Is emotional intelligence new criteria for hiring?

Besides cognitive skills and personality, assessing a candidates` level of emotional intelligence is equally important for a job interview, suggests a new study.

Emotional intelligence is a person`s capacity to understand, regulate, recognise and manage interpersonal relationships judiciously and empathetically. 

The study found that emotional intelligence goes hand-in-hand with a higher degree of empathy, openness to others, respect for moral rules and a positive temperament. 

The more emotional intelligence skills an individuals has, the better his or her work outcomes would be. 

For the study, the researchers from the Universities of Geneva (UNIGE) and Berne (UNIBE) in Switzerland developed the Geneva Emotional Competence Test (GECO) which consisted of four tests for evaluating the different parts of emotional intelligence including understanding and recognising emotions, regulating one`s own emotions and managing other people`s emotions. 

They questioned over 40 managers which were included in GECO. Participants were asked to explain diverse situations where they were faced with negative emotions including fear, sadness, anger or inappropriate happiness. 

More than 1,000 individuals then completed the four tests that make up GECO.

Findings, published in the Journal of Applied Psychology, showed that women on the whole obtain superior results than men, notably when asked to interpret non verbal emotional expressions. 

In addition, a superior ability to regulate one`s own emotions is linked to earning a slightly higher salary. 

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Emotional intelligence is also linked to a person`s well-being and satisfaction with his or her lifestyle, according to Katja Schlegel, researcher from UNIBE.

"We also noted that managers who perform well on GECO have better results in standardised leadership tasks and students with higher GECO scores get better grades," added Schlegel.