With smaller staffs, higher stress levels and uncertainties around the economy, are employers changing what they look for in prospective employees? Thirty-four percent of hiring managers say they are placing greater emphasis on emotional intelligence when hiring and promoting employees post-recession, according to a new CareerBuilder survey. Seventy-one percent say they value emotional intelligence in an employee more than IQ.

Emotional Intelligence (EI) is a general assessment of a person’s abilities to control emotions, to sense, understand and react to others’ emotions and manage relationships. The national survey of more than 2,600 hiring managers and human resource professionals reveals that EI is a critical characteristic for landing a job and advancing one’s career.

Fifty-nine percent of employers would not hire someone who has a high IQ but low EI. For workers being considered for a promotion, the high EI candidate will beat out the high IQ candidate in most cases—75 percent say they’re more likely to promote the high EI worker.

“The competitive job market allows employers to look more closely at the intangible qualities that pay dividends down the road—like skilled communicators and perceptive team players,” said Rosemary Haefner, vice president of human resources at CareerBuilder. “Technical competency and intelligence are important assets for every worker, but when it’s down to you and another candidate for a promotion or new job, dynamic interpersonal skills will set you apart. In a recovering economy, employers want people who can effectively make decisions in stressful situations and can empathize with the needs of their colleagues and clients to deliver the best results.”

When asked why EI is more important than high IQ, employers say (in order of importance):

• Employees [with high EI] are more likely to stay calm under pressure
• Employees know how to resolve conflict effectively
• Employees are empathetic to their team members and react accordingly
• Employees lead by example
• Employees tend to make more thoughtful business decisions

HR managers and hiring managers assess their candidates’ and employees’ EI by observing a variety of behaviors and qualities. The top responses from the survey were:

• They admit and learn from their mistakes
• They can keep emotions in check and have thoughtful discussions on tough issues
• They listen as much or more than they talk
• They take criticism well
• They show grace under pressure

A new study from North Carolina State University shows that work experience doesn’t improve women’s chances of finding a job through social contacts.

“The study finds that work experience is important, in large part because it helps us develop social connections that can help people learn about future job opportunities,” said Dr. Steve McDonald, an assistant professor of sociology at NC State and author of a paper describing the study. “However, while men reap the social benefits of work experience, women do not.”

Using a national dataset of more than 12,000 people, McDonald examined the role work experience plays when people find new jobs through their social connections. McDonald found that men who had lots of specialized work experience were often recruited into a new job through their social contacts without having to look for a job. In fact, men with this kind of experience were 12 percent more likely to find a new job through informal recruitment than they were through a formal job search.

Women, however, did not see this benefit. They were no more likely to find a job through informal recruitment than they were through a formal job search.

“Previously, researchers have argued that women face lower-wage payoffs than men with similar work experience because the women have fewer opportunities to develop job skills,” McDonald said. “But this study suggests that a lack of useful social connections may also be driving the gender wage gap.”

This gender disparity is especially problematic for women who are vying for high-wage, managerial jobs, because these positions are often filled through the informal recruiting process that appears to favor men. 

“As a result, the more that can be done to institute formal hiring practices, the closer we will be to an equitable job market," McDonald said. “We need to learn more about exactly why women don’t get the same benefits from their social connections that men do. But right now, we just don’t have the long-term data we need on these social networks to fully understand this phenomenon.”

(Story materials provided by NC State University.)

In human relationships, mimicry can act as a kind of social glue and foster rapport in subtle ways. If, for example, Amy and Ted are engaged in a conversation, Amy might mirror some of Ted’s mannerisms, leading Ted to like Amy more, trust her, and think of Amy as more similar, even though both are unaware that any mimicry took place. All this has been confirmed by much of psychological research, leading to a popular perception (and advice) that imitating is good for you. New research, though, suggests that mimicry may not always lead to positive social outcomes. In fact, sometimes not mimicking is the smarter thing to do.

In a study to be published in a forthcoming issue of Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, psychological scientists Piotr Winkielman and Liam Kavanagh, along with philosophers Chris Suhler and Patricia Churchland at the University of California, San Diego, noted that there are often observers to the mimicry that takes place in dyadic relationships. This led them to wonder whether there might be certain situations in which mimicry comes at a reputational cost. That is, are there some cases in which an observer might think less of a person for mimicking the behavior of another, even when the mimicry is not consciously noticed by the observer? After all, Winkielman argues, mimicry is a crucial part of social intelligence and “social intelligence is not only knowing how to mimic, but also when not to mimic.”

Participants in the study were asked to watch several videotaped interviews staged by the experimenters. Some participants saw videos in which the interviewer was cordial and other participants saw videos in which the same interviewer was condescending. Importantly, in some videos the interviewee mimicked the interviewer’s simple, innocuous mannerisms, such as chin-touching or leg-crossing, and in other videos the interviewee showed no mimicry. After watching each video, participants evaluated the interviewee on general competence, trustworthiness and likability.

Despite the fact that the participants reported no awareness of mimicry, it still influenced their evaluations of the interviewee. Critically, participants judged the interviewee who mimicked the condescending interviewer to be less competent than the non-mimicking interviewee. In other words, in the eyes of the outside observers, the imitator of the undesirable model incurred reputational costs—their mirroring was seen as an error.

Interestingly, an additional experiment showed that visually obscuring the interviewer in the same videos eliminates the negative effects of mimicry, showing that observers use alignment in body language to make their judgments. Furthermore, the reputational cost of mimicking a condescending interviewer disappeared when participants first read positive information about his character, suggesting that the observers care about the deeper aspects of the person.

