Hiring an assistant

Hi Mark -

So sorry to hear about your assistant woes! At the five month mark she probably only just had a chance to become really up-to-speed with your business before she left....which translates to lost funds due to training, etc. I know how frustrating this must be for you!

There's always an uncertainty when hiring for any position. The best thing you can do is to make sure you do a thorough job screening your candidates. Do check references, and furthermore make sure they have a steady employment history and can explain any lapses in employment. Also, if/when an employee does give their notice conduct an "exit interview." Ask them why they decided to leave, ask them what they liked about the company, what they didn't like about the company, etc.

On your employment ad I notice that you are seeking 15 hours, being a combination of working on-site and from home. From my perspective (I'm a VA and on-site Office Manager), 15 hours weekly is rough. I feel most individuals looking for 'mother's hours' are looking for slightly more hours than this. It's a perfect position for college students, as it would compliment a typical course load perfectly, but there is likely to be a high turnover rate.

Have you thought of perhaps hiring an intern or a Virtual Assistant? Interns many times are not paid (their benefit is college credit), or are paid at minimum wage. A Virtual Assistant typically has a few clients they work for and your workload would definitely compliment their schedule.

Hope my rambling helps :)

I have had independent contractors, onsite employee assistants, interns/students, and VA's and have found that offering less than 20 hours/wk of work to onsite staff can be problematic for all concerned. Most employees work to generate a liveable income and patching together two or more part time jobs splits the attention and can dillute the commitment to any one job. The exception, of course, is the student . In my experience, most students can't really work more than a few hours a week and days/hours of availability shift each semester. (by the way, I have always made sure they got Independent study units to subsidize the salary). School (as it should be) is a priority for them and in my experience the first thing to go in a student's time crunch is the job. So I don't go that route that anymore. I also don't use interns anymore, for the same reason; after a semester they are gone. In any case, I think that when it comes to positions that aren't turnkey (e.g, data entry that pretty much anyone can do or answering phones) turnover isn't as critical. But in an industry like mine where a project can last more than a few months and knowledge of client, project and media are important, many tasks aren't turnkey. There is a learning curve and an investment in training. These days I hire independent contractors who don't count exclusively on me/my work for their livelihood. This past year clarified for me that unless I have a consistent 25-40 hours/week to offer I'm not using onsite staff. After a year of turnover, investment in training, and various W2 forms and employee taxes, I now do this: 1) Work with a VA for general turnkey (formatting e-newsletter, data input for press releases (client bios, etc.), posting accounts payable/receivable, routine phone calls, etc. 2) Work with two independent contractors (former journalists) who help with strategy development, media follow-up and story pitches. At first glance it appears to be more "piece-meal" but so far it makes the most sense. Note: I have also engaged placement agencies who have had a very difficult time locating employees who can afford to work less than 20 hrs/week. Interestingly, the candidates that were sent my way were students about to graduate (with plans to look for full time work upon graduation) or employees who lacked the basic excel skills the position required (but "were willing to learn on the job").

Hope this helps, Karen

Need to clarify: I made a mistake here: In any case, I think that when it comes to positions that are (not aren't as in my earlier post) turnkey (e.g, data entry that pretty much anyone can do or answering phones) turnover isn't as critical.

Best, Karen

Another thought: I have also set-up a New Biz Commission option for whomever I am working with (V.A., employee, Ind. Con.) that encourages them to bring business referrals my way. And, I do make it clear that there is no obligation for them to provide referrals (it's not part of the job, just a nice perk!). Let me know how it all goes for you. Best, Karen

Hey Mark,

I've had a few clients in your situation. What I always recommend is that if they can't get long-term commitment from their staff -- due to low wages or few hours -- they should make the transition from one employee to the next as seamless as possible.

One way to do this is to really nail down the processes of what this person does. That may involve writing a manual, or creating routines and holding places for what they do. If your recent assistant is still with you, he/she would be a huge help in this area.

One client developed a real flow for his bookkeeping. He wanted someone to create invoices, mail them out, do receivables calls, and process payments. Here was the process:

1. When the account exec wants to invoice a job, they type up and print out a Word document that shows what the invoice should look like.
2. The account exec leaves the invoice sample in the Invoice Request basket in the accounting office.
3. The bookkeeper creates the invoice in their accounting software and prints out two copies.
4. Copy one gets mailed to the client; copy two goes in the Invoiced binder, sorted by invoice date.
5. Each Monday, the bookkeeper pulls invoices that have been unpaid after four weeks from the Invoiced binder, and puts them in the Receivables binder, sorted by client.
6. The bookkeeper flips through the Receivables binder, calling each client who has outstanding invoices. Any notes are written on the back of the first invoice for that client (e.g. "On Feb28/2008, Bob said the cheque was in the mail").
7. When payment is received, the bookkeeper pulls the invoice from its respective binder, and staples it to the cheque stub.
8. The invoice with the cheque stub attached is filed away, sorted by invoice number.

Writing out this stuff sounds like a horrible process. But if you can't do that much, how can you expect someone who knows nothing about your business to perform these tasks?

As an added bonus, these manuals are FANTASTIC source material if you decide to call in a guy like me some day, to write some custom software to make these processes easier. On average, about 30% of what I bill to build the software is actually me trying to understand your processes. Often, there isn't one single person in the company who understands this stuff, so it has to be gleaned from interviews with various staff.

If you find that giving someone attractive hours and/or pay won't be an option for years to come, then the manual will make your life much easier. Instead of having to walk the new employee through the training process, and answer a bunch of questions for the first six months, you hand him/her a manual, and say, "Here's what you do."

Your previous weakness -- staff turnover -- becomes a strength: you can continue to hire unskilled labour to perform a well-documented process.