Faith in IQ testing as a suitable and accurate recruitment tool capable of finding out how well a candidate will perform or even enjoy work is on the wane, writes Gabrielle Monaghan

The RTÉ series No Experience Required portrays how people with no background in their dream job are hand-picked from thousands of candidates by six companies willing to give them a break.

So how do they know if those back-to-work mums will be good interior designers or if those over-worked stockbrokers have a nose for newspaper reporting?

They find out by using an expert to test the candidates on their emotional intelligence (EQ). IQ or intelligence quotient has been used as a recruitment tool for decades, but doesn't indicate how well a candidate will perform day-to-day in their work or if they will even enjoy it. More Irish companies now see EQ as a better measure of whether a jobseeker will be successful in a position.

In conjunction with No Experience Required, coaching and recruitment expert Jane Downes and leading EQ assessor Maureen Hewitt launched Ireland's first EQ assessment and development centre this week.

The two career experts assess job candidates for businesses, as well as assessing individual jobseekers using an online questionnaire.

The clients receive feedback by phone and then face-to-face coaching sessions to help them improve their EQ.

"There are huge issues, with companies often taking the wrong people for the job," Ms Downes (30) says. "If people are unhappy in their job, it can affect the bottom line."

Managers can suffer unnecessary headaches because the candidate they choose - based on a shining, often exaggerated, CV - is not performing up to scratch.

Emotional Intelligence Ireland, the company set up by Ms Downes and Ms Hewitt, has access to a global database of profiles that suit certain jobs and can match candidates to those jobs based on an EQ assessment.

For instance, high-performing senior managers typically have emotional competencies such as self-regard and strong interpersonal relationships, while accountants have a high emotional self-awareness and strong problem-solving skills.

Successful chief executives shine not just in areas such as finance or planning, but in emotional intelligence, according to a 1999 Fortune article entitled, Why CEOs Fail.

According to the article the executives showed integrity, people acumen, assertiveness, effective communication skills and demonstrated trust-building behaviour.

Unsuccessful chief executives on the other hand, tend to put strategy before people.

About 70 per cent of current executives are unhappy in their career, mostly because their job does not suit them, according to Emotional Intelligence Ireland.

Candidates are all too often matched to their job based on academic achievement and their IQ, which can lead to unhappiness and stress in the workplace if they are unsuitable for the position.

Contented employees yield better results, and are more likely to be motivated and promoted, the new EQ centre says.

Just 1 per cent of job success is down to IQ, while 26 per cent is due to how competent people's emotional skills are, according to research cited by Ms Hewitt.

IQ tests only show candidates' ability to answer the type of question used in those tests. EQ is tested by questionnaires designed to reveal a candidate's way of thinking and work style, and indicate how the person will react to different situations.

Indeed, Daniel Goleman's 1995 book, Emotional Intelligence, argued that human competencies such as self-awareness, self-discipline, persistence and empathy are of greater consequence than IQ in much of life, and that we ignore the decline in these competencies at our peril.

His book was on The New York Times bestseller list for a year and a half and sold more than five million copies worldwide.

Goleman's 1998 book, Working with Emotional Intelligence, argued workplace competencies based on a person's EQ play a bigger role in job performance than intellect or technical skills, and that both individuals and companies benefit from cultivating these capabilities.

An analysis of more than 300 top-level executives from 15 global companies showed that six emotional competencies distinguished star performers from average employees, according to the Consortium for Research on Emotional Intelligence in Organizations.

These were: influence, team leadership, organisational awareness, self-confidence, achievement drive and leadership.

At cosmetics firm L'Oreal, sales agents selected on the basis of certain emotional competencies significantly outsold salespeople chosen using the company's old selection procedure.

On an annual basis, salespeople selected on the basis of emotional competence sold $91,370 (€75,735) more than the other sales agents, the consortium said.

"You often see people with an excellent academic background who perform worse than those with less strong academic backgrounds in a business environment," says Ms Downes.

While the principles of EQ are increasingly being used in some recruitment strategies, mainly through personality questionnaires, more needs to be done, Emotional Intelligence Ireland argues.

The new company has linked up with employers, HR experts, recruitment agencies and job websites like Irishjobs.ie in a bid to win more business and improve recruitment strategies and leadership in Irish companies.

"EQ is gaining more and more weight," Ms Downes says.

"We feel the market for this is huge."

For more information on Emotional Intelligence Ireland, see www.eiireland.com or call 01-895 6820.