Financial Analyst Recruitment: Job Description, Selection Criteria, and Recruitment Strategy

This study provides a comprehensive recruitment plan for the organization Nova Consultants. It includes job description, selection criteria, recruitment strategy, and decision-making matrix. The recruitment plan and budget are also discussed. The article is relevant for finance students and professionals.

Running head: FINANCIAL ANALYST RECRUITMENT
FINANCIAL ANALYST RECRUITMENT
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

FINANCIAL ANALYST RECRUITMENT 1
1. Context
The study focuses on providing a comprehensive recruitment plan for the organization
Nova Consultants. The organization being considered is Nova Consultants. It is a management
consultancy firm that provides advisory services to various organizations that are involved in
different businesses. The strategy of the organizations are important factors for their success, the
organization specializes in helping organizations form effective strategies. The position of the
manager is very important in the organization. He has to take care of the client requirements and
help his team work accordingly to complete the tasks. The position of the financial analyst has a
normal vacancy of 5 to 6. A financial analyst is generally expected to stay for a minimum of 1
year. The likely turnover for this role is around 9 or 10.
2. Job Description
Financial Analyst Required:-
Required skills
 Degree in accountancy and/or finance management
 Effective communication
 Analytical skills
 Essential knowledge of financial IT software
 Ability to make efficient financial reports
 Effective management skills
Job requirements

2FINANCIAL ANALYST RECRUITMENT
 Providing effective financial solutions to the clients
 Understanding client requirement and working accordingly
 Communicating with the client to provide efficient solutions
 Using the IT software to provide effective financial solutions to the clients
 Working with teammates to handle important projects
 Creating financial reports for the clients
 Attending client meetings
3. Selection Criteria
The job of a financial analyst requires the candidate to have some essential skills. The
skills are very important as it ranges between analytical and communicative abilities. There are
certain important selection criteria that become much important in view of the job role. The job
requires a person to have strong financial analysis skills and the ability to understand and
communicate financial trends.
 Ability to communicate clearly and concisely without unnecessary issues
 Ability to analyze most important financial problems
 Degree from a reputable institution
 Ability to effectively apply the financial knowledge to work related problems
 Strong knowledge of various forms of financial analysis
 Knowledge about the organizational processes
 Good knowledge about the role of a financial analyst
 Ability to work effectively within the team
 Ability to effectively meet deadlines

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 Ability to work within tight schedules
 Flexible and efficient teamworker
Vacancy- 6
4. Recruitment strategy and advertising
The recruitment strategy is to attract both fresh graduates and experienced candidates for
the post. The recruiters would then make the decision based on a number of different criteria.
The overall recruitment strategy is to maintain a balanced between promising young fresh
graduates with efficient analytical skills and experienced candidates that have previous idea
about the job roles. For both the experienced and the fresh graduates, the focus is on finding the
kind of communication skills they have. The organizations wants to hire candidates that have
good communication power apart from their analytical skills as much of the work is dependent
on effective communication skills. The recruitment strategy is based much on online recruitment
strategy at the time as most of the applicants and aspiring employees of the company can be
reached online. The organization is focused towards creating a brand as in Nova Consultants, one
of the fastest growing consultancy firms in the country. The company keeps track of the potential
candidates through specially designed applicant tracking or managing systems. The company at
the same time keeps close contacts with the job consultancy firms. There are internship facilities
being provided by the organization to college students or fresh college or university graduates.
College placement programs are also done by the organization. The expected number of
applicants for each of the posts is around 100. This makes the total number of candidates 600.
The advertising would be done online and in newspapers. Online the advertisement would be
done on the most viewed job websites. The rest of the advertisement would be done in

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professional social media websites like Linkedin. Email notifications would be sent to candidates
that have a matching profile. The advertisement would be given 2 months before the actual
recruitment stops. This would provide ample scope for the long recruitment process based on the
candidates per vacancy. Both judgmental and mechanical information collectors and predictors
would be utilized. The budgeting recruitment factors like usage of efficient and inexpensive
equipment would be used.
4.1 Recruitment Plan and Budget
Recruitment factors Costs
Applicant Tracking Software 7000 AUD
Online Advertisements 8000 AUD
Recruitment forms 6000 AUD
Outdoor Posters 2000 AUD
Employment Consultancy Agencies 5000 AUD
College Campus Drive 9000 AUD
HR consultants 2000 AUD
Employee assessment software 3000 AUD
Total 42000 AUD

