You didn’t become CEO, launch a startup, or grow your business to end up spending 30% of your work hours responding to emails or confirming bookings. You deliver more value when you focus on strategic work that moves the needle for your company.

The more brilliant play is to hire a senior executive assistant who can hit the ground running and serve as your extension so that you can reclaim your time.

Senior EAs are battle-tested and understand what it takes to support C-level executives.

Roles and Responsibilities of a Senior Executive Assistant

Oftentimes, EAs negotiate for the ‘senior’ title to differentiate themselves from other EAs who’ve recently joined the organization to support other executives. 

Otherwise, a senior executive assistant functions just like other EAs, with the only difference being that they have been doing it longer, so they have more experience providing C-level support.

Senior executive assistants can undertake various responsibilities relating to the five performance multipliers:

  • Business Partner: Senior EAs are well placed to represent you in board meetings, fundraising functions, and community events, so your presence is felt without overwhelming you with back-to-back meetings.
  • Chief of Staff: Senior executive assistants usually have mastered the art of filtering all incoming information and determining what requires personal attention and what they can handle without your involvement.
  • Scheduler: Exceptional senior EAs treat your calendar like a Tetris, moving pieces around based on shifting priorities, so everything aligns. They also understand the importance of time blocking to let you focus on your core executive functions.
  • Personal Assistant: Senior EAs leverage their executive assistant superpowers to help you achieve work-life balance, whether it be running your household errands or scheduling your children’s doctor’s appointments.
  • Project Manager: Senior EAs have experience planning and running events, such as stakeholder meetings within the company premises or director retreats.

In our book “The 29-Hour Workday”, we have explored how hiring an exceptional senior EA can support your performance multiplier and help you reclaim up to 15 hours weekly.

Now that we have covered senior EAs’ responsibilities, it is easier to understand their roles as they are intertwined:

  • Effective calendar management to avoid scheduling bottlenecks.
  • Documentation tasks, such as drafting agreements and preparing reports.
  • First point of contact for any communication or correspondence that involves the executive.
  • Planning the principal’s domestic and international travel arrangements.
Businessman on office phone while colleague listens beside him.

What Makes a Good Executive Assistant to the CEO?

An executive assistant to the CEO is a utility player whose input directly impacts the principal’s performance and productivity. For example, exceptional EAs don’t sit and wait for instructions; they anticipate and address needs before the executive does. To achieve this, executive assistants must have the right balance of hard and soft skills. 

At ProAssisting, we call it the 51/49 skills rule credited to renowned restaurateur Danny Meyer. Executive assistants should have 49% hard skills and 51% soft skills to support the CEO effectively.

EAs need the following technical abilities to carry out their daily administrative tasks:

  • Tech Proficiency: Your EA should be savvy with productivity, project management, scheduling, and communication tools such as Calendly, Slack, and Microsoft Office.
  • Communication Skills: Can draft professional emails and memos that capture the executive’s intended message and impact.
  • Calendar Management: Ability to manage the CEO’s schedule to avoid bottlenecks and back-to-back meetings that could overwhelm the principal and affect productivity.
  • Research Skills: Can find the requested information quickly, synthesize it, and format it in a way that supports the CEO, whether for meetings with clients, vendors, or other stakeholders.

Technical skills are only practical when paired with human-centric qualities that enable executive assistants to function with empathy:

  • Strong Work Ethic: A good EA understands that their partnership with the executive is a marathon and is motivated and committed to providing high-level support long term.
  • Emotional Intelligence: Exceptional EAs can read rooms and contextualize other people’s emotions, which helps them respond appropriately to reduce the tension.
  • Confidentiality: Ability to recognize sensitive information and handle it with utmost trust and discretion to protect the CEO.
  • Punctuality: Strong time management skills, which make the EA dependable even in high-stress situations or when overwhelmed by work.
  • Diligent: The right EA should be attentive to small details, including writing things down and following up, so nothing falls through the cracks.
Woman working at office desk using desktop computer.

Signs You Need to Hire a Senior Executive Assistant 

Now that you know the responsibilities of an EA and their skill set, you probably have already figured out that you need to work with an executive assistant. The right EA functions as your extension, helping you achieve more while also reclaiming up to 15 hours weekly. 

