Elena Volk is a speaker, entrepreneur, blogger and author of business articles. She has over 8 years of experience running businesses, including an IT recruitment agency and an online school for IT recruiters. Elena also helps others start working for themselves through mentorship.
I am often asked how to hire an assistant, what tasks to delegate and how to optimize this collaboration.
My name is Elena. I’m a Founder of an IT recruitment agency and an online school for recruiters. Somewhere in between I’ve created my mentoring program. Having a third assistant (I really needed to if I wanted to manage everything at once), I structured the process so that my previous assistant hired the last one, fully controlling this process and delegating all tasks. I just conducted the final interview. Three people who attended my consultations have already successfully implemented this scheme.
Beginning: Definition of tasks for the assistant
The first thing to do is to understand which tasks exactly to transfer. I recommend writing down all your tasks at the beginning and noting exactly what you want to pass on to the new person and how much time it will take to complete these tasks, as well as write down the tasks that you do not have time to do, but they are also important. My table will help you with this. You will determine what kind of person you exactly need, what tasks you want to delegate, and whether you need a full-time or part-time assistant.
Hiring an assistant
Based on the previous step, you can already understand what candidate profile you need and create a job description.
My strategy for finding an assistant includes the following steps:
Maximum distribution of the job description (job boards, social networks, professional chats)
Candidates fill in the questionnaire
First interview with 3-5 most relevant candidates
Execution of the test task
Final interview and offer to the candidate
This way you spend a minimum amount of time on hiring a candidate.
Assistant adaptation and work organization
Adaptation of a new person begins with the formation of a job description even before finding the assistent. This instruction should describe:
the purpose of the position
expected result
responsibilities (through actions and results)
regular tasks (daily, weekly, monthly)
successful practices and common mistakes
necessary accesses and contacts
links to other instructions/documents
The adaptation begins with the study and discussion of this job description. This will help avoid misunderstandings and ensure that the assistant knows what tasks should be performed, when and what work result we expect from the new person.
For irregular tasks my assistant and I use a Trello board. There I note the priority of the task, I can set a time by which it is important to complete the task. I also note the project for which it should be completed.
I usually write small tasks in our Telegram chat or dictate it by voice messages.
Every evening the assistant sends me a Telegram report with information: what she did today, plans for the next day and questions/comments.
Thus, she writes to me during the day only if there are urgent questions, adding everything else to the report. I check the completed tasks at the end of the day.
Feedback and optimization
It is important to give feedback and make adjustments to the process, especially at the beginning of the work. If problems arise, talk about it in the moment and, if necessary, create guidelines to avoid similar situations in the future.
For example, I had problems with too many calls per day. I created an instruction for managing my calendar, where I specified that I must have a lunch break, calls should last at least 45 minutes, and I make a maximum of 6 calls per day. Thus, we have set up a process for the future.
Conclusion
Optimizing your work with an assistant takes time and effort at the initial stage, but eventually the process will work for you. It is important to correctly define tasks, hire the right person, organize adaptation and constantly optimize work processes. This will help you manage your business more efficiently and achieve your goals.
Read more from Elena Volk
Elena Volk, Founder & CEO of EvoTalents Recruiting Agency
Elena Volk founded the IT recruitment agency EvoTalents and the online school for IT recruiters, EvoTalents.School.
8 years ago, she made one of the most challenging but best decisions of her life — to leave her job, move to London, and start working for herself, first as a freelancer and later as an entrepreneur.
Over these years, she built a team and established an agency that is now among the top IT recruitment agencies in Ukraine.
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