5 Essential Factors to Look For When Hiring Accounting Candidates No business can sustain or thrive without accounting professionals, especially as the transactions and business operations get increasingly sophisticated. Though organizations follow basic criteria to filter competitive accounting professionals from the rest, most of them remain far from hiring the right accounting talent. No matter whether you hire an accounting staffing agency in Dallas or elsewhere, you need to filter candidates on certain factors. That said, the blog post discusses five essential factors to consider when hiring accounting candidates.
Desire to Grow A candidate looking for a long-term career in accounting can indeed be an asset for the organization. When interviewing
candidates for an accounting role, employers need to find out whether a candidate is aiming for a long term career in accounting or is it side gig for them. If they are already pursuing a CPA or planning to do one, they can be an ideal fit for your organization. In addition, ask them what is their plan for advancing their career in accounts.
Hands on Experience Though most candidates may have mugged up accounting basics through books, not everyone has hands on experience on accounting software. If your accounting operations requires more than manual accounting, test candidates on their knowledge about accounting software. Prepare a test to judge skills on Quickbooks or Microsoft Dynamics, if you want to filter experienced candidates from fresh graduates. Even if someone possesses a basic knowledge about accounting software or has enrolled in a course, they are worth giving a shot.
Diverse Experience Though core accounting experience deserves consideration, employers also need to factor industry-specific experience before making a hiring decision. The reasons, bookkeeping practices may vary across industries and a candidate who fits a particular sector may not fit otherwise. That said, employers must give due importance to “relevant experience� when interviewing for an accounting requisition. If they have spent even a couple of years in your industry, chances are high that they may fit in your organization.
Familiarity Procedures
With
Current
Accounting
Goes without saying, an accounting professional should be abreast with the latest developments in accounting. They should be aware of the trends in the accounting industry and able enough to derive inferences to be applied to their work sector. To know whether a candidate takes time to hone accounting skills, ask questions about real life-applications such as how would they help an organization to reduce costs or reduce monetary wastage. You can also ask whether they plan to go for additional certifications or are currently involved in freelance accounting work.
Accounting and Soft Skills Both accounting and soft skills are important qualities to look for when interviewing an ideal candidate. As an employer, check whether a candidate is capable of doing basic accounting tasks such as reconciling bank statements, posting and updating general entries among a few. On top of that, you also need the candidate’s attention to detail when performing any accounting job. Ask them instances from their previous job, precisely strategies about minimizing errors and streamlining accounts operations.
The Bottom Line Accounts is the lifeblood of any business and that said, it’s important to hire the right accounting talent. If you hire the
right professional, they would take lesser time in getting a hang of what’s required and will be able to outperform your expectations. To save time on your accounting requisitions or jobs in Dallas, you can consider taking assistance from accounting staffing agencieswith dedicated recruiters who can help you hire the right accounting talent for your organization.