Startup hiring guides
How to hire an executive assistant (EA) for a startup founder
There are many important roles in a startup, but for an overworked founder an executive assistant can be a game-changer. The demands of your startup will only continue to grow, and administrative tasks, communication and other operational day-to-day duties can quickly overwhelm anyone. An executive assistant can take on a lot of these burdens and make sure your startup runs smoothly. In this guide, we’ll walk you through the steps of hiring a great executive assistant for your team.
Introduction
Founders have to balance a lot, taking on everything from product development to fundraising and investor meetings to running the company. It's a lot for one person to handle, but an executive assistant can make things easier by handling admin tasks, scheduling, communication and more. Of course, executive assistants can help more than just founders, as they can serve as assistants to the rest of your C-suite as well. Some startups may need multiple executive assistants depending on the size of your startup and how fast the company is growing.
If you and other members of the executive team are struggling to keep up with the day-to-day tasks that come with running a startup, then it's time to think about bringing an executive assistant on board.
Understanding the role
An executive assistant plays a critical role in ensuring the smooth operation of the business and can help maximize a founder's effectiveness. Their responsibilities often extend beyond traditional administrative assistant tasks, given the dynamic and fast-paced environment of a startup.
Here are some key responsibilities:
Administrative support - The primary role of an EA will be to handle scheduling and calendar management including coordinating meetings, events, and travel. Your EA can act as a consistent point of contact for your team, clients, partners and any other stakeholders that need to reach you. They can also filter your communications, prioritize them and ensure urgent messages reach you right away. This improves efficiency and also makes sure nothing slips through the cracks.
Strategic support & management - At a startup, often an EA will help with market research, competitor analysis, event planning, and sometimes communication strategy. They can also help identify and address operational challenges, allowing founders to focus on high-level strategic decisions.
Brand ambassador - Your EA can help build your company culture, assisting in fostering a great company work culture and ensuring that the founder's vision is communicated effectively.
What to look for in an executive assistant
When you're looking for an EA for your company, you'll likely need someone who has the following qualities:
Exceptional communication skills - They should be able to communicate clearly and effectively on calls and in writing.
Organizational skills - Typically EAs will be responsible for organizing events and keeping the C-Suite's calendars.
Adaptability - The tech world is always changing, and adaptability is especially necessary when working at a rapidly growing startup. Unlike other EA positions, executive assistants at a startup often need to be able to adapt to changing roles and processes.
Planning & preparation
Before you start, it's good to outline what you're looking for in an EA and your plan to hire them. While this can take some time out of your day, it will save you time in the long run. If you write down everything you're looking for, you can ensure your job description attracts the right kind of candidates.
Part of your planning process should include all decision-makers along with people with whom the EA will be working with. Once you have your team together, you should meet with your team and ask some of the following questions to get on the same page:
What will the day to day responsibilities of the role include?
How much experience do they need to be successful in the role?
What team will they be joining?
What skills do they need?
What tools will they use for their job? Do they need to have prior experience using them?
What’s the market rate for this position? What’s your budget?
Is this a full-time or part-time position?
Once you have a clear understanding of your needs, wants and budget for the role, you and your team are ready to start putting together your job description.
Crafting the perfect job description
Once you’ve outlined the roles and responsibilities of your executive assistant, you should create a compelling job description to attract top talent to the role. Highlight those key responsibilities and qualifications they need to have to filter out as many unqualified candidates as possible.
Your job listing should also include perks, benefits and other relevant details about your startup like its mission and company culture to show candidates why they should work for you. A well-crafted job listing will help you find qualified candidates who are also a cultural fit for your organization.
Need help crafting a job description? Dover’s ATS gives you the tools to generate great job descriptions using AI.
Once you've created a job description, advertise it on job boards, your website, social media and other channels to attract a diverse range of candidates. It’s also a good idea to reach out to your network and your current team for referrals.
You can use an ATS like Dover to post your job listing on numerous job boards, so you can find great applicants fast.
Sourcing & evaluating candidates
If you’ve crafted a great job description and put it in the right places, then the applications should start flowing in. Of course, not every application is going to be what you need, so parsing and reviewing resumes is necessary.
Have a process in place to narrow down your applicant pool. It's helpful to have a list of must-have skills and nice-to-have qualities to narrow down the pool of applicants. Tools like Dover’s ATS are useful because you can leverage AI-powered resume scoring to push top applicants to the top of your list.
Interviewing candidates
Once you’ve screened resumes to a manageable pool of candidates, it’s time to start scheduling your interviews. The EA interview process should start with a screening call handled by HR, so they can eliminate anyone unqualified or who isn’t a good fit for the role.
Once you’ve narrowed things down to a few top candidates, executive assistants should be interviewed by their direct superiors. If you’re the founder, that means you’ll need to interview those who make it to the final stages. Since they’ll be working closely with you and other members of the C-suite daily, it’s important to get a chance to speak with each of them one-on-one.
Throughout the interview process, you should be vetting their skills, problem-solving and cultural fit for the organization. Many times, the executive assistant will be the first point of contact for those trying to reach you, so you’re sort of hiring the face of the company. Keep that in mind when making your decision.
Track candidates from application to offer with Dover’s free ATS
If you want to have a birds-eye view of the hiring process from application to offer, an applicant tracking system is your solution. Unfortunately, many applicant tracking systems are expensive and startups burn money on them.
Why not use a free ATS instead? Dover’s ATS provides you with best-in-class features at no cost. You can access job description templates, schedule interviews with one click, view all applicants in one intuitive kanban view, see applicant feedback and scores, collaborate with other stakeholders on your hiring team and much more. Get set up with Dover in minutes if you want to make your hiring process seamless and less time-consuming.
Hire top talent fast with Dover!
Top talent can be hard to find, but they’re out there. With the right tools, you can get connected to the best people for the job fast. That’s where Dover can help. Dover’s ATS and hiring tools can help you through every step of the hiring process, whether you’re looking for developers, sales, customer support or any other role.
Ready to find your next stellar hire? Start your search with Dover today.
Interviewing candidates