An executive assistant is the best solution to address the following challenges:

  • Overwhelmed by Routine Tasks: Daily tasks like email and scheduling are essential, but they do not move the needle for the company. Get an executive assistant to handle these tasks so you can focus on core business functions, such as meeting new clients.
  • Poor Work-Life Balance: Is your personal life suffering because of a packed work schedule that spills over to the weekend? Hire an EA to help you reclaim time that you can spend with friends and family. The EA will also function as a personal assistant and help you plan family vacations.
  • Communication Overload: Are you spending at least an hour daily responding to emails or missing out on essential messages and correspondence because they get lost in the noise? These are clear signs you need an executive assistant to get your email inbox under control once and for all. 
  • Frequent Double Bookings: Scheduling conflicts can undermine your stakeholder relationships and cost your company revenue. The right executive assistant will organize your schedule and prioritize meetings based on urgency, so you attend the crucial ones and they represent you in the rest.

Suppose you earn $500,00 a year. That works out to about $240 an hour when calculated based on a 40-hour week. Now imagine you spend the following hours weekly on administrative tasks:

  • Two hours managing your email inbox
  • One hour on travel arrangements
  • One hour organizing your schedule
  • One hour preparing your meeting notes

This amounts to an estimated $1,200 per week and $62,000 per year for tasks an EA can handle. 

A better alternative would be to hire, at a minimum, a fractional executive assistant to handle your peripheral tasks and daily administrative work, such as calendar and email management.

Smiling businessman opening office door with laptop in hand.

How to Find the Right Senior Executive Assistant 

Accepting that you need executive assistant support is the first step towards reclaiming your time. The next step should be to interview prospective candidates to find the one that best meets your needs. 

Use a structured process to help you pick an exceptional EA from the available talent pool:

  • Identify Your Support Needs: Specify why you need to get EA support, such as to manage your email inbox, schedule, and calendar. Additionally, outline your expectations and preferences to help you create an executive Bible for the EA role.
  • Define the Level of Support: Consider how many hours of support you need each week. This should help you decide between a part-time vs. full-time executive assistant. Also, determine if you need a remote vs. in-person EA, keeping in mind that the former can complete up to 95% of the tasks the latter can, at a fraction of the cost.
  • Check Work Experience: Evaluate the candidates’ educational background and career experience, including their roles and responsibilities at previous companies. Also, watch out for red flags, such as candidates who have multiple instances of joining and leaving companies within six months.
  • Consider Soft Skills: Use the right interview questions for executive assistants to assess the candidates’ empathy and emotional intelligence. Additionally, use case-based scenarios to evaluate the EAs’ confidentiality and trustworthiness.
  • Onboard the EA: Turn your senior EA into a partner/an extension of the executive by providing access to all essential systems and resources (email, calendar, contacts, and procedures) they need to support you effectively. 
Business meeting between two colleagues in office boardroom.

How to Delegate Effectively to an Executive Assistant 

Once you’ve found the right executive assistant, it’s time to onboard them and start delegating tasks to ease your schedule:

  • Effective Onboarding: We recommend starting slowly to help you run faster in the long term. This means taking adequate time to train your EA on how you do things and to allow them enough time to catch on. 
  • Delegate Routine Administrative Tasks: Start with low-risk tasks like calendar management to help you assess your EA’s skills. You can then delegate executive tasks incrementally, including preparing meeting notes, managing social media, and handling email correspondence.
  • Provide Context: Explain how you do things and why, to set the groundwork for your workflows. Communicating your preferences enables your EA to support you according to your needs, rather than having to adapt to the way they did things with the previous principal.
  • Avoid Micromanaging: Do not fall into the trap of double-checking your EA’s work under the guise of ongoing training. Outline standard operating procedures and then step back and allow your EA to undertake their roles without constantly hovering over them.
  • Schedule Regular Check-ins: Provide a rolling review of your EA, highlighting what they did well and where they should improve to strengthen the partnership. 
Woman in blue shirt working at dual monitors.

Tools for Every Executive Assistant to Improve Productivity

The right EA doesn’t need tools to support you effectively. However, executive assistant tools help streamline your workflows by improving how your EA plans and manages tasks or organizes documents for quick retrieval. 

