How To Screen Financial Team Members

Screening and selecting team members' ranks are among the top three workplace stresses. Add to that the need to hire someone that handles money, and I would say you have one of the trickiest hires you'll ever make.

How To Screen Financial Team Hires

Strong hiring and interview practices are the foundation; you look at hard skills, organizational fit, and personality. 

But in addition to these practices, I recommend you consider a few other things. When hiring finance team members, here are a few things to consider; 

Ask Open Ended Questions

Ask open-ended questions about their financial situations. Such as tell me a story about a time when someone spent money on something that you didn't think was necessary, or tell me about a time when a team member overspent their budget, and it felt like they did this regularly. Or you believe a staff member's being paid more than you think they should.  

Ask these questions and sit back and listen, listening for indicators of their attitude about money. 

Do they feel the finance person controls the purse, or how do they approach their role as one of stewardship? What about recognizing the need for policies and procedures that guide these processes? How do they interact with leadership, their supervisors, and the others in authority in these matters? 

Ask Personal Questions 

Ask personal questions about money. We don't stop being who we are when we come to the workplace. So here are a few examples in that area. 

3 Examples Of Personal Questions To Ask

1. Tell me about a situation when you couldn't personally pay a bill on time. Chances are, sometime in their life, they’ve experienced that, and you'd want to hear more about how they handled that.  
2. What tools or processes do you use to manage your personal finances? 
3. How do you approach borrowing decisions? 

Again, sit back and listen. Finance roles are dangerous places for people that are struggling financially or who have a negative relationship with money. It's essential to learn the new hires' relationship with money and relationship with money as it relates to an organization. 

Don’t Skip The Background Check

Finally, the most important thing is to do a thorough background check, which includes running a criminal/credit background check and calling references. 

Background checks, preferably with an independent party like ProtectMyMinistry are able to check both the criminal and the credit for that potential candidate. 

The laws governing background checks require consent that includes credit checks as well. Be sure to get their consent to the background check with a waiver form. You should have that conversation upfront and let them know of your intention to include credit check in their background check.  

When selecting reference to call, consider these things:

Is the listed reference the best person in that organization to answer questions about the candidate?

Did they work somewhere that’s not listed on their resume?  Is there a gap in work that you need to know more about?  Is there an employer not listed?  Why did they not share the information with you? Did something go wrong there? Should you know about that? 

Again, this is a dangerous place for people who have struggled with money or have a negative relationship with money. So cover yourself. I know it feels personal, but these steps are protecting not only you as a nonprofit leader but also the potential hire from being in a vulnerable role.