Technique 1.168 To Find Your Best Employees
Introduction
A questionnaire to help you find your best employees.
The below questionnaire is divided into 5 components:
- critical thinking (behavioural, situational and general)
- financial management (behavioural and situational)
- financial acumen (general)
- time management (behavioural and situational)
- communications (behavioural, situational and general)
Questions
1. Critical thinking
1.1 Behavioural
i) tell me about the time you used your knowledge of the organisation to get an idea to approved?
ii) tell me about a time when you used industry data to support a successful project?
iii) tell me about a time when you used economic environmental data for a successful project?
iv) what have you done in your previous positions at another organisations to make a significant difference to their operations and for which you believe you will be remembered?
v) recall an occasion when you had to explain a department's losses?
1.2 Situational
i) as you are new to the organisation,
- how do you go about learning how the organisation works?
- what is one of the first things you do to learn how the organisation works?
- what is one of the first things you do to learn how you can contribute to the organisation's performance?
ii) describe how would you go about determining the feasibility and possible success of a new idea?
iii) if you are given the responsibility to start a new department, what are the basics would need to consider?
1.3 General
i) what are the differences between a centralised and decentralised organisation?
- which one is your preference and give reasons for your reference?
- what role does 'corporate cultural' play in the success of an organisation?
- how would you participate in the planning processes?
2. Financial management
2.1 Behavioural
i) have you ever operated over budget and how did you handle this?
ii) recount at time when you had to prioritise bill or invoice payments?
iii) if you had to pick a product or service to add to this organisation's portfolio, which one would it be (give reasons for your choice)?
iv) describe a tough financial analysis problem you are able to solve and how you solved it?
v) explain a financial statement?
2.2 Situation
i) what would you do if your proposed budget was rejected by management?
ii) discuss the situation
- where an expense was greater or less than originally planned?
- what did you do with the surplus or shortage?
iii) explain how you used financial data to support a successful project
3. Financial acumen
3.1 General
i) describe your budget creation and management experience?
ii) explain your financial management experience, ie budgeting, reporting, cutting costs, building and maintaining reserves, etc?
iii) describe your profit and loss (PL) experience?
iv) what type of industry audits are you familiar with and what were the challenges faced?
v) explain how you have produced a cost-benefit analysis?
vi) what experience do you have with financial planning and analysis?
vii) is usually better to pay bills early or on time or late?
viii) what is an income statement?
ix) what is a balance sheet?
x) what is the job of a traditional Finance Department?
xi) is it possible have a positive cash flow and still be in financial trouble?
4. Time management
4.1 Behavioural
i) give an example of how you work under time constraints?
ii) describe how you handle the situation when you struggled to meet a deadline?
iii) describe a time how you identified and handled a barrier to your and other staff's productivity?
iv) when you have a lot of work or multiple priorities, how did you handle it?
v) define time and energy management and explain your skills in them?
vi) how did you handle it when somebody else is behind schedule in their work and are preventing you from completing your tasks?
vii) how do you determine what amount of time is reasonable for a task?
viii) how do you keep your team from feeling overwhelmed in various projects?
ix) what percentage of time do you spend on each functional area of your job?
x) describe workload in your current position
- how do you feel about it?
- what would you change about it, if you could?
4.2 Situational
i) it's late Friday afternoon and your supervisor gives you an assignment that need to be completed first thing Monday morning. Yet you have already made plans for the entire weekend. What would you handle it?
ii) you would not have completed necessary work tasks before you are due to attend a company party. How would you handle?
5 Communications
5.1 Behavioural
i) give some examples of how, when you were the spokesperson for your current (or most recent) organisation?
ii) give an example of how you carefully considered your audience prior to communicating with them and what factors influenced your communication?
ii) describe a time when you used your communication skills to negotiate with an angry person?
iii) have you ever given a presentation to a group? If yes,
- how did you prepare for it?
- what would you do differently?
iv) describe a time when you are able to overcome communication barrier(s)?
v) describe a time when effective listening skills help you in a problematic situation?
vi) describe a time when you thought someone was listening to you and how you handle it?
vii) recount on occasion, when you were greeted with a greeting that was not normal for you and how you responded?
5.2 Situational
i) two people have difficulty communicating with each other and you understand both, how would you try to help them understand each other better?
ii) some members of the team do great work, but do not work well together, how would you help them to work together better?
5.3 General
i) in communicating with your staff, do you prefer written (like e-mail, memo, texting, etc) or verbal (F2F, messaging, etc) ways (give reasons for your answer)
ii) what communication techniques do you use and how effective are they?
(main source: Brighter Strategies, 2023d)