How to Hire an Administrative Assistant

Why this role matters

An administrative assistant keeps a team's time, documents and records in order, so everyone else spends their day on the work they were hired for. Good ones catch the double-booked room, the missing signature and the supplier invoice sent to the wrong person before anyone notices. A weak hire creates rework, missed deadlines and an inbox the rest of the team quietly starts managing themselves.

Where to find candidates

• General and local job boards such as Indeed and LinkedIn, where most administrative candidates search
• IAAP (International Association of Administrative Professionals) chapters and members holding the CAP credential
• ASAP (American Society of Administrative Professionals) community and events
• Temp-to-perm arrangements through office staffing agencies, which let you see real work before committing
• Further education colleges running business administration courses and apprenticeships (in the UK, the Business Administrator apprenticeship standard)
• Referrals from your current administrative staff, who know who is reliable in their local network

Skills to look for

Red flags

• Errors in their own application: typos, inconsistent formatting or the wrong company name in the cover letter
• Describing past roles only as a list of software rather than the requests they handled and how
• Cannot explain how they kept track of open tasks or follow-ups in a previous job
• Shares confidential details about a previous employer or colleague during the interview
• Gets flustered or curt when the interviewer adds a second request mid-task

The interview process

1. 1

   Application and written screen

   Ask applicants to answer two short written questions in the application form, such as how they would reply to a client asking to move a meeting already rescheduled twice. You learn more about tone, spelling and judgement from this than from the CV.

2. 2

   Phone screen

   Check availability, the tools they use daily and the size of team they supported. Listen for phone manner, since many assistants are the first voice a caller hears.

3. 3

   Inbox-and-diary work sample

   Give a small mock inbox: a meeting request that clashes with an existing booking, a supplier asking about an unpaid invoice, a manager asking for a formatted agenda and a spreadsheet of contact details to clean. Ask them to deal with each and note what they would escalate. A job simulation of this real work is one option if you want every candidate to face the same scenario.

4. 4

   Structured interview

   Ask behavioural questions about handling competing requests from two managers, a mistake they caught or made, and how they protected confidential information. Score each answer against the same criteria for every candidate.

5. 5

   References

   Ask previous managers specifically about reliability, accuracy and how much checking the candidate's work needed.

How to evaluate

• Accuracy in the work sample: correct dates, names, figures and formatting
• Sensible ordering of tasks and a clear reason for what they did first
• Tone and clarity of written replies to internal and external contacts
• Knowing what to escalate and what to resolve alone
• Comfort with the specific office suite and booking tools you use
• Evidence of discretion with sensitive information

Onboarding

• 1Give a written list of who they support, each person's preferences and the recurring meetings they own
• 2Set up access to shared inboxes, calendars, drives and booking systems before day one
• 3Share templates for the letters, agendas and reports they will produce most often
• 4Run a short daily check-in for the first two weeks to answer questions and review work
• 5Agree which decisions they can make alone, such as moving internal meetings or ordering supplies under a set limit

Common questions