The perks of having a culture that embraces emotional intelligence

When a company culture embraces risk and builds strong interpersonal skills, employees are more engaged. This leads to better products, services, and experiences for customers, a new global study has revealed.

Titled The Emotional Intelligence (EI) Advantage, the study was conducted by Harvard Business Review Analytic Services and presented by Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts, and showcased the importance of EI as a "must-have" driver in company cultures today.

This is due to the growing influence of the Millennial workforce today, and of employees increasingly desiring a sense of inclusion and personal meaning behind their work.

In fact, it was found that when a company has a well-embedded EI capability together with a sense of purpose, it not only drives employee success, but also job satisfaction.

Note: The report segregated organisations into three categories - the perceptives (organisations who felt strongly about EI), the detached (those who were disconnected), and the uncommitted (organisations that were neutral about it).

While this is so, although nearly 70% of organisations involved do measure employee satisfaction, just 10% make it a point to assess company-wide EI skills.

Integrity, empathy and self-awareness are the top traits companies value

A slight divide could be found between employees surveyed and their organisations, when it came to the value each placed on key traits.

For instance, while 56% of employees valued empathy and integrity respectively, 46% felt both were valued by their organisation as well. Nonetheless, out of a list of skills shown, these two skills were most strongly valued.

Apart from that, more employees found that their organisations placed great value on drive (41%), verbal communication (38%), and even emotional detachment (14%), as compared to them (24%, 29%, and 3% respectively).

A shared sense of purpose increases productivity

Lastly, based on the report, when a perceptive organisation adopts a shared sense of purpose, it increases productivity at the workplace.

In fact, 34% of perceptive organisations surveyed 'strongly agreed' to this, as compared to just 13% of those uncommitted and a much lower 6% of those detached.

Lead image and infographics /  Harvard Business Review - Analytic Services