Emotional intelligence is defined as someone's ability to read other people's signals and respond appropriately to them, as well as recognize and understand their own emotions so they can influence the emotions of others. Why does that matter for a hiring manager?
Surveys have found over 80% of job seekers will rethink a role or institution they once doubted if they had a strong candidate experience. A positive experience with a hiring manager or a recruiter can be a determining factor for a candidate on whether or not to accept an offer. Further more, a survey by Initiative One found workers are 400% less likely to leave a job if they have a high EI manager.
Emotional intelligence can be further broken down into 4 elements: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, and relationship management. Let’s dive deeper into those elements and how they can affect the recruitment process.
Self-awareness
When hiring a lot of managers use the “Beer Test” (would I have a beer with this person). While you may not necessarily like the candidate, they may be the perfect fit for the role. High self-awareness as a hiring manager allows you to recognize when your emotional re
action to someone is overshadowing your logical thinking.
Self-management
Sometimes having high emotional intelligence means being able to decide when to remove emotions from the situation. Emotions are not part of the hiring equation; it takes a high level of EI to separate them. Hiring managers need to be able to recognize their responses and then determine if it is based on a subjective criterion.
Social awareness
Some hiring managers will just jump right into the questions without recognizing the need for icebreakers and openers. Being able to set the stage for a profitable interview is key to good recruitment. Great hiring managers are strong communicators and even better listeners. This puts the candidates at ease and helps to get the best information from the conversation.
Relationship Management
Especially in a competitive applicant market, being able to build a relationship with a potential hire is extremely important. A good hiring manager will be able to read when to ally with concerns and when to build on excitement or when to push further and when to take a step back. When hiring managers have strong relationship-building skills, they maximize candidate experience and boost conversion rates from job seekers to new hires.
As a hiring manager having emotional intelligence can help you to build positive relationships with your candidates, effectively handle conflict, and increase overall candidate satisfaction. During the recruitment process having a high emotional intelligence can help to build a trust early and get more specific information on their interest in the role or organization, their shorter- and longer-term career ambitions, or their status in the job-search process. All this leads to building a strong and effective recruitment process and team.
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