5 Ways To Determine Emotional Intelligence When Hiring And Recruiting
When looking at hiring potential candidates for a role in your company, discovering vital elements of their emotional intelligence is one of the best ways you can assure you are getting the best-skilled person for the job.
Determining emotional intelligence is easy to do, with just five simple ways you can employ such tactics during your recruitment phase:
Talk to Your Candidate Face to Face
With so many means of conducting interviews today that don’t need you to meet with a potential employee physically, emotional intelligence is usually lost in translation.
When you conduct a phone interview or online correspondence to interview a person, you do not get to see them as a human being and therefore could be missing out on potential cues. A face to face interview also allows you to talk further and off the record to really get to know that person opposite you.
Consider a pre-interview by phone or online but then conduct a face to face interview before you make your final recruitment selection. This way you will have gathered a good grounding as to who the person is applying for your job.
Look for Non-Verbal Signs
The body language at an interview, alongside any eye contact, can speak volumes about a person’s overall character. Experts consider our body language and facial expressions as some of the behaviors we are most judged on when we initially meet someone.
Though what we say is also important, it comes as a close second to the act of how we emotionally present ourselves as people. Therefore, you can use such signs to your advantage when interviewing candidates to get a better sense and understanding of the kind of personalities they really are.
For example, if you find a candidate pausing at regular intervals after being asked for a response, this could indicate they’re really listening and taking in the question entirely.
Allow Time for a Response
It’s essential to allow a candidate an adequate time to prepare and offer any responses. When an interview is rushed, an interviewee can often feel harassed and stressed, as though under timed conditions, therefore often not conveying their real self to you during
this crucial stage.
By conducting an interview process in a way that encourages the candidate to think about their response, rather than providing you with an instant answer, you allow them to show and tell you who they really are - and what they really think about the questions
you’re asking.
This way emotional intelligence is more apparent, rather than quick-fire responses designed to please you while just getting the candidate quickly through the whole process.
Make the Candidate Comfortable
For the best communication process to take place between yourself and the interviewees, you will need to look at making the environment as comfortable as possible.
All interviews carry a particular element of stress with them, but there are things you can do to make them seem less tense overall. Aim to conduct the interview in a less threatening room, whereby it’s comfortable and encourages the candidate to relax.
Also, as the interviewer, keep a check on your own body language and eye-contact here. Try to relax and avoid portraying any negative energy such as crossed arms or legs. This way candidates will feel a little calmer in response, and you’ll be able to get a better impression of their cues and responses.
Pose Real-Life Questions
Finally, pose real-life questions and scenarios that require a candidate to speak up, and even display areas where they aren’t so confident or assured with.
Many people feel the need to continually reply positively, with the word yes bounded about in their interviews. However, a way of gaining an insight into a potential candidate’s emotional intelligence is often by posing such questions where they have to mention their shortcomings.
This way, you can be confident that not only are they being their real self during the recruitment process, but they’re also displaying an element of self-awareness, which says so much more about their character than a simple yes could ever do.