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5. Draft Recruitment Advertisement
Nova Consultants is one of the fastest growing consultancy firms in the world. The
organization is looking for young, enthusiastic and bright people to fill the position of Financial
Analysts for the company. The company is recruiting fresher as well as experiences people in the
field of Financial Analysis. Minimum qualification is graduation in commerce, statistics, maths,
economics or related subjects. The Job requirements are:-
 Providing effective financial solutions to the clients
 Understanding client requirement and working accordingly
 Communicating with the client to provide efficient solutions
 Using the IT software to provide effective financial solutions to the clients
 Working with teammates to handle important projects
 Creating financial reports for the clients
 Attending client meetings
Communication is key to achieving success, we believe and apart from all the other
qualifications the candidates are required to have excellent communication. Nova Consultancy
are expanding and becoming larger with each passing day. Be a part of our growth and help us to
achieve greater heights as an organization. Our large numbers of constantly growing
international clients are waiting to improve their business from the help of dynamic new business
analysts.

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6. Decision making matrix
Sele
ctio
n
crite
ria
Resume
Tele
phon
e
scree
ning
Appli
cation
form
Work
samp
le test
1:
____
____
_
Work
samp
le
test
2:
____
____
_
Pen
and
paper
test
1:
____
____
_
Pen
and
paper
test
2:
____
____
_
Selec
tion
interv
iew
1:
____
____
_
Selec
tion
interv
iew
2:
____
____
_
Ref
eren
ce
che
ck
Othe
r: :
____
___
Oth
er: :
___
___
_
Crite
ria
1: commu
nication
yes yes 5/8 4/8 5/10 5/10 4/8 6/10 7/10
Crite
ria
2: flexibili
ty
N/a yes 5/8 4/8 5/10 5/10 4/8 6/10 7/10
Crite
ria
Analyti
cal
N/a N/a 4/8 5/8 6/10 6/10 5/8 6/10 7/10

7FINANCIAL ANALYST RECRUITMENT
3:
skills
Crite
ria
4:
Proble
m
solving
skills
N/a N/a 5/8 4/8 5/10 5/10 4/8 6/10 7/10
Crite
ria
5: Typing
ability
N/a N/a 4/8 5/8 5/10 5/10 4/8 6/10 5/10
Crite
ria
6:
System
usage
ability
N/a N/a 4/8 5/8 5/10 5/10 4/8 6/10 5/10

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Crite
ria
7:
Logical
Reasoni
ng
N/a Yes 4/8 10/20 N/a N/a 4/8 6/10 5/10
Crite
ria
8:
Overall
evaluati
on
Yes yes 5/8 5/8 5/10 5/10 4/8 7/10 7/10
The assessment for communication would be two telephonic rounds. The assessment for
flexibility would be a number of questions that would be provided. The assessment for analytics
would be two rounds of online and two rounds of written tests. The problem solving skills would
be online and written. Typing ability would be timed per minute in a system tester. The basics of
system usage would be tested as a supervisor would ask the candidate to do various things on a
given system. Logical reasoning would be a computer based test. Overall evaluation would be
done directly by the HR.
Flexibility assessment of the candidates would be done by asking some essential
questions that would test their flexibility skills.
The assessment for analytics would be two rounds of online and two rounds of written
tests. This would test the financial analysis and calculation abilities of candidates.

