Periods of economic uncertainty force organizations to make careful, high-stakes decisions, especially when it comes to hiring. With tighter budgets, evolving skill demands, and a workforce navigating stress and change, organizations can no longer afford to hire based on technical capability alone.
In these turbulent times, emotional intelligence (EI) has emerged as a critical differentiator in building resilient, high-performing, and engaged workforces. Hiring for emotional intelligence helps organizations select people who can adapt, collaborate, manage pressure, and contribute positively to culture.
The Strategic Areas That Emotional Intelligence Impacts
Emotional intelligence influences far more than how people make friends in the workplace. It directly affects the areas that organizations rely on most during uncertainty:
- Adaptability and resilience in changing conditions
- Collaboration and teamwork when resources are constrained
- Leadership potential at all levels
- Customer and stakeholder relationships
- Engagement and retention during periods of instability
Emotional intelligence and other human-centered skills are among the top capabilities employers cannot afford to ignore as the nature of work continues to evolve. Emotional intelligence, communication, and resilience have been recognized as essential skills for the coming years.
In uncertain times, these are not just “nice-to-have” attributes. They are strategic assets.
The ROI of Emotional Intelligence
The business case for emotional intelligence is well established.
A Gallup study found that poorly managed workgroups are, on average, 50% less productive and 44% less profitable than well-managed workgroups. While management quality depends on many factors, emotional intelligence is consistently shown to underpin effective leadership and people management.
Published psychometric research has also demonstrated strong links between emotional intelligence and key workplace outcomes. Studies using the Genos Emotional Intelligence Selection assessment show that higher EI scores correlate meaningfully with:
- Workplace performance
- Leadership effectiveness
- Sales performance
- Customer service outcomes
- Resilience under pressure
- Teamwork effectiveness
- Employee engagement
In other words, hiring emotionally intelligent people doesn’t only improve the day-do-day experience of employers and leaders alike, it delivers measurable returns.
How to Measure Emotional Intelligence in the Selection Process
If emotional intelligence is such a valuable business skill, a key question follows: How do you measure emotional intelligence objectively and fairly during hiring?
Traditional interviews often fall short. Candidates can rehearse responses, technical skills are easier to demonstrate than emotional capabilities, and unconscious bias can influence decision-making. This is where structured, validated EI assessments add value.
The Genos Emotional Intelligence Selection Report
The Genos Emotional Intelligence Selection Report provides hiring managers with clear, structured insights into a candidate’s emotional intelligence strengths and potential risk areas.
Used alongside interviews, the report helps organizations:
- Compare candidates more objectively
- Reduce bias in hiring decisions
- Identify development needs early
- Select people who align with role demands and organizational culture
Structured, evidence-based assessments like the Genos Emotional Intelligence Selection assessment help organizations make objective hiring decisions grounded in job-relevant competencies.
The Genos Emotional Intelligence Selection Model
The Genos Emotional Intelligence Selection Model is an extensively researched and validated model and measure. It was designed specifically to support fair, evidence-based hiring decisions by focusing on observable emotional intelligence behaviors relevant to the workplace.
Rather than measuring personality traits, the Genos model assesses how individuals typically respond emotionally at work. Genos defines emotional intelligence as a set of skills that can be measured, developed, and applied, and the Genos Selection Report measures potential hires in relation to seven essential emotional intelligence competencies. The results are practical, relevant, and directly applicable to job performance. To further enhance the hiring process, the Report provides competency-specific, behaviorally-oriented interview questions.
Every decision counts: Why Focusing on Hiring Is So Important in Turbulent Economic Times
When economic conditions are uncertain, organizations tend to hire less frequently, and more strategically. That makes every hiring decision count.
Resilience matters more than ever
If you’re not bringing on many new employees, the people you do hire must be able to cope with pressure, ambiguity, and change. Emotional intelligence supports resilience by enabling individuals to regulate emotions, stay constructive under stress, and adapt to evolving demands.
Retention becomes a priority
Uncertainty increases the cost of turnover, and hiring for EI helps reduce the risk of costly turnover when stability matters most. Organizations are navigating a complex cycle of hiring freezes, restructuring, and selective recruitment, making retention a critical focus.
Understanding why people leave is just as important as who you hire
As seen in the graphics above, research consistently shows that employees are more likely to change jobs due to:
- Poor leadership and lack of empathy
- Toxic or unsupportive workplace cultures
- Burnout and unmanaged stress
- Feeling undervalued or unheard
All of these factors are closely linked to emotional intelligence, both at the individual and organizational level. Hiring emotionally intelligent people, especially into leadership and customer-facing roles, helps create environments where employees feel supported, understood, and motivated to stay.
Emotionally intelligent employees are more likely to:
- Build strong relationships
- Engage meaningfully with their work
- Stay committed during challenging periods
Bringing It All Together
In uncertain economic times, hiring decisions shape organizational resilience, culture, and long-term performance.
By focusing on emotional intelligence during selection, organizations can:
- Build teams that adapt and collaborate under pressure
- Improve leadership capability and engagement
- Reduce turnover and protect institutional knowledge
- Strengthen performance across critical business outcomes
The Genos Emotional Intelligence Selection assessment and reports provide a practical, research-backed way to bring emotional intelligence into hiring decisions—helping organizations move beyond intuition toward smarter, more sustainable workforce strategies.
In times of uncertainty, the strongest organizations aren’t just hiring for skills. They’re hiring for emotional intelligence.
