Why hire a personal assistant?

A great personal assistant hire can help your business expand its capacity to work with more clients and handle more business. Your top executives can use their assistants to manage their schedules and become more efficient, which increases your earnings.

• Increase the number of appointments you can handle
• Deal with customers and other businesses directly on your behalf
• Boost the overall sales of your business

Deciding between a full-time vs freelance personal assistant

Businesses and individuals can hire freelance personal assistants temporarily to keep up with increasing workloads. They can also hire freelance assistants online to handle administrative and data entry services, such as reading and responding to emails, scheduling meetings, booking travel plans and accounting. 

A freelancer is also helpful while searching for candidates to fill the full-time personal assistant position. 

Many high-level executives in large companies, such as CEOs and CFOs, have full-time personal assistants on their payroll to help with day-to-day tasks. Self-employed individuals can also hire personal assistants to help them with varying daily tasks. 

What are the types of personal assistants?

The responsibilities of a personal assistant depend almost entirely on who they’re working for. There are a few similar types of assistants, including: 

• Office assistants: Office assistants typically don’t work for one individual, instead, they support the office as a whole. They may be responsible for doing and filing paperwork, answering and redirecting phone calls and scheduling meetings. 
• Administrative assistants: Administrative assistants can work for one or more people. In addition to performing the duties of an office assistant, administrative assistants greet visitors and direct them to the correct office. 
• Executive assistant: An executive assistant often works for a mid-level employee in a company. They perform the same duties as an administrative assistant, but they also manage communication to and from the boss’s office. 
• Senior executive assistant: Senior executive assistants and executive assistants have similar responsibilities, but a senior assistant’s tasks affect multiple high-level employees. 

Where to find personal assistants

To find the right personal assistant for your business, consider trying out a few different recruiting strategies:

• Recruit online. Search online for candidates who have experience as assistants and are looking for work. 
• Hire a recruitment agency. Working with a recruitment agency can give you multiple options for personal assistant candidates. 
• Promote from within. Depending on your level in the company, you may be able to promote a lower-level employee to a position as your personal assistant. Make inquiries to see if anyone is interested in the job. 
• Post help wanted signs. Posting signs about the job can notify the community and encourage people to send in applications. 
• Post your job online. Try posting your personal assistant job on Indeed to find and attract quality assistant candidates.

Skills to look for in a great Personal Assistant

A great personal assistant candidate will have the following skills and attributes as well as work experience that reflects:

• Basic software skills such as CRM and Microsoft products
• Well organized
• Great listening ability
• Good communication skills
• Ability to work well with others
• Great attitude

Writing a personal assistant job description

A thoughtful description is important to finding qualified personal assistant candidates. A personal assistant job description includes a compelling summary of the role, a detailed list of duties and responsibilities and the required and preferred skills for the position.

When writing your personal assistant job description, consider including some or all of the following keywords to improve the visibility of your job posting. These are the most popular search terms leading to clicks on personal assistant jobs, according to Indeed data:

• Personal assistant
• Administrative assistant
• Executive assistant
• Assistant
• Caregiver
• Virtual assistant
• Remote work from home
• Administrative
• Front desk
• Clerical

Interviewing personal assistant candidates

Strong candidates for personal assistant positions will be confident answering questions regarding:

• Scheduling software and calendars
• Maintaining accuracy in business
• Being well organized

Need help coming up with interview questions? See our list of personal assistant interview questions for examples (with sample answers).