any job role, level or function.

The benefits of assessing workplace Emotional Intelligence

Emotional Intelligence involves a set of skills that defines how effectively a person perceives, understands, reasons with and manages their own and others' feelings. At work, Emotional Intelligence underpins how well employees get along as emotions are an inherent part of workplace activities at all levels.

Unlike other more traditional measures of employee performance, such as IQ and Personality, Emotional Intelligence can also be developed. Assessing Emotional Intelligence can provide critical information related to a potential or current employee's capacity to:

• quickly 'on-board' into a new role or work team
• understand the values or guiding principles underpinning an organisation or work team's culture
• communicate the requirements of their role in a way that captures others' attention
• manage the expectations of multiple stakeholders when delivering important organisational outcomes
• remain positive, optimistic and focused when faced with client or customer push-back, and
• problem solve and cope when dealing with workplace stress.

All information © Copyright Genos Pty Ltd 2007. Reprinted with permission.