Role of Emotional Intelligence in HRM

We all have heard and known about IQ (Intelligence Quotient), but what we know about EQ (Emotional Intelligence) is very less. Emotional Intelligence is the ability to identify, control and manage one’s own emotions and the ability to understand and manage the emotions of others (Intelligence, n.d.).

How to know if you are emotionally intelligent? 

According to Justin Bariso founder of Insight, following are few signs of that one is emotionally intelligent.

Thinking about the feelings and raising questions such as is this a strength or a weakness, which would allow one to analyse his/her emotions. (Bariso, n.d.)

Pause before speaking (Bariso, n.d.), pausing before uttering words and thinking how they could affect the person who is going to listen, this will reduce the embarrassments (Bariso, n.d.).  

 

Benefit from criticism (Bariso, n.d.), even though it is hard to tolerate criticism, you will be able to take those negative comments as feedbacks and learn from them without responding back.

Having empathy (Bariso, n.d.), you will be able to feel and understand how exactly others feel according to their situations and circumstances.

Having humility & praise others, you will be humble and apologizing instead of showing ego (Bariso, n.d.). And you will praise others for their achievements and good work. 

How EQ relates to HRM?

Some studies have found that there is a connection between EQ and job performance and some other studies say that there is no correlation between the two. Nowadays, some organizations have introduced EQ tests as a part of their employee recruitment process, believing that following would be the outcome, someone who has higher EQ will be a better leader or a co-worker. And since it is still in the developing stage, it is hard to measure or guess someone’s emotional intelligence on the job. (Intelligence, n.d.)

And it is necessary for HR Professionals to improve their EQ to become a good manager who is preferred by everyone as well as to understand well about their subordinates. And as HR Managers, they should consider not only the academic results of their recruits but also about their personal strengths such as higher EQ level. (Fatt, 2002)

References

Bariso, J., n.d. 13 Signs of High Emotional Intelligence. [Online]
Available at: https://www.inc.com/justin-bariso/13-things-emotionally-intelligent-people-do.html
[Accessed 23 May 2019].

Fatt, J. P. T., 2002. Emotional intelligence: for human resource managers. Management Research News, 25(11), pp. 57-74.

Intelligence, E., n.d. Emotional Intelligence. [Online]
Available at: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/emotional-intelligence
[Accessed 22 May 2019].

Flexible Work Option

Many organizations are looking forward to implement flexible work option for certain functions of their operation, according to Forbes ‘5 Rising Industries Offering Jobs With Flexible Work Options’, following are few of them.

Engineering & IT – they have introduced flexible working options for some roles such as design engineer and architect. (Guppta, 2016)

Project Management (Guppta, 2016) – roles such as project coordinator can be done remotely.

Marketing & Communication (Guppta, 2016) – roles such as customer care assistant, online marketing officer, cold call assistant are most suitable to be done remotely and the companies are willing to hire most suitable talent (Guppta, 2016) from all over the world.

Travel & Hospitality – name itself says the flexibility travel and work, roles such as travel guide is highly recommended to work from anywhere. (Guppta, 2016)

How successful is flexible work option?

According to a report of Employers group on Workplace Flexibility (EWF), following are some of the key benefits that they could achieve by flexible work option.

Increased Employee Productivity (Future of Work Institute, n.d.) – This happens due to the job satisfaction, employees feel free to give their maximum to complete the work.

Improved Customer Service (Future of Work Institute, n.d.) – When an employee can work from anywhere, he/she can respond to a customer anytime from anywhere. 

Reduced Infrastructure Cost – cost of providing an attractive office space will be minimalized. (Future of Work Institute, n.d.)

Reduced Employee Turnover – it easy to retain an employee when they have the flexible work option (Future of Work Institute, n.d.), thus an organization can assure the retention of their talents.

Culture & Flexible Work Option

Even though flexible work option reduces the employee turnover and absenteeism, it has a correlation with the national culture and the organizational trend, some employees who are recruited with flexible work option are less likely to abide by the organizational values and the culture. (Peretz, et al., 2017)

So it is recommended to consider the cultural fit before considering the flexible work option (Peretz, et al., 2017), people who are conscientious will be most appropriate for implementing flexible work option.

References

Future of Work Institute, n.d. The Benefits of Flexible Working Arrangements, London: Hot Spots Movement.

Guppta, K., 2016. 5 Rising Industries Offering Jobs With Flexible Work Options. [Online]
Available at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/kaviguppta/2016/08/04/5-rising-industries-offering-jobs-with-flexible-work-options/#31aeb8c7d904
[Accessed 16 May 2019].

Peretz, H., Fried, Y. & Levi, A., 2017. Flexible work arrangements, national culture, organisational characteristics, and organisational outcomes: A study across 21 countries. Human Resource Management Journal, 28(1), pp. 182-200.

Reliability of Personality Tests in Employment Selection Process

Personality tests are questionnaires or surveys designed to determine one’s personality, many organizations use these kind of tests to know more about their employees’ potentials. 

Big Five or Five Factor Model of Personality is often used in assessing personality, those five factors are Extraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Neuroticism, and Openness to Experience. (McClarty, 2006)

Extraversion – Becoming energetic by interacting with others, can say being social
Agreeableness – having the traits that are agreeable such as modesty, humility, trustworthiness, etc
Conscientiousness – Self-controlled and acting in a socially accepted manner, can say disciplined
Neuroticism – Having negative traits such as fear, unconfident and pessimistic
Openness to Experience – readiness to enjoy new challenges, to take risk and to be creative. (Ackerman, 2017)

Since these tests are mostly related to emotions and characteristics, sometimes it will be hard to assume whether the answerer has chosen the real answer, we can see below scatter plot which shows how reliable are the results of a test. 

Source: https://www.criteriacorp.com/images/dg_scatter_plot_large.png

“There is a clear trend in the data where higher scores on the test correlate with higher sales figures. However, Employee #2 and Employee #19 are clear outliers. Employee #2 performed poorly on the test, but very well on the job. Conversely, Employee #19 performed well on the test, but poorly on the job.” (Implementing, n.d.)

How can we make the participants of a personality test less lying? 

 

Some people tend to lie as they lie in their day to day life, so when they are strictly instructed about the consequences of lying in a test, they would refrain from lying. (Johnson, 2011)

Some people are good at faking personality tests, when it is a self-reporting question, they already know what trait is expected from the selectors. In such case, selectors can tell them that they will consider their social insights to avoid them faking the answers. (Johnson, 2011)

Sometimes answers are depended on the mood of the answerers, but there will be a consistent pattern in one’s behaviour so when the personality test items are based consistent patterns, answers will be more accurate. (Johnson, 2011)

References

Ackerman, C., 2017. Big Five Personality Traits: The OCEAN Model Explained. [Online]
Available at: https://positivepsychologyprogram.com/big-five-personality-theory/
[Accessed 11 May 2019].

Implementing, B. P. f., n.d. Best Practices for Implementing Pre-Employment Testing. [Online]
Available at: https://www.criteriacorp.com/resources/definitive_guide_best_practices_for_preemployment_testing.php
[Accessed 11 May 2019].

Johnson, J. A., 2011. Frequently Asked Questions About Personality Testing. [Online]
Available at: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/cui-bono/201109/frequently-asked-questions-about-personality-testing
[Accessed 11 May 2019].

McClarty, K. L., 2006. A Feasibility Study of a Computerized Adaptive Test of the International Personality Item Pool NEO. ResearchGate, pp. 1-7.