Why Are Employers Prioritizing Emotional Intelligence More Than Ever?

If you’ve ever prepared for an interview, it seems like the expectations from employers keep increasing. To be specific, employers keep changing their priorities for certain soft skills. For some time, ‘communication skills’ were all the rage. Today, however, we’re seeing this being replaced by a Goleman-esque obsession with ‘emotional intelligence.’

Just like communication skills, emotional intelligence has data to back up its importance as an employee trait. According to one OECD report, emotional skills like emotional stability, extraversion, conscientiousness, and openness tend to be linked to better employment outcomes. In fact, it even had the added bonus of leading to higher wages.

Today, let’s find out what is causing so many employers to want potential employees to show high emotional intelligence.

It’s a Trait That High-Performing Workers Tend To Exhibit

There are many idioms and well-meaning nuggets of advice that get dolled out to anyone joining the workforce. While a lot of it gets disproven the moment you actually begin your career, there’s one saying that generally holds true. This revolves around the notion that technical skills get your foot in the door, but it’s your people skills that keep you in.

As Dr. George Vergolias, workplace psychologist, explains, emotional intelligence in corporate environments ensures people feel heard, understood and validated. This opens up the environment to trust, which enables the team to be innovative and take more creative risks, which helps the business.

Essentially, emotional intelligence is a high-performing worker skill, and hiring managers have gotten wise to this fact. During interviews, you’ll likely be subtly or not so subtly assessed on your emotional intelligence. It’s at these times that people with a background in psychology have a massive advantage.

It’s why many ambitious candidates now consciously work towards a degree in mental health. No, they don’t go back to a traditional university and spend four years away from work just to get through more interviews. That would be absurd. What they do instead is enroll in an online master’s degree in clinical mental health counseling or a similar program.

As St. Bonaventure University notes, these programs can be done 100% online. That means you can continue with your current professional obligations and study on the side. Then, once you get your degree, you gain a massive advantage in your next interview.

Emotional Intelligence Can Affect Company Revenue

Another reason why companies and organizations love hiring candidates with good emotional intelligence is that it’s simply more profitable. There is a wealth of data that shows a close relationship between emotional intelligence and revenue generation.

For instance, the World Economic Forum highlights findings that show 73% of consumers actively avoid businesses that fail to show empathy. What’s more, 43% take their business elsewhere after not being treated with empathy.

As you can imagine, no employer wants to lose clients because an employee of theirs didn’t understand how to relate to customers. This is why the top-earning salespeople often score much higher on things like EQ metrics. With emotional intelligence, you simply have an edge when it comes to reading a room and handling finicky clients.

What’s more, if the candidate being hired is in a managerial position, emotional intelligence becomes even more important. Many companies have lost great talent because managers lacked the emotional intelligence to bring out the best in workers.

As any reputed business consulting firm would tell you, it costs significantly more to replace good talent than to retain them.

All this means that companies are now more keenly aware than ever to be on the lookout for high emotional intelligence candidates. You would, too, if you were hiring people for your own organization. It simply makes many areas of a business far more effective. Even aspects like branding and creating messages that stick with your audience or customers benefit from it.

Emotional Intelligence Can Be Learned

If you feel conflicted about what you’ve read till now and realize you’re lacking in emotional intelligence, fear not. This is one of those skills that can be developed with training and self-reflection. So, it’s not something that only a few people are born with.

You can absolutely learn it and use it not just in the workplace but also in your personal life.

Of course, the main challenge to developing your emotional intelligence is that it’s not a technical skill. There is no formula or guide that will lead to guaranteed results. There are many such learnable ‘non-technical’ skills that already exist. For instance, on the easier end of the spectrum is public speaking. While it can be scary for some, there are straightforward strategies involving exposure to get good at it.

Charisma, on the other hand, can be a little more challenging. It’s fair to say that emotional intelligence falls somewhere between the two. It may take some time, but start journaling and attending a few courses, and you’ll soon improve in it. Employers would not care so much about this if it were just a one-off trait that some people have.

They are aware that it is a cultivable trait and, as such, it’s one more way to filter out numerous applicants. Some roles get thousands of candidates, and when employers have 200 resumes with identical stats, they have the liberty to recruit high emotional intelligence employees.

Thus, if you’re looking at jobs right now, start asking for feedback from your friends or family members. Interestingly, this can be a great way to find out whether you have blind spots in your relationships that need attention.

All things considered, emotional intelligence is a skill that does have a real impact on a company. While it may seem somewhat open-ended, with each employer having their own interpretation, the key theme remains the same. Companies want workers who are acutely aware of the power of emotions.

They want employees who can not only perceive them but also use them for better customer relationships and team dynamics. In that light, it makes sense for every candidate to start looking at their own emotional intelligence skills. Sure, not every job may expect it, but with time, more employers will want to see you possess some amount of the trait.