With the right employees in place, an organisation’s business challenges are half-way solved.
This is even more apt in a country like Nigeria. With a large pool of skilled and talented people, it’s expected that getting the right personnel shouldn’t pose much serious challenge to businesses. However, while there may be no shortage of talent, identifying the right ones and retaining them continue to be recruiters’ nightmare. This challenge pervades recruitment for virtually all skilled roles in the country; including accounts & finance roles.
Regardless of its size, every business organisation needs an accountant. For many start-ups, the owner or a surrogate may take the role of the accountant (bookkeeper) together with other functions. But as the business grows, it’s crucial to engage the services a professional accountant in place. Large organisations would employ scores of accountants performing different roles – mostly towards an ultimate goal. Aside from capturing financial transactions with a reasonable level of accuracy, the 21st century accountant is expected to be fully business-minded and must be able to directly or indirectly offer reasonable advice to business managers/owners on business survival, growth and sustainability. This responsibility typically involves several duties, such as:
- Formulation of financial policy
- Financial planning, budgeting & budgetary control
- Formulation/Compliance with internal controls
- Recording, categorization and presentation of financial reports.
- Cost management & control
- Financial analysis and reporting
- Safeguard of business assets and investments
Such – and as widely acknowledged – the role of a competent accountant in the success of a business cannot be over-emphasized. The question then is what it really takes to recruit a competent accountant either for just accounting responsibility or combined with a financial management role.
To start with, there appears to be quite a dearth of very competent candidates for finance and accounts position at the Nigerian job market. From our interactions with hundreds of candidates for various Finance and Accounts roles for clients in the last couple of years as Recruitment Consultants, we have observed at Teoaris Consulting that finding candidates who comprehensively meet essential competence requirements for various accounting and finance roles is not an easy task. This paucity of competencies calls for recruiters and employers to dig really deep if they desire very good candidates.
WHAT TO TEST FOR
Either as recruitment consultants, employers or recruitment agency, the following competencies are important criteria for determining the quality of an accountant during recruitment.
- Test for sound understanding and practical application of Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP). This is the bedrock of accounting upon which capturing of transactions, reporting, planning and analysis rest. For a fact, a candidate that falls short in this gets you nowhere
- Particularly test for strong understanding of double entry principles. We find it shocking that many accountants – chartered and not – of varying years of experience, fall short on simple understanding of basic double entry principles. For instance, and as simple as it may seem, complete entries for a simple sales transaction is a nightmare to many candidates, some of them being chartered accountants. It’s shocking to hear some of them attribute this to automation – “after all accounting software does the double entry processing”. This simply can’t be logical.
- A good knowledge of design and operations of accounting systems and internal controls. A good accountant is expected to protect the integrity of the accounting system while also safeguarding the assets of the business. A good way to know how a candidate is able to do this is to test for his understanding of the way accounting systems run and the kinds of controls that protect their integrity.
- A strong understanding of financial analysis. Even when they are not being interviewed specifically for a role where they would have responsibility for financial analysis, quick identification and correction of errors is helped by a good understanding of financial ratios and analysis.
- Test for financial numeracy skills. Undoubtedly, a good accountant must have good numerical skills – the ability to use, interpret and communicate financial information to solve business problems and challenges.
- Test for business insight. Insight is defined as “the capacity to gain an accurate and deep understanding of someone or something”. Today’s accountants are not just expected to be “bean counters” but must be have an overall insight into why and how of what goes on in the business. This will enable him/her to take reasonable actions and advise the management judiciously. While this is mostly important for higher accounting roles, any accountant that will help a business move forward must have some level of proficiency in this, even while developing.
- Test for unwavering integrity. Accountants deal with figures, information and sometimes funds that could make or mar the business. Integrity is therefore a factor that cannot be compromised when assessing a candidate for accounting role – no matter what level he/she is being considered for. Real integrity is doing the right thing, even when nobody’s going to know. Sadly, this seems to be a quality that’s fast disappearing in our society.
- Test for work ethics. The accounting profession encourages good work ethics and for some of the accounting institutes across the world, importance of work ethics is encoded in the professional code of conduct for their members. Attributes like; appearance, hard-work, tenacity, attendance, attitude, character, communication, cooperation, organizational skills, and productivity are expected of a professional accountant.
- Test for assertiveness. Accountants cannot be timid or a pushover. They must be firm and able to stand their ground for the good of the business, even in some cases of hostilities. They must however be careful to not be too difficult; else they lose the cooperation of colleagues. Accountants must particularly observe the concept of substance over form to avoid unnecessary rigidity. Therefore, while recruitment consultants and employers must look out for the attribute of assertiveness, they should also check for team-playing attributes.
- Conduct background checks and verification. Finally the accounting role is a very sensitive one. So, it’s always important to conduct proper background checks and verification before the candidate is employed.
While the foregoing is by no means exhaustive, they are so fundamental that their exclusion in the recruitment process could be costly.
An article of Teoaris Consulting.
Teoaris Consulting is a Recruitment Consultant in Lagos, Nigeria. Call 07061797947 to engage further. Or Click
