How to Hire an Executive Assistant
If scheduling and clerical work is slipping between the cracks, it might be time for an assistant. Here's your guide to a smooth hiring process.
In the era of iPhones and BlackBerries, everyone from freelancer to CEO is well accustomed to answering their own correspondence, returning phone calls, and managing their schedule. But if business is booming and important contacts are slipping through the cracks, or that sales meeting you've been thinking about just doesn't seem to materialize, it's time to think about hiring an executive assistant.
"If a manager is doing a lot of travel or is getting bogged down by lots of low-level coordination, hiring an assistant could free them up to focus on revenue-generating techniques," says Jamie Resker, president and founder of Employee Performance Solutions, an HR consulting company.
Ellen Rudnick, executive director of the Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship at the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business, says while an assistant can feel like a luxury, it can often be a wise hire – especially if the salary is justified by sharing one full-time assistant among several managers.
Before you hire, however, it's important to identify exactly what the position entails. The simplest method: Take the time necessary to carefully craft a job description and clearly define what you're seeking.
Dig Deeper: The Ultimate Hiring Checklist
Hiring an Executive Assistant: The Job Description
The first item under the job title should be a summary overview the position. A list of job duties and responsibilities should follow. Depending on what you're looking for in an executive assistant, that list could include a wide variety of tasks, from clerical work to handling personal expenses to juggling an intense schedule. Specify if the assistant will work for one executive or offer support to several managers.
Though the nuts and bolts of the executive assistant job description will vary, candidates should all be well-versed in a variety of office tasks, computer-savvy, detail-oriented, and resourceful. The assistant should also have wonderful people skills. Multi-tasking should be a given.
When drafting the description, it's crucial not to forget to include a catch-all line that says the assistant will be expected to fulfill additional "duties as assigned," just in case the job morphs over time or an important responsibility is inadvertantly omitted. "Basically, it's so a hire doesn't come back and say ‘that wasn't in my job description," says Roberta Chinsky Matuson, founder and principal of Human Resource Solutions, an HR consulting company.
When the job description is clearly laid out and agreed upon by management, it's time to write and post the job listing, for which the foundation is already laid.
Dig Deeper: View a Sample Job Description Template
Hiring an Executive Assistant: How to Determine Compensation
Because experienced executive assistants tend to be high demand, they likely have much steeper salary requirements than those with less experience. Before deciding a salary, it is important to weigh the skill level of the position you need filled with the amount of money you are prepared to spend on the assistant's salary.
Small companies with tighter budgets might want to consider recent graduates or candidates with only a few years experience. Knowing the ins-and-outs of start-up culture (or the culture of a particular industry if you company is larger) could be a tremendous asset in a new assistant, but if your budget is more restricted, a less experienced but highly motivated individual might be a good fit.
To arrive at a salary that's fair, search other local listings online, and check out what office managers of the experience level you are seeking demand on Salary.com. It's also perfectly couth to ask applicants about their salary expectations. Consider benefits, also, as part of the compensation package, because there is no gold standard for salary-setting.
Dig Deeper: The Right Way to Pay
Hiring an Executive Assistant: Attracting the Right Applicants
For small companies, one of the best bets for hiring is within social networks – both online and in the real-world. CEOs hiring entry-level office managers and executive assistants should actively seek referrals from friends and colleagues, as well as being mindful of other people they encounter who impress them with conscientiousness or skill.
"If you're a smart CEO, you are constantly on the look out for people who impress you. If you're at the pharmacy and someone treats you with dignity and respect, ask them to stay in touch in case you have an opportunity," Matuson suggests. "Let's face it, they're pretty rare."
Online, turning to social networking can be valuable for finding members of a small core group of employees – but be selective which sites you search on. While posting on Craigslist.org may cause a landslide of resumes, an e-mail over LinkedIn is likely to yield a few qualified professional applicants whom your trusted contacts already endorse.
You'll want to clearly list job responsibilities and a job summary, which can be pulled directly from the job description you've already created. Responsibilities could include data entry, reception duties, scheduling, planning travel and maintaining spreadsheets. Be clear about how many, if more than one, managers' schedules and correspondence the position will be held accountable for.
In addition to the overview and list of responsibilities found in the job description, a great job listing incorporates desired behavioral characteristics of your ideal hire. If you're not sure about these temporal and experiential traits, Matuson suggests to just look around you.
"If you have employees, you look at your star performers, and look at what they have in common," she says. "In a start up who's going to work well is someone who can multi-task, who has high-energy and can switch their game instantly. A person who will work well at a law firm is very different."
Next, include at least a paragraph detailing minimum qualifications, including preferred educational and experiential background. Don't be afraid to be detailed; your efforts will help narrow the applicant pool. In particular, you should focus on the desired behavioral traits, among them: self-motivation, a positive attitude, winning people skills, and extreme organizational abilities. Craft evocative sentences, such as: "The ideal candidate will be able to work well in a fast-paced environment, handling a variety of detail-oriented tasks with a positive attitude and professionalism." (Anything that requires physicality specifically needs to be included, such as the ability to lift 50 lbs.)
