Originally published February 26, 2015 , updated on September 18, 2024

Last week, whilst sitting at my desk, signing into the multiple email accounts that I manage, returning phone calls and looking over my schedule for the week, I had this overwhelming thought: “I really have more important things to be doing right now than scrolling through a 30 thread email confirming next weeks lunch meeting”.

We have become well accustomed to answering our own correspondence. In this age of instant messaging, emails direct to your smartphone and Skype. But as soon as important calls slip off your radar, or projects slink away because of an email oversight, it might be time to hire an administrative assistant.
You are essentially paying this person to be your eyes and ears. To survive they must have thought processes that match your own or they may not be able keep up with your workload or their own.

Smaller businesses need to be creative when hiring an administrative assistant.

They don’t have the support of a HR department like many big businesses do. Using social media is a great way of recruiting, or as an initial screening tool at least.

LinkedIn is great for finding people with specific skillsets, viewing their employment history and recommendations in seconds. Twitter is perfect for striking up conversations with people in your target talent pool. Of course, Twitter may require a little more work than LinkedIn. Savvy jobseekers will include their skills within their twitter profile, so using a tool such as FollwerWonk (https://followerwonk.com/bio/) will help you find people based on what they do for a living and ideally the area they live in.

An administrative assistant can take the hassle out of these sometimes seemingly mundane yet essential tasks, but it’s crucial to get a good hire.

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