What personality traits should make a good treasurer? The results of the Treasurer Test help to better understand a candidate’s natural predisposition to specific personality traits. Editor of the Treasurer Test, Máximo Santos Miranda, gives us his take on what the most important personality traits are that treasurers should have.
Is there an ideal skillset and personality of a treasurer? Can we see common denominators among the treasury population? What is in the handbook “finding a treasurer”? Pieter de Kiewit and team Treasurer Search speak about this all the time, as their clients ask about this but also because it is part of the essence of their work. They discussed some observations on how challenging it can be to find “the treasurer” for the job in their recruitment work, and how the Treasurer Test can ease this challenge. Read the article below.
After marriage, children, and buying a home, career decisions are the most important for many of us. An increasing number of people want to create conscious career directions for themselves. On their initiative or of their employers. Adriana Ciuche, certified Treasury coach and treasuryXL, house of the Treasurer Test, found each other in the “Treasury Career Service“. This is a service that helps (aspiring) treasurers create a foundation for their careers.
Treasurer Search, a partner of the Treasurer Test, noticed an increased number of candidates taking the Test. In this blog, Pieter de Kiewit tells us two examples where the Treasurer Test helps them with recruitment processes.
Contributor to the Treasurer Test, Pieter de Kiewit (Founder & Owner of Treasurer Search), explains in this article how the Treasurer Test adds value to a usual calibration meeting.
treasuryXL announces the launch of the Treasurer Test 2.0, the new version of the assessment tool for Corporate Treasurers.
In 2017 we created the Treasurer Test, an online, peer-based assessment that measures the technical knowledge in treasury and the personality profile of the candidate. The idea for this originated from two important observations. First, in most labour markets there is no recognized qualification in treasury like CPA or CFA in other finance positions. Second, most companies do not employ many in treasury and they do not have the expertise to screen potential treasury staff. So how do you know your candidate brings what you are looking for?
Different from the multiple-choice questions in the Big5 Personality Profile assessment, a number of treasury technical questions require you to make calculations. Furthermore, there is a time pressure component: there are more questions than you will be able to answer within the limited time. You will have to balance between answering questions right and answering as many as possible. It is not possible to skip questions.
In previous blogs and in the Treasurer Test example report we mention the four corporate treasury sub-disciplines we work with. For each discipline you will have a limited time of 10 minutes to answer the questions.
In the below summary you can see what topics you can expect:
Together with industry and university experts we continuously work on updates of the questions catalogue. A challenge is to balance what is always relevant in corporate treasury, what is new and what will remain relevant.
It is possible to send your input for the further design of the questions catalogue. We are currently discussing topics like tax reforms, trade finance, treasury technology, alternative funding sources.
On behalf of Team Treasurer Test,
Wout van Wijlick
Marketing Coordinator, treasuryXL
The development of the Treasurer Test stems from the idea that it can be very useful for in particular three audiences:
Their goals might overlap, but there are some differences. In this blog, we will elaborate.
It might sound strange, taking the Treasurer Test while already being a treasurer. However, it can be useful in many situations. First, it provides you the opportunity to show your hiring manager that you are fully capable and have the right personality for the position you want to step into. Secondly, it helps you plan your career. The extensive result report will show your treasury knowledge gaps and personality, helping you understand what type of education and coaching you should take. Third and last, it is also useful for the treasury team. Since you want to be ready and prepared for the future of your organisation, you want to know the current status of the team in order to build a development plan with a focus both on skills as well as on personalities.
Aspiring treasurers might have the aforementioned goals and some extra. They might not have done the job, but know a lot and want to prove this. Automatically, the Test will show where development might be started best and if the potential is enough to pick up the position. Taking the Test will also lead to insight into what the job is about. It is not intended but might lead to a candidate treasurer steering his career in another direction. Finally, we are talking with educators to deploy the test at the start and at the end of a program in order to objectively measure the progress of students.
In finding staff or helping them in development, HR, recruiters and educators will play an important role. It is not to be expected that these specialists benefit from taking the Test. However, they should know about the Big5 typology and understand how the Test measurers skills.
On the other hand, CFOs, CFO team members, auditors, bankers and other financial specialist and their organisations will benefit from them taking the Test. Many of them consider themselves (unjust) knowledgeable in corporate treasury. Insight into their actual knowledge level is a good starting point. If the non-treasurer knows a lot and can prove this with the Test results, treasury specialists will better accept input. If not, the non-treasurer will better appreciate the expertise of the specialist and put treasury higher on the priority list.
In preparation for the Treasurer Test, we recommend making the test in a quiet room where you will not be disturbed. There are more questions than you can answer in the available time. If you don’t know the answer to a question, move on to the next. The Treasurer Test measures knowledge, speed, productivity and accuracy.
To ensure the best possible performance on the Treasurer Test, consider the following preparation tips:
You will receive a PDF report with your score in comparison to your peers. Your score will remain in our system for twelve months and will then be anonymized.
Team Treasurer Test