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The problem solving skills would be online and written. The problem solving questions
would test both the analytical skills and the some common sense skills.
Typing ability would be timed per minute in a system tester. This would test how fast the
candidates can type.
The basics of system usage would be tested as a supervisor would ask the candidate to do
various things on a given system. This would test how well the candidate is towards using
systems for work.
Logical reasoning would be a computer based test. Overall evaluation would be done
directly by the HR. This test would test the reasoning abilities of the candidates. The candidates
would need to be effective.
The last would be overall evaluation or the HR round.
7. Decision making strategy and criteria
The selection process becomes very important towards selecting the candidates that have
the best potential towards contributing towards the organization. As discussed both the
judgmental and the mechanical form of collecting predictor information would be used. The
selection process would combine multiple cutoffs and multiple hurdles. The assessment data
would be put into the decision making systems. The applicant would need to reach a cutoff mark
if they are to be selected. Moving forward the selected candidates after the multiple hurdle
strategies are over would be selected for the last interview round. The first person that would be
offered the role would be the highest scorer. The cut off score would be set in some cases on an
average basis and in some other on either below average or over average cases depending on the

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importance of a given test. The second would be to the next best performer and so on. If no
candidates meet the criteria then the selection would be done on the basis of direct interaction on
the basis of the highest scorers. The assessments would be done completely in the offices and
would need to be completed by candidates in the office. If require more than a day might be
required. Thus, it would be a proctored. The justification for this is that the candidates would
need to act within the environment of the office as a test. The costing can be made viable as
proper arrangements would be made that will be a onetime investment.
8. Psychometric Assessment
Logical reasoning test would be taken after the other tests are over and just before the last
HR round of the selected individuals. The price of the psychometric test would be around 1200
AUD. It would be an online based reasoning test. There would be 20 questions that would be
present. The timing would be after the last of the candidates are selected after the cutoffs are
decided. The main reason for the tests would be to assess the logical reasoning process of the
candidates. Candidates till now would be selected on the basis of their analytical skills. Moving
forward the candidates would be placed in their systems to give a logical reasoning test
comprising of 20 questions. This would be just before the last HR round is to be conducted. It
would be a psychometric test to decide the mental reasoning abilities of the candidates. The
candidates would be sent in batches. The HR manager would personally conduct this test with
the help of some of the other assistant HRs. The students would be sent in batches of 5 as per the
number of students that would be left after the final selection. The candidates would need to get a
score of 10 on 20 or more to pass this test. This would mean that they have at least 50% effective
sense of reasoning.

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9. Interview plan
The interview would focus on asking mostly questions that would focus on understanding
the outlook and the communication value of the respondent. The interviewers would also
question the respondents to know how prepared they are for the job role, the challenges and the
experiences they would have to endure. Some interview questions are:-
1. Why do you want to work for our organization?
2. How much prepared are you to overcome all challenges that would affect you towards
achieving organizational growth?
3. Where do you see yourself in 3 years time?
Sample responses
Q1:-
 I want to work for the organization as it is best suited to help me grow in my career. Also,
this is a reputable organization that would contribute towards the value of my corporate
learning. This organization has the potential to change the corporate careers of the people
that join hence I would like to work for this organization. 4/5 score
 I want to work in the organization as I would like to grow and learn the best real time
aspects related to the work. I want to tackle all the challenges that come in my way. I
want to use the challenges as learning opportunities. 4/5 score
 I would like to start my career in such an organization that helps me to build my career
further ¾
Q2:-

12FINANCIAL ANALYST RECRUITMENT
 I have learnt about the challenges to prepare myself and as time comes I would make
myself further ready. 3/5
 I know the challenges that are there in this role. I have prepared my mind to contribute
my share to the company’s growth whatever it takes. 4/5
 I have made myself ready for all kinds of situations that can arise at my job. I am willing
to give my best. 3/4
10. Reference check plan
 The reference check would be done by the senior Human Resources manager with the
help of the assistant managers.
 The reference check would be conducted at the end of the selection process.
 The check would be conducted with the college authorities and local authorities
 The previous employers can be reached to get an employment background
 Reference check questions would include the moral background of the candidate, the
criminal record, the academic institution disciplinary record, previous employers and
other particulars.
Candidate name:
Organization
Applicable:-
Tenure History/Background Remarks
Local Community

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College
University
Previous employers:
1.
2.
3.
4.

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