Emotional Intelligence and Graduates – Employers’ Perspectives

Research has demonstrated that employers favour graduates who possess higher levels of emotional intelligence. Many initiatives to increase students’ levels of EI have involved ‘whole school’ approaches, whereby generic EI skills programmes are delivered to all students in a third level institute. This paper details an initial survey of employers’ (n = 500) opinions on the importance and current level of graduates’ social and emotional competencies. The survey was completed across five sectors: engineering, IT/computing, professional services (including accounting, business, finance, HR, law, retail), science (including pharmaceutical and life), and social science which are identified growth industries in Ireland. It sought to explore employers’ perspectives to determine if there are differences in terms of social and emotional competency requirements among graduates, across different employment sectors. Preliminary survey findings demonstrated a major disparity between the degree of importance attributed by employers to emotional intelligence competencies and the current levels displayed by graduate employees. This potentially represents a significant opportunity to enable students to develop those specific skills most favoured by employers in their chosen career areas, thereby possibly increasing their employability and success at work.