Opening a job position is the easy part. Finding the right person is hard. Also, if you don’t know what to look for it gets even harder. The first things you need to have in mind are the responsibilities of an executive assistant, the required skill set, and above all what type of person do you need.
In most cases, this position requires a few things that come as a norm. We’re talking about answering the phone, conducting conversations, archiving, working with files and documents, scheduling appointments, and various other office chores.
When you know what you need and want from them, you should also be careful about not giving them tasks that do not include what they’re hired for. Many employers seek this job position without knowing what they’re looking for and what they even can ask for from the new employee.
Knowing the basics of the task in front of you can do the trick, end helps you end up with the right person. You need to take care of norms and responsibilities, but also about workload and salaries in this department.
This is not a job that’s easy to do, and you shouldn’t go overboard with your candidates. It’s all about the right information flow both ways. Let’s see the five tips for finding the right executive assistant for your organization.
1. Create a Fine Job Description
It all starts with brutal honesty. This is how you should assess your job description for the position of executive assistant. You need to form a clear list of all duties that the assistant is going to handle. You should task them with both duties that will be their chores each day but also add a few extracurricular ones that will come from time to time.
A candidate needs to have all of the possible duties in mind when applying. This makes the position more appealing, as there’s little space left for unpleasant surprises. Also, you need to have the future in mind.
When picking someone for this position, make it clear that they’re counted on long terms and that terms and services of their obligations are likely to change. This is where you need to address the matter of compensation if the workload gets increased. Also look to establish the boundaries of your relationship early on, as this could backfire if not handled the right way.
2. Advertise
These days it is all about the advertisement. You already know this if you’re in charge of any type of organization or an important screw in it. Today, you have many platforms in this domain that can handle the business the right way.
The best way to promote an open position is by using an application or a website that excels in this department. If you visit, for example, C Suite, there’s a chance you’ll find the right assistant right away, without even a little fuss.
Companies such as this one have vast experience in the domain and can handle the whole process on your behalf. Sometimes this is a better thing to do going through multiple candidates clouding your judgment in the process.
3. Use HR Department
Like we said, sometimes the job is best left in the hands of professionals. People who excel in HR, and can call themselves a specialist in the field are the ones you need to address for help. They’re the ones who know how to handle the interview the best way possible. Of course, they’ll be in touch with what you’d like from each candidate.
Sometimes, even if you’re sure to want to have someone as a part of your company, HR can give you an insight that could influence your opinion and help you make the right decision.
If this is the route you’re going to take make sure that you hire a company that you can trust. When it comes to new employees you’ll want to have the right people and to have this, you’ll need the right people to assess them.
4. Look For Experience
In this position, when you look for a new employee you’ll probably have in mind that the person who applies for your position is someone without a job. This doesn’t necessarily need to be the case. You can look to employ someone who already holds the position of executive assistant in another firm.
Today, it is possible to use platforms such as LinkedIn to see people in your vicinity who are currently working as an EA. This way it’s possible to assess the potential candidates who are not looking for a job at the moment, nor have responded to your ad.
If you use this method in a way you’ll be poaching people from another company, but if they’re interested you can hire someone with experience, and who you like. You can see this as a shortcut, but don’t think that it does not require any effort.
5. Look For Personality
In the end, this could be the most valuable trait. This is why it might be important that part of the interview is done by you. Not all accolades in the world are going to help you if you can’t get along with your EA. You need to consider that this is going to be the person who you’ll spend your whole day with, almost every day.
So, while someone can be amazing at what they do, the intimate part of our beings still needs to be satisfied. If you haven’t clicked on a personal level, not even an oxford degree is going to provide a solution.
So, every candidate needs to be walked through the obligations put in front of them, to see what’s required of them each day, with a side note being that they do need to honestly get along with you. At the end of the day, you’ll want access to a person that fulfills your day on a work level.
EA needs to be seen as a spouse at work and considering there’s no bed to iron the issues, you at least can pick someone who you can at least partially guarantee you’ll get along with.
