So you’ve decided to hire your first administrative assistant? Congrats, friend! 🎉
Your business is picking up momentum, growing like crazy, and you’re now ready to hire support! 💃🏽✨
But how can you make sure you’re setting yourself up for success with your first admin hire?
Hiring an admin is an involved task, one that requires careful time and consideration.
The last thing you want to do is cut corners when it comes to hiring. Hiring, onboarding, and training takes a looot of your mental energy, and we want to make sure you spend it wisely, sis. ✨
Before you bring someone new into this beautiful business you’ve created, follow these steps to set you up for success from the start with your new hire. 👇🏽
Get Crystal Clear on What Type of Help You Need
The best way to get the right kind of admin help you need is to know what *exactly* what you need support with.
Our fave strategy to figure this out is by doing a time audit.
For one week (at the minimum!) take account of the tasks and activities that you do daily in your business. Be sure that this is an ordinary week in your biz. See what types of business activities seem to be filling up your calendar.
Maybe your days are getting eaten up:
- Answering and directing phone calls
- Preparing and organizing your reports
- Taking notes and transcribing meetings
- Managing filing systems, updating records, and organizing documents
As the CEO of your business, doing these tasks is not a good use of your time. 🙅🏽
Your focus should be on the more critical parts of your business.
Not to mention, focusing on tasks like these can negatively affect your business productivity and quality of service to your precious clients!
Once you’ve figured out which types of tasks are consuming all of your time, you can begin to group them into categories.
👉🏽 Are you finding your social media presence slipping? Maybe you need an assistant to help with maintaining your socials.
👉🏽 Are you consumed by the day-to-day admin tasks? Maybe you need a VA to come in and pick up slack on those organizational duties!
👉🏽 Do you need someone to correspond with your clients or students on a regular and consistent basis? Maybe you should hire an assistant to support with client and community management.
As your business grows, a dedicated administrative assistant can help free up your time and mental energy so that you can be 100% focused on the things only you can do within your biz.
Bringing someone in to do the nitty-gritty of admin tasks like managing your emails, sending out proposals or client onboarding frees up your time so that you can use it for needle-moving tasks to grow your business! 📈
Choose an Employee vs. Independent Contractor
There are different reasons for wanting to hire either an employee or an independent contractor.
If you’re only needing a few hours of support a week, you may want to go with a contractor assistant.
But on the other hand, if you want dedicated, full-time support, you’d probably be better off hiring an employee.
Let’s break down some of the key differences between the two so you can decide which one is a better fit for your business. 👇🏽
The differences between an employee and a contractor
A contractor is someone that either has their own business or maybe they’re part of a virtual assistant firm. A contractor:
- Doesn’t need to be trained
- Knows what to do and how to do it
- Has more control over how they do their job, such as what hours to work specifically
- Is not required to use any particular software or follow specific instructions to complete their work
If you go with an employee, you’re hiring them, and are their employer and boss. An employee, you’re exercising more control over how they do their job. You can decide:
- When they do their job
- Where they do their job
- How many hours to work
- What softwares or techniques they use to get the job done
Keep in mind that just because you name a person as a contractor doesn’t mean that they are one in the eyes of the law.
For example, you want to make sure that you’re looking at specifically what kind of control is being exercised over how, where, and when the contractor is doing its job.
And a big one to remember is to correctly identify if the person you’re hiring is an employee or contractor, as incorrect classification can lead to tax issues later on.
Create a Job Description and an Application Form
It’s a good idea to create a job description and application form for people to apply when you post a position. This makes it way easier for applicants to know what you are looking for and helps you find the #perfectfit candidate.
And sis, real talk – don’t just post something like, “I’m drowning, I need help! Someone help me get my life together!” in a bunch of random Facebook groups without a clear job description, why you’re hiring, or what position it’s for.
You might get hundreds of applicants who aren’t even qualified, leaving you even more overwhelmed than when you started.
It may be so much to sort through you’ll be tempted to abandon hiring altogether! 😩
Let’s go through some tips that’ll make this process easier for you.
