How to hire an Emotionally Intelligent Candidate

In a changing work environment, education or work experience are not the only attributes that are being considered when selecting the perfect candidate for an organization. Hiring managers should also try to evaluate the emotional intelligence of future co-workers during the various stages of the hiring process. Emotional intelligence holds a company culture together and can help team members to express their needs better, understand preferences, and create a welcoming environment across the teams. Despite that, emotionally intelligent leaders can impact digital marketing talent retention and enhance productivity levels. The question then occurs: how can employers attract emotionally intelligent candidates who would benefit the business? The blog focuses on how to hire digital marketing and e-commerce candidates with high emotional intelligence and its importance at the workplace.

Incorporate emotional intelligence within the organizational values

Employers firstly need to emphasize that they will recruit emotionally intelligent employees and set an example within their teams. The hiring manager needs to recognize that emotional intelligence is an essential attribute while hiring and emphasize its impact on the organization. Digital marketing and e-commerce employees look for authoritative figures to establish patterns in the workplace. The way hiring managers express their emotions and control day-to-day duties will develop routines for the employees while screening potential candidates. If hiring managers or higher authorities prioritize their high levels of emotional intelligence, it sends a message to the internal team that this is an important value for the company.

Business owners often ingrain emotional intelligence training programs or coaching support within the business to build stronger teams and improve employee satisfaction. To read more about satisfaction in the workplace read the blog: Why Job Satisfaction is Important for Employees in 2022. This sets an example to improve leadership techniques at the workplace and to work toward mutual goals. Employees will enhance their emotional intelligence and broaden their perspectives to search and hire candidates with the same skills and attitudes that align with the organization's values. Digital marketing employees with a high level of emotional intelligence are more likely to deal with criticism, understand the consumers better, and attain significant ideas that allow building effective marketing. The employees will be more likely to prepare for interviews and ask questions for candidates that assess emotional intelligence levels together analyzing technical skills that make them better leaders. The organization will strengthen the digital marketing talent-hiring and candidate selection techniques.

Emotional intelligence allows to increase productivity and build stronger teams

Focus on emotional intelligence during the interview

Conducting an interview that focuses on candidates' emotional intelligence can be a challenging experience. Interviews often do not stimulate in-depth answers because candidates tend to be vague when answering the questions. The mission of a recruiter is to ask focused follow-up questions to avoid that. One of the solutions is to conduct a strategic behavioral interview. Instead of strictly focusing on the exact requirements of the position, try to develop a conversation from the perspective of whether a candidate's skills fit the role and organization culture. Hiring managers should develop a discussion while focusing on the potential candidate's past and how they tend to handle particular situations in a work environment. The interview has to show signs of a comfortable and safe environment to allow them to express their real personality during the discussion. As digital marketing and e-commerce candidates start to feel more comfortable while interviewing, they will build a more lasting relationship with a hiring manager that creates a positive candidate experience that allows them to express their level of emotional intelligence. This plays a vital part while creating a good company's image and communicating its purpose. To read more about the importance of the business purpose, check this blog: How to communicate your company's purpose during the hiring experience. It is essential to analyze how they react and how digital talents communicate examples from their work history.

During the interview, the hiring team can evaluate experiences when they worked in a team and how they were dealing with challenging situations, or how they evaluate their achievements. It is essential to pay attention to the digital marketing e-commerce candidate's language when they are expressing emotions. Formulated questions about stressful situations at work can stimulate more emotional explanations in regards to how the candidate was behaving under pressure and in conflict. The answer to such questions would help to evaluate how emotionally intelligent the candidate is.

Speak with references to gain more insights

The last thing to consider is to arrange a phone call and take time to discuss potential digital marketing talent’s emotional intelligence competencies with a candidate’s references. This will allow hiring managers to ask detailed questions about the candidate’s demonstrated competencies and showed levels of emotional intelligence. Additionally, the hiring team can formulate follow-up questions that would provide more detailed answers about the candidate from a different perspective. The conversation can give a more detailed view of the digital marketing and e-commerce candidate's communication style, behavior at the workplace, and attitudes in different situations. During the hiring process, hiring managers can gain insights from different viewpoints because they can analyze the candidate's experience with previous team members and how references describe their approach. This can enhance the interview discussion with a candidate and formulate more detailed questions.

Discussion with references bring a new perspective while hiring

Businesses made of emotionally intelligent digital marketing employees have more engaged and satisfied employees. Organizations that incorporate emotional intelligence in their culture gain a competitive advantage in the long term and tend to hire high-quality digital marketing talent. For more information on how to choose the best candidate read this blog: Making The Right Digital Marketing Hire For Your Team.