When looking to hire an executive assistant, one of the first decisions you need to make is whether you want to staff the position yourself or hire a qualified executive assistant recruitment agency. You may wonder whether working with an agency is worth the expense. Before making this important decision, it is important to know exactly what benefits there are to working with an executive assistant staffing agency.
You Will Save Time and Resources
The most important benefit to using an agency is that it will save you time. It takes a lot of time, effort, and resources to fill a position. The timeline of the search can be much shorter with an agency than if you do it on your own. Vicky Valet at Forbes notes that “seventy-six percent of hiring managers admit attracting top talent is their greatest challenge, one that costs organizations an average 23.8 days and $4,129 per hire.” And that figure grows exponentially if you end up with someone who doesn’t fit the company culture or isn’t the sort of assistant you need.
Your time is valuable, and is be better spent on things only you can do, while these recruitment tasks are outsourced to such an agency.
The interview process after the initial scouting and screening will also be more efficient, as your agency can take over the scheduling, feedback, references, and will continue to support you in any way you need. You will have someone on your side continuing to seek out the best talent until the position is filled with your ideal executive assistant.
A Better Talent Pool
Another important thing an experienced agency will offer you is a quality network of executive assistants available, both active and passive candidates. Finding the best assistants — both active and passive who are out there is exactly what your executive assistant recruitment agency does every day. Long before this position was a glimmer in your eye, your recruitment agency had the advantage of a pre-established deep and wide internal network from which to start this search.
Passive candidates are highly sought after, hard to attract, and will be off your radar screen. For this reason, using an agency that actively scouts passive candidates is key if you wish to cast the widest net possible. Additionally, the agency’s active candidate pool will be richer because of their relationships with candidates they have recently met who are actively looking. Your recruitment agency is working to make the perfect match and they may already have talent that is perfect for you just waiting to hire.
An Enhanced Ability to Place the Right Person
An executive assistant is a very special position because the needs and expectations can vary widely from firm to firm, and from boss to boss. We always emphasize how important it is to know exactly what you need and want because expressing this clearly will help an agency match you with the right type of executive assistant for you.
This starts with the job description, which will be tailored by an agency to ensure it reaches exactly the type of candidate you’re looking for. If your executive assistant needs advanced skills in certain software, or must have 24/7 availability in case of emergencies, or should have some foreign language skills, or needs experience in a certain sector such as finance or non-profit, or so on — this will be clearly stated in the job description.
An experienced executive assistant recruitment agency will not only write a great job description, however, but will know how to filter and screen for the qualifications and personality traits you desire. They will also be able to look within their existing network and use their expert knowledge to select candidates who fit the bill.
If you are looking to find your perfect executive assistant, C-Suite Assistants is here to help with that search in any way we can. Please contact us to find out more.