Hire a recruiter
If you can, hiring a recruiter is a great option to simplify the hiring process. You’ll be able to avoid the ins and outs of smaller hiring tasks or more specific tasks – like sifting through all the applications.
However, keep in mind that you can’t offload everything to a recruiter, such as writing the specifics of the role.
Writing Out the Details
You need to take the time to reflect on the role, and then write down the specific details, such as:
- Expectations
- Location
- The role description for the position
- What kind of position will it be – full time or part-time
- Duties and tasks the person will be responsible for doing
You won’t be able to attract the right fit candidates if you don’t even have clarity on the type of person you’re looking for. Craft a well-thought-out job description and application so you get the best applicants rolling in. ✅
Software Programs for Creating Applications
To create the application, you can use something as simple as Google Forms or AirTable so that all of your applicants are stored in one place (instead of gettingdozens of emails in your inbox that have resumes attached!).
What to Include in the Job Posting
Here are some specifics that you’ll want to include in the job posting itself:
- Specific title
- Responsibilities
- Compensation
- Description of your company – including your values, your mission, and vision
- A description of the type of person who’d be perfect for this job
- A description of the type of person who would not be perfect for this job
- Any required knowledge and or skills such as software, familiarity, specific industry knowledge, etc.
And some questions that you might want to include in that job application include:
- What are your personal pronouns, so that you can address them correctly?
- What excites you most about the job description?
- What is your availability on a weekly basis?
- How do you prefer to communicate with your team members?
- How would you describe your perfect boss?
- How would you describe your perfect work environment?
- * Please describe your previous experience in a supportive or administrative role or a similar role to this one.
- Do you have access to a reliable internet connection and your own computer or laptop?
- Why do you believe that you are a great fit for this role?
By creating a lengthy, detailed application, you’ll make sure you’re only getting applicants that are serious about you and your business. 💪🏽
Choose Where to Post the Job Listing
The final step is to decide where you want to post your job listing. Some places we suggest are:
- Your Instagram account
- Company social media platforms
- Your LinkedIn account
- An email newsletter
The reason these places might attract better applicants than just pasting it in random Facebook groups is that these people are already a part of your community.
They’re likely familiar with you, your company, and may have a deep interest in being a part of what you’ve created. And if they aren’t, they may be able to refer someone that they know personally.
Which brings us to another great way to source applicants and candidates for your job! Specifically, ask for referrals from friends, your business community, and from your personal network. They may already know of good candidates for the job, and are already pre-vetted from trusted sources 🙌🏽
Next, if you want to hire someone in your particular industry, then posting in industry-specific entrepreneurial Facebook groups might be a great place for you to go.
And then finally, there are a lot of places that you can post online for free such as Indeed.com Career Contessa, Facebook jobs, Craigslist, Monster.com, Zip Recruiter, and LinkedIn jobs.
Hiring an admin assistant can save you time, money, and energy so that you can focus where it matters most – building your business!
By taking your hiring process seriously, you’ll be able to make sure you get the best candidates from the start so you can find someone who can support you for years to come.💛
And remember sis, don’t begin working with an admin assistant, or anyone else for that matter, unless there’s a contract signed between you and the person!
Having a contract means that all parties are protected, can assure the best results for both people, and will take care of things if missteps happen.
Don’t have one? If you need help in the contract department, you know we got your back!
Here at Coaches and Co. we have a contract template ready for you to complete and fill out.
Our Contract Shop has a contract template for every type of your business needs.
If you’re ready to bring on your first team member as a contractor, be sure to snag our Independent Contractor Contract Template.
Check out our ready-to-use, lawyer-approved, plug-and-play legal contract templates! So you can upgrade your client contract while staying Profitable & Protected™✨
*The information presented in this blog post is for educational & informational purposes only. This should not be a substitute for customized legal advice from a licensed professional in a private setting. If you need legal advice, please consult with an attorney. This is not a law firm.
