What Excel is All About?
Microsoft Excel is the world’s leading spreadsheet program that helps organize data using formulas and functions. It is used by companies across the world to organize their data in an efficient manner.
Excel is widely used for financial and accounting purposes. In fact, most companies run their entire financial systems on Excel spreadsheets. Excel’s ease of use and openness has made it the leading spreadsheet program in the world.
What to Look For in an Excel Expert?
Your hired Excel expert should know more than just how to make entries in a spreadsheet. He should be comfortable with manipulating the spreadsheet in multiple ways and using Visual Basics for Applications (VBA) Programming.
Excel has a number of uses in accounting, project management and HR management. You will need to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the Excel expert during the interview process. Doing so will ensure that you hire the right person with the relevant skills.
Make sure that your hired Excel expert is comfortable with reporting all kinds of data. Inaccurate financial reporting is set to cost US businesses $7.8 billion in 2022. Hence, your hired candidate can save your company a lot of money if he is good at his job.
What Do You Need To Know Before Hiring an Excel Expert?
Check if the candidate has prior experience working in projects with strict requirements. Such applicants will have experience working as part of large teams, and can be beneficial for your company.
You can use pre-employment tests to check if the applicant’s Excel skills are up to the required standard. You will have to carefully select a good online testing program for this purpose. Extensive research regarding the same is suggested.
Your chosen Excel expert will have to work as part of large teams. Therefore, he must have strong communication skills to convey important information regarding the project to his colleagues.
Skills to Look For when You Hire Top Excel Experts
Here are some of the skills on the basis of which you should hire top Excel experts:
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Knowledge of VLOOKUP: This is one of the most important Excel functions. It is used to search for values in a table and retrieve information from a particular column.
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Pivot Tables: This is an advanced way of creating reports in Excel. The same information can be utilized in different ways by grouping data into categories or building charts.
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Data Simulation: Your chosen Excel expert should be comfortable with the concept of data simulation. Data simulation skills can be used to adjust the marketing strategies and sales patterns of your company.
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Filters: Your hired Excel expert should be well-versed with the usage of filters. These tools help narrow down whatever you need to look up in the spreadsheet to a few basic parameters, for example, a specific time frame.
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Charts: The Excel expert should be skilled in creating charts and tables for different types of situations. It is difficult to explain the significance of the data to other members of the company without a visual cue for the same.
Steps to Hire Top Excel Experts
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Ask the applicant questions regarding his prior work experience. Make a note of the responsibilities which he handled and see if they match with the offered role.
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Ask for the applicant’s testimonials from his previous jobs in order to decide if his values align with the company.
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Discuss the expected salary of the Excel expert before hiring. Such expenses need to be reasonable so that they fit the company’s budget.
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The Excel expert should have strong leadership skills. This would elevate the standards of your company.
Hiring an Experienced and Reliable Excel Expert
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Ensure that the skills of the Excel expert align with the company’s requirements.
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Ask the candidate relevant questions regarding the challenges he faced in his previous projects. Doing so will help you understand the manner in which he will handle difficult situations.
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Try to understand the time management skills of the Excel expert. Juggling multiple deadlines is a key skill for an Excel expert.
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Check if the Excel expert will be willing to work overtime in exceptional circumstances if required to do so.
