Guide to Hiring a Part Time Personal Assistant

Life is busy.  The more hours we work, the more hours we lose for doing personal administration and other important life tasks. Regardless of the lifestyle you lead, more and more people are looking to hire a part time personal assistant to help ease their admin and workload.  But what are the benefits of hiring a part time personal assistant?  Do you need to be a multi-millionaire to afford one?  What gains will you see?

Here is our guide and industry secrets in hiring an incredible part time personal assistant and how it will change your life!

Time is Precious

There are only 24 hours in the day, and unless you’ve created a magic remedy to stop us sleeping, half of these hours are lost to sleep.  The remaining hours consist of family life, work and play.

In modern households, families and individuals look to maximise their time, and most importantly their free time to focus on the things that they enjoy most.  Looking for help and support in the household is a valued and respected request.

Looking for help and support in the household is a valued and respected request. Click To Tweet

For example, families will hire Housekeepers (part time and full time) to look after their homes, Nannies to help care for their children, Chefs to help with daily cooking and Chauffeurs to help with driving.  So what benefit does a part time personal assistant bring?

Flexibility

Hiring a part time personal assistant gives you flexibility.  With a modest budget of £50 a week, you could hire a remote PA to manage 5 hours of your diary/emails and other ‘life admin’ duties.  They don’t have to come into your property, with the digital world we operate in, most things can be done remotely.

The part time personal assistant can dedicate this time to freeing up yours, giving you those precious hours back to spend time with your family, relax or focus on your business and work.  Some clients with a higher budget look to hire a PA for 10, 15, 20 or even 25 hours a week.

Typically in the UK, expect to pay between £10-20 per hour depending on the role and where the position is based.

How to Hire a Part Time Personal Assistant?

1. Decide what you need.  Is it 5 hours support or 25?  Does the PA need to be based in your property or office, or can they work remotely?  Write down everything you need in the part time personal assistant.
2. Identify your biggest time drains.  Once these are identified then a part time personal assistant will be able to focus on these tasks in order to best free up your time.
3. Write a job spec.  It’s important it’s clear and the more detail you include, the easier the candidate will be able to apply. If you are self-recruiting, make sure you check references and fully vet the candidate.  Alternatively, you can work through a professional agency to give you peace of mind.
4. Interview.  Create a shortlist of candidates and then interview each one.  The part time personal assistant will often represent you – they will be your voice and send emails on your behalf, so it is important you feel that they reflect you and your brand.
5. Trial.  Give them a short trial.  This is key to identifying if they are the right person for the job.
6. Offer them a contract.  Give them job security, and in return, they will give you job commitment.  Ideally, you want them to commit to a long term position as it will take your time and energy getting them to speed. And hiring a replacement is also very time consuming.

Some Extra Tips

• Always look to develop your communication.  Your part time personal assistant can only be as good as the communication they receive, especially if they are working remotely. It’s vital you clearly communicate what you need and ensure that clear follow-ups are made, otherwise, they could lose precious time doing tasks which aren’t relevant.
• Incentivise in positive ways.  This could be small gifts or bonuses or just regular reviews and positive feedback. All personal assistants like to feel they are doing a good job, and if you reward them with your gratefulness they will reward you with hard work!
• Do things by the book.  Depending on the country you reside in, guidelines will vary when hiring a part time personal assistant. Make sure you check with your local government guidelines and do things by the book!

So what are you waiting for?  Now is the time to find a wonderful part time personal assistant and see the major difference it can have on your personal and business life.  We’d love to hear from you, so why not drop us a line and we can chat through how best we can help you.