Why C-level leaders need to hire a recruiter to fill open Executive Administrative Assistant roles
This is one of the most important roles in your organization. Learn why you need to consider a retained recruiter to make the right choice, save time, and help you succeed
By Diane Steele
The executive administrative assistant is one of the most important - and difficult - positions to fill in any company.
It’s also one of the most important.
You not only need to find someone with the business acumen, emotional intelligence, and administrative competency to take on the challenging role of being the right-hand person to the leaders within your organization, you also need someone who can guide this leader, keep them on task, and be able to handle the unique personalities executive administrative assistants work with throughout their career.
The reality is this: A talented executive assistant can make or break your success, and the right person can help you achieve results far beyond expectations and goals. When it’s time to hire a high-level executive assistant several strategies can be put in place to ensure the next hire is the right fit. But that doesn’t mean they are all the right strategy.
Are you looking to hire an executive administrative assistant? Then check out these strategies to consider before starting the process of recruiting, interviewing, and hiring an executive assistant:
1. Ask HR to recruit: If you have an HR department with recruiting capabilities, this is the obvious and most convenient choice. But it may not be the most efficient. HR departments are typically overrun with multiple duties including benefits, training, counseling, employee relations, and recruiting. If you have a dedicated recruiter in house, that is amazing. However, unless they have strong relationships and or a database of highly qualified executive administrative assistant candidates, they are starting from ground zero. This means they will leverage the company Applicant Tracking System (ATS) after posting the position on the company web site and/or via social media and networking sites for job placement activity. This method relies on others seeing the ad and then applying, and then getting noticed by the recruiter. What happens? You likely get a long list of under-qualified candidates, or those without the right experience.
2. Do it yourself: If you don’t have access to an HR department with recruiting capabilities, you are on your own. Executives will often place an ad or reach out to their network via social media. This may get things started and moving forward, but the process may be tedious and potentially complicated. You often need an executive sssistant because your business has grown to a level where you are overwhelmed with administrative tasks you can no longer stay on top of. You need to hire your right-hand confidant. By adding the complicated task of DIY executive assistant recruiting, you are venturing into unknown territory. With your time already stretched, the task of recruiting will be potentially left to “when you get to it,” or in bits and pieces lacking consistency and timeliness. You know what you are good at - leading a successful company whether it is as the CEO or the specialty role in the executive team. Let others do the recruiting.
3. Ask your friends or colleagues for referrals: When you choose this route, they will think of two things: That it’s great to hear that you are ready to hire someone to support you (if this is a new role with your company), or they will move to recommend someone they know - even though they may not be qualified or the right fit, or even have the necessary skills. You’ll likely end up with a list of executive assistants who used to work for them, or a friend of a friend who knows someone who is looking, perhaps a child of a neighbor just finishing college or someone you play golf with. Sure, there could be someone within that chain of people who could potentially be the perfect candidate, but if you look at the odds of the six degrees of separation and the sheer number of viable choices, you may be taking a huge risk and wasting time coming up short in the end with nothing.
You would be better suited in this case to ask them if they know of a talented executive administrative assistant recruiter who could help you get the job done efficiently and effectively.
4. Hiring a retained recruiter who specializes in executive assistant search: A recruiter who specializes in recruiting the highest level of executive assistants can do the job quickly and efficiently.
That’s where I come in and how I can help.
Retained recruiters have existing relationships with passive candidates, a database of available candidates, and understand the role of the executive assistant at the C-Suite level. They have developed confidential relationships with candidates who would not have otherwise shared their information by applying to a random job advertisement or recruiter. The business world is small and they need to maintain their confidentiality.
There is also a difference in recruiters. A recruiter who works on a retained basis will focus on your project, giving your project the attention you deserve and deliver the results you are expecting. Hiring a recruiter who is a generalist and charges a contingent fee will work similarly to the HR department recruiter. They will, for the most part, start from ground zero, with no candidates, and few leads and not have strong relationships with the highest level candidates on the market.
As the CEO of my own retained executive administrative assistant search firm, I have proven I can do all of this and more. There are many tasks that I am less than efficient in, for example, administrative and social media, (right hand up and waving the white flag of honesty here). I help clients avoid a huge headache, and generate fast and effective results.
I was given great advice that I live by now: “Find an expert in what you are not, give them the job and get out of their way!” Your time is worth a lot of money, and your sanity of struggling through tasks unnecessarily is worth even more.
There is an investment in hiring a professional retained recruiter to find your executive administrative assistant, but in the long run, you will be happy you entrusted this important task to a recruiter who specializes in and has proven success in hiring executive administrative assistants.
Contact me to learn more about how I can help. You’ll be glad you did!
About Diane Steele
Diane Steele is CEO and Founder of Steele Recruiting, an Executive Administrative Assistant Search firm. Headquartered in Minneapolis/St Paul, Steele Recruiting is a female owned retained search firm, specializing in Executive Administrative Assistant-Chief of Staff recruitment, supporting CEOs and Presidents in Minneapolis and St Paul. Contact Steele via email or phone at 952-484-4217.
"We should have called you first!" President of a recruitment firm, Minneapolis, 2020.
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