Assessment Tools: The Index of Emotional Intelligence

Making the Business Case for Emotional Intelligence.

Organizations from all segments of industry, government, and the military are using Emotional Intelligence assessments to guide employee selection and development. Why? Because understanding and using EI is dramatically improving their bottom line.

Based on data reported to the Consortium for Research on Emotional Intelligence in Organizations, a compelling case can be made that EI assessments are a valuable tool for HR practitioners and managers. Competency research in over 200 companies and organizations worldwide suggests that:

• Sales agents of a certain line of beauty products selected on the basis of certain emotional competencies significantly outsold salespeople selected using the company's old selection procedure. Salespeople selected on the basis of emotional competence sold $91,370 more annually than other salespeople did, and also had 63% less turnover during their first year.
• Immediately following training in emotional competencies such as, "How to Listen Better" and "Help Employees Resolve Problems on Their Own", supervisors in a manufacturing plant reduced lost-time accidents by 5% and formal grievances from an average of 15 per year to 3 per year.
• The US Air Force used the EQ-I to select recruiters (the Air Force's front-line HR personnel) and found that the most successful recruiters scored significantly higher in the emotional intelligence competencies of Assertiveness, Empathy, Happiness, and Emotional Self Awareness. By using emotional intelligence assessments to select recruiters, the USAF increased their ability to predict successful recruiters by nearly three-fold. The immediate gain was a saving of $3 million annually.
• Optimism is another emotional competence that leads to increased productivity. New salesmen at a nationally recognized insurance company who scored high on a test of "learned optimism" sold 37 percent more life insurance in their first two years than pessimists.
• Financial advisors whose managers completed the Emotional Competence training program grew their businesses by 18.1% compared to 16.2% for those whose managers were untrained.
• An analysis of more than 300 top-level executives from fifteen global companies showed that executives who scored high in six emotional competencies - Influence, Team Leadership, Organizational Awareness, Self-Confidence, Achievement, Drive, and Leadership – were considered "star performers", achieving results way above the average.
• Research by the Center for Creative Leadership has found that the primary causes of executive career derailment involved deficits in emotional competence, particularly in Difficulty in Handling Change, Inability to Work Well in a Team, and Poor Interpersonal Relations.
• In top leadership positions, over four-fifths of the difference in productivity between top and average performers is due to emotional competence.
• Experienced partners in a multinational consulting firm scoring above the median on 9 or more of the 20 EI competencies delivered $1.2 million more profit from their accounts than did other partners – a 139 percent incremental gain! As a result, the firm now uses EI assessments in hiring Partners and promoting employees to Partner.
• When a large beverage firm started selecting divisional Vice Presidents based assessments of their emotional competencies – such as initiative, self-confidence, and leadership – they reduced turnover from 50% to only 6% within two years. Executives selected based on emotional competence were far more likely to perform in the top third based on salary bonuses for performance of their divisions – 87% were in the top third. In addition, division leaders with these competencies outperformed their revenue targets by 15 to 20%; those who lacked them under-performed by almost 20%.
• Insurance sales agents for a national insurance company who were very strong in at least 5 of 8 key emotional competencies sold policies worth $114,000 – more than twice that of agents scoring low in these competencies.

How might your organization benefit from assessing and developing its Emotional Intelligence? Contact CBL Associates to learn more about their Emotional Intelligence assessment, training and coaching options.

Contact CBL Associates to learn more about their Emotional Intelligence assessment, training and coaching options.