5 Skill Tests to Make Sure Your Temp Employees Are the Right Fit

As an accounting and finance manager, there will be times when you need to add temp employees to your team. Your permanent employees may be taking a vacation, on a planned leave, out sick, or unexpectedly no longer part of your company.

Bringing aboard temp employees can help even out the workload for your team. Because these employees come from a staffing agency, you know they are vetted and skilled in their work.

Temp employees require little training to begin producing. However, you may want to conduct skills tests to make sure these employees have what it takes to succeed in a role.

The following are five skills tests you may use to make sure your temp employees fit with an open position.

1. Reading Comprehension

The tasks required of temporary employees typically involve reading comprehension, speed, and other written communication skills.

  • Temp employees need to receive, process, and send accurate information in emails, memos, reports, and other documents.
  • Temp employees must read written instructions to perform specific tasks.
  • Temp employees have to read reports to provide overviews to their managers.

2. Writing

Emails, memos, instructions, and related tasks require strong writing skills.

  • Temp employees may be asked to write an executive summary of a manager’s report.
  • This requires the proper tone, brevity, clarity, and precision.

3. Typing Speed and Accuracy

Because temporary employees often use computers, the employees must have typing skills.

  • You want temp employees who can type at high speeds.
  • Look for temp employees with a low error rate.

4. Word Processing

Temporary office employees need to understand your word processing software.

  • Proper use of the layout and typography features is needed to format documents in line with your company’s style and brand.
  • The temporary employees should be able to create fillable forms and modify templates for communications where the format is fixed, but the information varies, such as a monthly report.

5. Spreadsheets

Many tasks that temporary employees perform involve spreadsheets.

  • Temp employees may need to create spreadsheets to perform important functions.
  • Examples include tracking customer contacts or updating information in an existing spreadsheet, such as adding monthly sales for each sales professional.

Looking for Temporary Accounting & Finance Professionals?

Adding temp employees to your team can help ease the workload. You may want to provide skills tests to make sure the temp employees are able to complete the tasks that are expected of them. Our recruiters have access to hundreds of behavioral and skill tests to predict candidate workplace performance. We also offer interactive training modules for candidates who might need a refresher or to improve their skills.

When you need to temporarily fill accounting and finance roles, turn to Casey Accounting & Finance Resources. Find out more about how we can fill your temporary staffing needs today.

How to Sell Your Company to a Prospective Candidate

When it comes to attracting top talent for your company, things are so competitive in the market that you need to put out all the stops to impress the most qualified candidates. Convincing a strong candidate that your company is the best option for their career will not be easy, but if you can do it, your company will reap the benefits immensely.

Explain What Sets The Company Apart

In order to sell your company, you will need to have plenty of information at the ready for the candidate. You need to explain what is happening at the company right now and how it is working towards meeting its goals. You need to explain the corporate culture, why a prospective employee would want to work at your company and how the open role will impact all of the above. You should also provide the candidate with the short-term and long-term goals of the company and how the open position fits into those plans.

Showcase The Opportunities Of The Open Position

The next thing you need to do is provide the candidate with information about the job. Be as specific as possible when telling the candidate what the job responsibilities will be so they can fully understand what they are getting themselves into if they accept an offer of employment.

You should also discuss the goals of the position. Provide goals that can be met in 30 days, 60 days, 90 days and beyond. Let the candidate know how he or she will fit into the current team and why the company needs to fill the position. You need to be as honest about this last part as possible. If the previous employee was promoted, fired or left for another company, the candidate deserves to know.

Share A Strong Benefits Package

All prospective job candidates want to know what their compensation and benefits will be prior to accepting an offer of employment. When you call a candidate to offer him or her a job, be prepared to discuss salary, benefits, vacation time, potential for raises, time period for promotion and much more. Once you offer up all of this information, you should allow the candidate time to think about what they have been offered. Let them consider the offer for a period of 48 hours so they can speak with a spouse or do a little more research about your company.

Selling your company to a prospective candidate does not have to be impossible. When you can sell your firm to a qualified employee, it makes the process of finding and retaining top talent much easier.