Pre-Employment Tests For Treasurers and Controllers
Top Skills and Abilities:
- Critical Thinking
- Judgment and Decision Making
- Complex Problem Solving
- Deductive Reasoning
- Inductive Reasoning
Top 3 Tasks:
- Supervise employees performing financial reporting, accounting, billing, collections, payroll, and budgeting duties.
- Coordinate and direct the financial planning, budgeting, procurement, or investment activities of all or part of an organization.
- Develop internal control policies, guidelines, and procedures for activities such as budget administration, cash and credit management, and accounting.
Overview
Treasurers and controllers oversee and direct a company's finances. Treasurers are responsible for managing a company's liquidity positions and corporate finance initiatives. Controllers are in charge of a company's accounting processes. Both positions involve a great deal of responsibility and interested candidates need to have strong backgrounds in accounting and finance.
Requirements
Many of these professionals have advanced certifications such as a CPA or CFA and have completed a Masters of Accounting or MBA with a bachelor's degree in finance, economics, or business at a bare minimum. Treasurers and controllers have to be able to effectively coordinate teams, delegate tasks and reports while making financial decisions on behalf of the company. Excellent critical thinking skills, especially quantitative problem-solving, are usually crucial in these roles.
Assessments for Treasurers and Controllers
Companies looking for talented treasurers and controllers often favor two pre-employment tests developed by Criteria Corp. The Criteria Cognitive Aptitude Test (CCAT) is a general test of cognitive aptitude, and measures an applicant's ability to solve problems, learn and apply new information, and think critically, all skills that are strongly correlated with job success for finance positions. To ensure candidates also will be a good fit for the role from a personality standpoint, employers often pair the CCAT with a personality test, the Employee Personality Profile (EPP). The EPP is a comprehensive personality inventory that evaluates twelve personality traits that provide valuable insights into an applicant's work style and his or her methods of interaction. The EPP score report provides benchmarks that indicate an applicant's suitability for specific jobs; one of these benchmarks is the Accounting/Finance job fit score, indicating an applicant's behavioral suitability for a treasurer or controller role.
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Source: U.S. Department of Labor