Winkielman says that this research indicates that mimicry is more nuanced than previously thought. Our social lives are incredibly complex and in order to build or maintain relationships we have to keep in mind “who is competent, high status, trustworthy, who is friends with whom.” We can make these determinations partly by observing who imitates whom. As such, the benefits of mimicry depend very much on the social context. 

“It’s good to have the capacity to mimic, but an important part of social intelligence is knowing how to deploy this capacity in a selective, intelligent, context-dependent manner," Winkielman said. "Sometimes, the socially intelligent thing to do is not to imitate.”

(Story materials provided by the Association for Psychological Science.)

Our careers columnist, Dawn Rasmussen, once wrote that the key to a successful job search is tapping into your personal network. That strategy still seems to stick. 

According to a recent study of 60,000 participants by Right Management, person-to-person networking is a job seekers’ most successful tool. 

The findings show that traditional networking was the source of new career opportunities for 41 percent of job candidates last year, while Internet job boards accounted for just 25 percent of new positions landed.

“The job search is changing and some approaches are losing ground to others, but classic, systematic networking continues to be most effective way to find suitable employment,” said Carly McVey, Right Management’s vice president of career management. “Certainly technology plays a growing role. But online social networking may not always be separate from traditional networking since one so often leads to the other. A job seeker uses the Internet to track down former associates or acquaintances and then reaches out to them in person. And, just like a cold call, the Internet is a way to make an initial contact with a prospective employer.”

Other finding include:

• In 2010, for the first time “Online Network” was made a separate category and cited by 4 percent of the successful job candidates.
• The “Direct Approach” or cold calling is holding its own as an effective tool for many job seekers.
• Newspaper or periodical classified ads continue their decline as a source of new employment, while Internet job postings play an increasing role.
• Agencies, recruiters and search firms may be regaining their place in the mix, perhaps as a result of a strengthening job market.
• “Other” may mean some combination of the above, or perhaps serendipity, direct referral or even good luck…and will surely remain an aspect of a successful job hunt. 

A job search, though, is usually a more complicated and multi-layered process, McVey says. 

“Job candidates are encouraged to use as many tools as possible, every kind of research, any former contacts and every opportunity to reach out to people who may be able to help," McVey said. "So in practical terms successful job candidates rely on a mix of approaches to find the new position most suitable for them. Nevertheless, from year to year the data say that traditional networking is nearly twice as successful as any other job search method. People tend to trust people they meet.”

Score another win for face-to-face meetings!

Social media is changing the way people find jobs, but according to the latest Emerging Workforce Study by SFN Group, most companies are out of step. In fact, less than one-fourth have a formal social media strategy in place, and of those, only one-third say they've had success.

"In the old talent attraction model, companies showed scant concern for the job seeker experience, enjoyed relative anonymity in terms of the true nature of their corporate culture and work environment and rarely marketed themselves as a place to work," said Roy Krause, CEO of SFN Group Inc. "The online revolution has changed all that, fueling the need for companies to build relevant social media strategies into their workforce planning efforts."

While successful adoption of social media requires a radical mindset change, the SFN study found many companies continue to apply conventional thinking to attracting, cultivating and retaining workers—a strategy that may fall short in today's digital world.

Conventional Misfire #1: Attracting Talent Is Most Successful Through Traditional Means
According to the study, only 4 percent of HR executives use social networking to recruit. For many, attracting workers remains a sterile, one-size-fits-all approach, regardless of an onslaught of social media that now offers boundless opportunities to target specific candidate groups and tap into markets which might otherwise have been inaccessible.

Conventional Misfire #2: Providing a Paycheck Alone Ensures an Engaged Workforce
The study found that for 75 percent of workers their job means more than just a way to earn a living. A full 88 percent want to think of new and creative ways to do things, with most workers naming growth potential as the top reason to stay beyond pay and benefits. One of the most effective venues to engage workers is social media, yet of the 44 percent of businesses using it, only 20 percent use it to motivate existing employees.

Conventional Misfire #3: Social Media Has Little to Do with Retaining Workers
Less than 20 percent of companies leverage social media to retain employees, according to the study. This is not surprising, when only 23 percent of HR executives said they are concerned about retention. However, utilizing social media to reinforce a company's commitment to its mission can deliver tremendous dividends in employee loyalty.

The study found that workers who feel their employer has a clear corporate mission—and follows through on it—are nearly twice as likely to stick around, compared to those who work for companies without a clear mission.

Arguably, a compelling reason behind the growth of social media is it allows people to be heard. Giving workers an outlet to speak their minds can dramatically improve employee retention.

"The new rules of attracting, cultivating and retaining talent center on intangibles, such as respect, clarity of mission, career growth and employer brand values," Krause said. "Social media represent an ideal delivery option and stands to be a game changer in the ability to compete successfully."

Let's admit that a lot of the "research" coming out of the corporate world these days is a little less than scientific. It's promotional bunk. Still, when Careerbuilder.com releases results from one of its (myriad) annual surveys, I tend to perk up. Usually the results are at least amusing. So, with out further ado—the worst résumé gaffs of the last year: 

• Candidate put God down as a reference (no phone number)
• Candidate listed her hobby as alligator watching
• Candidate claimed to be a direct descendant of the Vikings
• Candidate's e-mail address had "lovesbeer" in it
• Candidate listed "Master of Time and Universe" under experience
• Candidate started off the application with "Do you want a tiger?"
• Candidate pointed out that he was not a gypsy
• Candidate insisted on being allowed to bring his pet monkey to work 
• Candidate said, "I'll have your job in five years" 
• Candidate sent a 24-page resume for a five-year career
• Candidate put a picture of her cat on top of her resume
• Candidate said he was the LeBron James of table games
• Candidate sent a video trying to hypnotize the HR manager into hiring him