That said, here are effective tools great EAs use to boost the executive-assistant partnership:

  • Task Management Tools: Great EAs use these tools to track pending and ongoing tasks. Additionally, remote executive assistants can leverage the tools to collaborate with principals and teams on tasks. Popular task management tools include ClickUp, Microsoft To Do, and Notion.
  • Communication Tools: The best partnerships rely on multi-channel communication systems, including email, messaging, and video conferencing, to streamline information flow. Consider the following tools: Slack, Microsoft Teams, Zoom, and Google Meet.
  • Calendar Management Tools: Popular calendar tools like Calendly, Microsoft Outlook Calendar, and Google Calendar help your EA schedule meetings strategically without disrupting your rhythm.
  • Travel Management Tools: Exceptional EAs combine the executive Bible and travel management tools to provide high-touch hospitality when planning the principal’s business trips or family retreats. Some tools to consider include TripIt, Uber for Business, and Expedia.
  • Document Management Tools: These tools help your EA create, store, and retrieve folders or documents quickly, while also ensuring the principal can access them anywhere, anytime. Examples include Microsoft SharePoint, Dropbox, and DocuWare. 
Businessman organizing documents at desk with calculator.

How to Retain Top Executive Assistant Talent

Once you’ve hired the right candidate for the EA role, you want to keep them for as long as possible, keeping in mind that the principal-executive partnership is a marathon, not a sprint. 

Additionally, hiring and firing EAs is an expensive trend, with studies showing that companies incur an additional 20% the annual salary per turnover.

Here’s how to be intentional about the partnership and save your company money:

  • Pay Their Worth: Offer a competitive salary to show your EA that you value their work and understand their contribution to the company’s goals. At ProAssisting, we pay our EAs at least 75% of the monthly retainer fee you pay to keep the EAs motivated.
  • “Keep Your Door Open”: Establish open lines of communication so your EA can share their thoughts and opinions on how to strengthen the partnership. Additionally, provide feedback in the moment to make it more impactful, rather than waiting for annual reviews.
  • Introduce them to the Team: Recognize your EA publicly and introduce them to relevant stakeholders, such as vendors, clients, and other company directors. This shows that you trust your EA, which empowers them to undertake their roles relating to the five performance multipliers.
Businessman in suit taking notes during phone call.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) 

Here are the most commonly asked questions about hiring a senior executive assistant:

How Much Does a Senior Executive Assistant Cost?

The rates for a senior executive assistant depend on the industry, location, and years of experience. For example, a senior EA with a decade of experience in the role might earn double the salary of an executive assistant who just earned the “senior” title. 

However, on average, senior EAs earn anywhere between $90,000 and $200,000 annually, with some making even more.

What Should a Senior Executive Assistant Handle?

A senior executive assistant should handle the five performance multipliers to boost the principal’s productivity and free their time, allowing them to achieve a “29-hour day.” 

The performance multipliers require EAs to wear multiple hats, including project manager, scheduler, personal assistant, business partner, and chief of staff.

Can a Senior Executive Assistant Work Remotely?

Yes. A senior executive assistant can work remotely, as more than 90% of their roles don’t require their physical presence. 

Additionally, getting a remote senior EA is more cost-effective, as you get the same support as an in-office EA at a fraction (50%-80% less) of the cost.

How Quickly Can a Senior Executive Assistant Make an Impact?

Realistically, you can start delegating tasks, such as calendar management, to your senior executive assistant during the first onboarding call. 

However, it might take up to eight weeks for them to learn the ropes and start thinking two or three steps ahead to the extent that they give you a strategic edge.

Conclusion

The simple truth is that the executives who win are not those who do everything themselves, but rather those who understand the value of task delegation. Hiring a senior executive assistant is a strategic investment whose ROI is increased productivity and performance, while still enjoying better work-life balance.

Even better, a remote executive assistant lets you enjoy the perks of partnering with an exceptional senior EA at less than half the cost of hiring in-house support.

Our ProAssistants have 5+ years of experience and qualify for the senior EA role. They possess the right balance of hard and soft skills to provide high-level support to executives across most industries.

Schedule a call with me, Ethan Bull, to discover how our senior ProAssistants can help you reclaim your time.