How to Onboard your Executive Assistant

Your assistant will represent you in meetings, email correspondences, and decisions.  It’s imperative that they understand your expectations, needs, and core values.  

Needs: Set aside a time to discuss any specific needs you have.  Do you need certain times alone?  Do you organize your files in a unique way?  Do you have any food allergies?

Expectations: Outline your criteria for a job well done.  In general, what are your expectations for conduct on the job?

Core values: Ensure your assistant understands how you make decisions and conduct yourself professionally.

Make sure they know:

• What are the core values that drive your decisions?
• What aspects of your work/business do you prioritize over others?

If your assistant already has compatible core values, your odds of success are much higher.  At Superpowers, we only pair compatible assistants and entrepreneurs.  You can learn more in our article about finding your ideal assistant.

For activities where your assistant will need to act on your behalf (email responses, client interactions, project approvals), ask them first how you think they should respond, give them feedback, and then complete the process together.

Once you feel confident in the accuracy of their responses, you can fully hand off these responsibilities.

2. Establish how you will communicate

Means of communication:  What lines of communication will you and your assistant be using?  Should your assistant use different tools for different situations? Email for non-time-sensitive issues? Text messages for emergencies?

Set up a daily connect:  This daily touchpoint provides:

• Up-to-date information on any unexpected events or updates
• A specific time to communicate with each other so nothing goes unaddressed
• An accelerated understanding of each other.

Times:  Clarify with your assistant what times are appropriate to call and text.  Allow them to share their boundaries, too.  Remember, you will want different ground rules for emergencies and day-to-day communications.

3. Make them aware of their support system

Their resources: Starting a new position can be nerve-racking.  Being aware of available resources alleviates pressure, boosts confidence, and increases productivity.

Provide information on:

• Best-practices
• How-to guides
• Tools (along with tutorials about those tools)

Tools may include:

• Team communication platforms (Slack, Teams, etc.)
• Password managers
• CRMs
• Their own email address
• Shared drives (Google Docs, Onedrive, etc.)
• Company phone extension
• Scheduling platforms
• Billing platforms
• Wordprocessing software

Their Team: Create a culture of support in your company.

• Provide access to your company’s communication channels
• Introduce them to any team members they will interact with.  This helps your assistant know where to go with questions or needs.  Plus, it accelerates their assimilation into the team.  Who do they go to for designs? Who do they ask about purchases?

Executive Assistants occupy a unique place in a company’s structure, so their needs and challenges are different from others in the business.  It can be time-consuming and impractical to design your own support system for your EA.

Fortunately, with a Superpowers Membership, your assistant can discuss their challenges and learn from our community of top-performing Executive Assistants.

They can build EA-specific skills with our ever-expanding library of how-to guides and masterclass, and they can receive one-on-one coaching from our team.

Conclusion

Once you’ve taken these factors into account, you’ll be set for day one with your Executive Assistant!  Check out part one on how to onboard an Executive Assistant where we discuss what to do in preparation for day one.

Considering hiring an Executive Assistant? We’re happy to talk through the process with you.  Book a 30-minute discovery call today!