Enable your people to be more effective
Emotional intelligence: the foundation of better working relationships
It underpins our relationships, shapes our resilience, and drives the motivation and self-awareness that help people grow. But only 30% of companies look for emotional intelligence within their hiring process. Is your business missing an opportunity?
Trusted by 10,000+ organizations to strengthen management and leadership performance
Used by 10,000+ companies to reduce hiring costs and improve performance - across leadership teams in retail, tech, financial services, and professional services
When individuals understand themselves - and each other - better, they can build stronger connections, navigate challenges with confidence, and contribute more effectively in their work.
With Thomas’s Emotional Intelligence Assessment, you can unlock that potential. Built on rigorous people science and accredited by the British Psychological Society, it helps you develop high performers, coach more effective leaders, and create teams that truly thrive.
Now in the Thomas Assess platform, Emotional Intelligence assessments can be used for both hiring and development.
Develop your people for high performance
Designed to support individuals across every level of your business, at any point in their careers, the Thomas Emotional Intelligence assessment provides quick, actionable and meaningful insights.
With a clear structure that guides both personal reflection and honest conversations, it helps even the most hesitant managers get more from their feedback sessions – with no need for expertise.
Whether you're developing high performers or helping individuals grow in self-awareness, understanding emotional intelligence can unlock greater success across your teams.
Support and establish new hires
New hires often get a week of onboarding - and not much else. But their first 100 days are a steep learning curve, with development beginning when performance starts to settle.
With strong onboarding increasing retention by 82%, and improving productivity by 70%, it pays to revisit their potential after this initial phase. And understanding a new hire’s emotional intelligence when they feel secure enough to open up can support both their growth and their long-term engagement.
Emotional Intelligence in recruitment
When hiring, it helps to understand your candidates’ emotional intelligence from the start. This is especially true when considering candidates for leadership or roles that are particularly people-centric. Understanding how strong candidates are in terms of resilience, self-belief or even networking means you gain greater confidence in short-listing by validating decisions for these important hires.
Let us show how Emotional Intelligence can unlock team success and request a demo today
Organizations using Thomas report:
- Higher talent mobility among high potential individuals
- Improved effectiveness in manager coaching outcomes
- Higher engagement from employees across a range of roles.
Trusted by 10,000+ businesses globally
Used by 10,000+ businesses | ISO Certified | BPS registered
Frequently asked questions about Emotional Intelligence
How can I use this assessment in a development conversation?
The Thomas Emotional Intelligence assessment results can be used alongside an annual appraisal or performance review process. Discuss which of the trait scores an individual feels contributed to their successes and achievements. Do any of them pose a challenge for future goals, or present an opportunity for growth?
Hint: Use the Development Tips in a specific context such as improving time management, or active listening. This will help individuals to implement suggestions more effectively.
Will the assessment need to be retaken?
You can retake an assessment if you reissue the invitation, but we would advise against it as we would not expect significant change. The results should be used as a starting point rather than a way to track development. Any re-take should be 12 months after the original assessment.
Do external factors influence the score? E.g. if someone is experiencing something particularly stressful outside of work
As with all psychometric assessments, it's best to complete it when you feel most like your usual self. Intense emotions can skew self-perception, meaning responses may reflect a temporary state rather than your day-to-day reality. Managers and feedback providers should check the results resonate, and can encourage individuals to reflect on what might have impacted their scores
Is the Emotional Intelligence (EI) assessment a strong predictor of performance?
Emotional Intelligence helps us understand ourselves and the individuals we associate with by providing insights into how we understand and manage the emotions of ourselves and others. It also impacts how we might react in certain circumstances (e.g. high-pressure roles, or roles that involve the persuasion of others), so it can be a good indicator of whether an individual is well suited to certain situations or roles.
It has also been found to be predictive of several important work outcomes:
- Connection at work: there is a strong positive relationship between Emotional Intelligence and the level of connection individuals feel in the workplace.
- Turnover intention: there’s a meaningful correlation to employee retention.
- Self-reported job performance also correlates strongly in:
- Task performance (success in performing job-related tasks)
- Contextual performance (engagement in activities beyond core tasks)
- Counterproductive work behaviour (behaviours that disrupt the workplace).
- High emotional intelligence is also a significant predictor that an individual is less likely to engage in disruptive behaviours at work.
How can Emotional Intelligence be used with other Thomas Assess assessments?
Users will differ in their needs based on the objective, but the following combinations of assessment combinations will provide well-rounded data for decision making and gauging development needs:
- Development conversations: Emotional Intelligence and Behaviour assessments are very effective when used together here. We recommend walking people through their Behaviour results in an accessible and positive way - there are no better or worse profiles.
Follow this by working through the Emotional Intelligence results, which go into more detail. Focus on examples from the individual’s experience and how they fit with the results.- A development plan would more likely focus on Emotional Intelligence results rather than the Behaviour results. But using these assessments together maximises the benefits of each (and understanding Behaviour results can help to ease people into the process).
- In-depth development conversations: Emotional Intelligence and Personality assessments will take you further when used together here.
- Personality looks at the traits most predictive of individual success, while Emotional Intelligence looks at traits important for success in working with other people. Used together, these will give a good indicator of long-term success in a role or possible suitability for development opportunities.
A useful output would likely include development objectives taken from both assessments.
- Recruitment: Emotional Intelligence is suitable for recruitment when used with our Aptitude assessment.
- Emotional Intelligence assessments should be used for roles that are likely to require high emotional intelligence and high fluid intelligence. These are often leadership roles where there is a lot of complexity, novelty and a large requirement to work with people. High scores in these assessments would indicate high suitability for this type of role, but Emotional Intelligence should never be the only assessment offered.
