How to Hire an Administrative Assistant in 5 Easy Steps
An administrative assistant sometimes referred to as an administrative support specialist, carries out a variety of duties to help a business or organization run smoothly.
Excellent communication skills, familiarity with a wide range of computer applications, and the capacity to work independently and productively, particularly in a remote setting, are essential characteristics for the success of an administrative assistant.
Why Hire an Administrative Assistant?
These days, many businesses or organizations now rely on the abilities of administrative assistants. They help in making sure that different tasks are done and will not fall through the cracks. Aside from getting things done for your business, they help you achieve the work-life balance you want.
Additionally, administrative assistants provide you with these benefits:
Create and modify schedules, make appointments, and set up meetings with ease.
Utilize software to create important reports, spreadsheets, notes, letters, and presentations.
Confidently handles challenging office circumstances with discretion
Effectively communicate with clients both internal and external; returning calls and taking emails.
Maintains databases, records, and organizes files effectively
Steps on How to Hire the Best Administrative Assistant
Hiring the best administrative assistant may seem to be simple enough but this is not the case. It can be challenging especially if you want to work with someone who will satisfy all of your needs in terms of knowledge, expertise, and experience.
If you are looking to find the best administrative assistant, here are some steps to consider:
1. Determine the Duties and Responsibilities
The first step when hiring an administrative assistant is finding out what services you need the most. Do you have a lot of administrative jobs to delegate? Do you need someone to grow your social media presence? Someone to answer customer queries?
Listing down the task you need will make it easier for you to find the best administrative assistant that will suit your business needs.
Additionally, take into consideration the hard and soft skills that they must have such as effective communication skills, and time management, to name a few.
2. Create a Job Description to Attract Top Candidates
It is common for hiring managers to overlook the importance of providing a compelling job description. When finding the right one for the job, ensure that you provide an attractive job description, not just a generic one, to attract top candidates.
Create a customized job description where candidates will be excited to apply for the position you are looking for. For example, mentioning growth opportunities, your company culture, or your inspiring company mission or vision that may be aligned with their set of skills.
3. Promote Your Job Post on the Right Platform
While it is easy to just advertise it everywhere, doing such may not be the best idea. Select the right platform so you will be able to find the right candidate.
For instance, if you want to hire overseas administrative assistants, then post your opening on region-specific or country boards to find qualified candidates.
Consider posting on platforms such as LinkedIn, Upwork, or groups that are specifically for administrative assistants.
4. Shortlist the Right Candidates
It can be overwhelming to process all of the candidate’s applications. Hence, it is best to thoroughly check and shortlist the ones that are suitable for the position you are offering.
Keep an open mind and concentrate on seeking out indications of desire or success in the backgrounds of candidates—whether these come from their extracurricular activities, professional experience, or academic work.
Seeking applicants with a track record of success or aspiration is a significantly more reliable way to judge talent than looking for someone with actual administrative work experience.
5. Make an Offer
Give the applicant a call before making an offer once you have considered your possibilities. Inform them of your excellent news and extend a non-binding offer.
This allows you to finalize some elements before drafting your offer letter, such as pay and start date. Give the candidate a formal offer letter once all the specifics have been worked out.
Allow them to evaluate, sign, and return the offer to you within a minimum of three business days. Ensure that your offer letter has the following information: the job description, start date, salary, and if the employment is exempt or nonexempt.
These are crucial specifics that will provide clarity and keep everyone in agreement with your new hire.
5 Tips on How to Find and Choose the Best Administrative Assistant
As previously mentioned, finding the right candidate for your business is not easy especially if you have unique role specifications.
Here are some tips that you might want to consider in finding the best one successfully.
1. Ask for referrals
While recommendations are useful in the hiring process for any position, they might be even more crucial for administrative assistants, for whom dependability and credibility are essential qualities.
Ask your staff if they have any recommendations for qualified individuals with administrative experience. To encourage high-quality referrals, think about creating a referral bonus program.
2. Offer a Competitive Compensation Package
Let’s admit it. One of the reasons to attract top-quality candidates is by offering competitive salaries. Find out salary trends for the position so you can offer a fair compensation range based on the candidate's qualifications and expertise.
Consider the intricacy of the task at hand as well as the amount of effort needed to complete it correctly. Given that many assistants choose remote work, you may also consider offering flexible scheduling and remote work opportunities to be the most appealing organization to work for.
3. Collaborate with a Reputable Outsourcing Provider
Thanks to technology, administrative tasks can now be completed remotely. GEO limits do not apply to outsourcing. No matter where they are, you can discover the top talent.
Outsourcing allows you to hire more quickly without sacrificing quality applicants. A trustworthy outsourcing partner eases the strain of hiring by handling tasks like interview scheduling, resume screening, and job ad creation.
Additionally, it's also a financially advantageous approach. They can even give your offshore executive assistants the training program they need to make a significant contribution to the success of your company.
4. Be sure that your Job Post is at the top of Google Search
Get your posting visible in search results by using Google for Jobs. This can significantly raise awareness of your job posting.
You can also use a service that automatically develops a correctly formatted jobs page for you, or you can have it properly formatted on your website to get it indexed by Google. Being on top of Google search will help in sending the information to a larger audience.
5. Ask the Right Questions
Administrative assistants frequently have to think quickly, come up with solutions quickly, and always act professionally. Situational inquiries can therefore be useful in determining how well-versed they are in these areas.
Also, do your homework ahead of time before the interview process so you can ask the right questions and find the “WOW” factor during the interview with your candidate.
Your hiring procedure for an administrative assistant can be made much simpler if you adhere to these tips or hiring suggestions. To attract the top candidates and strengthen your employer brand, make sure the hiring process is favorable for you and the candidate.
Still, Looking to Hire an Admin Assistant?
If you are a solopreneur or a large business seeking to hire the best administrative assistant, we provide the solution.
In this competitive world of business, it can be challenging to do things all on your own. SmartVAs can assist you in delegating tasks efficiently and effectively with our professional and experienced administrative assistants.
We have a pool of capable professionals who can assist depending on your business needs. To find out more, visit our website and book an appointment today!
Frequently Asked Questions:
1. When Should I Hire an Administrative Assistant?
Hiring an administrative assistant is the best decision to make especially if you are overwhelmed with the tasks you have for your business or organization.
However, the decision also depends on your current workload, budget, and priorities. Hiring an administrative assistant allows you to delegate tasks that are redundant and time-consuming which makes you focus more on higher-level activities.
2. Where to find administrative assistants?
It is easy to find an administrative assistant. With a simple search on the internet, and voila, many results will pop up. However, finding the best administrative assistant that is reliable and efficient can be challenging.
When looking for a reliable and efficient administrative assistant, consider the following:
They should be able to resourcefully manage the given tasks with discretion and confidentiality.
Expertly manage and adjust schedules, arrange meetings, and book appointments
Be flexible, a team player, and work even under pressure
Communicate effectively
So, if you are ready to find your administrative assistant. Click on this link to find out more about our professional and reliable administrative assistants.
3. What are the main duties of an administrative assistant?
Administrative assistants are among the most versatile and in-demand professions these days. They play a crucial role in the day-to-day operations of businesses, supporting managers, executives, and the whole team.
Some of the duties of an administrative assistant include but are not limited to managing correspondence, arranging meetings and appointments, providing support for projects, and organizing files, just to name a few.
The specific duties of an administrative assistant will depend on the needs of your business or organization.