Hiring Your First Assistant: Part 1
If paperwork is piling up, potential appointments are sliding through the cracks, and you feel you are hitting your ceiling of achievement, it might be time to hire an assistant. But it’s important to hire the right person to address your pain points and boost business. Afterall, if you’re going to be paying someone’s salary, you need to make sure the benefits outweigh the costs.
When hiring your first assistant, you first need to understand the costs of a bad hire. Then, you need to identify your needs and define the role so that you can make the right hire.
The Costs of a Bad Hire
Making a bad hire can be worse than not hiring anyone. By the time you realize that it’s made a bad fit, you’ll have already spent valuable time and money on training and compensation that you can’t get back. Bad hires are often rushed hires. Plus, if things start to go sour after you’ve hired someone, it’s often harder to let them go than it would be to not offer them the job in the first place.
Rather than hiring from a place of pain, you should hire from a process. Identify your needs, define the role you are looking to fill, and develop a solid recruiting plan and training program to find and retain the right person.
Identify Your Needs
If you’re spending more time sorting your inbox than meeting with potential clients, an assistant could help you manage day-to-day tasks so that you can focus on growing your business.
To identify what you need an assistant to do, think about the things that must get done regularly but take your attention away from strategy and progress. Make a list of all the tasks that eat up time. These could be anything from email management, to travel arrangements, to calendar organization and beyond.
Once you know what you need an assistant to do, you can identify what you’d like them to bring to the table. Do you want the assistant to be an excellent communicator? Do they need to be incredible problem solvers? Should they be advanced in using tech tools? Some of these are skills needed to accomplish these tasks, others are traits that fit with your business’s culture. Skills would be things like verbal and written communication proficiency, SEO training, and problem solving. Traits are things like adaptability, proactivity, and empathy. Think of both when identifying your needs.
Define the Role and Create a Job Description
There are a few different kinds of assistant roles—most common being virtual, administrative, and executive— and you need to know what you’re looking for in order to find the right person. Depending on what you need and in what capacity, they can provide administrative, technical, strategic, and creative support.
A virtual assistant is what it sounds like, someone who assists you remotely in a virtual space. This works well if your main pain points exist online and you don’t need someone physically with you to help take tasks off your list. An administrative assistant focuses on similar tasks but is in-person and can help you physically by running errands or doing office activities. Executive assistants tend to go a step above administrative tasks and can provide specialized support including project management and strategic planning.
When you discover what your needs are and what kind of role will work best for you, create a job description and begin recruiting. Things to include in the job description would be the type of role you are hiring for (type of assistant), skills and traits needed for the position, tasks they would be expected to complete on a regular basis, and any qualifications they need.
Job Description Must-Haves
- Job title and company
- Job description
- Duties
- Skills and traits needed
- Qualifications and experience needed
- Company culture
- Expectations
- Compensation and benefits
- Instructions for applying and next steps
Understanding what you’re looking for is key to making the right hire. This prep work will get you the information you need to make an informed decision.
Are there other things you look for in an assistant? Let us know on Facebook page. And don’t forget to check out our blog for more insightful advice and research.