Emotional Intelligence: Nature or Nurture?
Michelle Preston, Head of Student and Academic Services, City University London has been using emotional intelligence screening as part of the recruitment process. We caught up with Michelle to find out how they are using this and what effects they have seen as a result of using this process.
What does emotional intelligence mean to you?
Being able to tune in to the emotions and feelings of others, to understand what response is needed by that person and to adapt the way you communicate to suit the situation and the individual. It is also about knowing your own emotions and what triggers them, and being able to control your behaviours, particularly in difficult or stressful situations, so that you can remain calm and focused.
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How does City University London use emotional intelligence in recruitment?
City University London has been using emotional intelligence screening as part of the recruitment process for customer-facing roles in its Student Centre since 2011. It is important to point out however, that we would never base the decision on whether or not to offer a candidate a job solely on the results of EI screening. But considering candidates’ EI capability gives us another aspect of their character to look at and helps us to select the right people for the right roles and enhance our service provision.
We shortlist candidates for jobs using our usual HR procedures. Once we have our shortlist of those that we wish to invite for interview, we then send those candidates a link to an online “Customer Service Profile” tool, which is an American product - introduced to us by Accelerator Solutions and which we have found to be particularly effective. Candidates are required to complete the online questionnaire within the CSP tool 24 hours in advance of their interview taking place. This gives enough time for the report of their results to be emailed through to us so that a few EI questions, based on their CSP report, can be prepared in advance of the interview.
When looking for emotional intelligence in a potential candidate, what behavioural traits do you look for and how do you measure them?
The online CSP tool that we use measures six behavioural traits that have relevance in the provision of effective customer service, and these are:- trust, tact, empathy, conformity, focus and flexibility. Each of these behavioural traits are measured on a ten-point scale, and for each trait we have already benchmarked where on the scale we