1Find a Freelance Personal Assistant
Directly hiring a freelance personal assistant will likely be your lowest cost option to find a personal assistant, especially if you look overseas. Job boards and marketplace advertise rates as low as $10 per hour. For U.S.-based personal assistants, job board Indeed says the average U.S. personal assistant costs $13 per hour—not a very big difference.
Directly hiring a personal assistant will require the most work on your part. You will need to:
- Create a job description
- Recruit and interview candidates
- Set performance expectations
- Train and onboard your assistant on how you like things done
- Provide ongoing performance management
In this scenario, you need to be clear on what you want a personal assistant to do and how you want them to do it. Then there is the matter of trusting an assistant with your personal information. Ideally, you will have standards for:
- IT security on any device the assistant uses
- Confidentiality
- Password protection
There’s also the risk of a bad fit. If the assistant doesn’t work out, you start over—but hopefully wiser.
The pros of finding a freelance personal assistant:
The cons of finding a freelance personal assistant:
- Highest lift
- Lowest security
- A bad hire, and you start over
2Find an Independent Contractor Personal Assistant through an Agency
There are dozens, if not hundreds, of agencies offering independent contractor personal assistants. Most agencies are U.S.-based and provide resumes of personal assistants offshore or onshore that they have vetted in advance. This model of finding a personal assistant removes some of the effort and risk from you.
You will still need to:
- Create a job description
- Interview candidates
- Set performance expectations
- Train and onboard your assistant on how you like things done
- Provide ongoing performance management
An agency will help you with many of these tasks—except the training and performance management. But the job description and interviewing will be easier, and no recruiting is required.
You will also need to be clear on what you want your assistant to do. An agency experienced with personal assistants can help you do that. Perhaps a more significant benefit of the agency model is the reduced risk.
- Candidates are pre-vetted
- Work history is validated
- More likely to have secure devices
- Some sign confidentiality agreements
Device and data security can still be an issue. Most independent contractors work in home offices using personal computers and networks. If you plan on sharing access to sensitive information, you should be sure that your assistant maintains up-to-date malware prevention software and network security best practices.
You will pay a little more through an agency as the matchmaker gets a share of the fee. The average rate is about $25 per hour. Some agencies offer hourly packages with discounts for commitments to more hours per month. Others allow you to negotiate your terms once you find the right match. You start over if the assistant doesn’t work out, but the hiring process is faster than with a freelancer.
The pros of finding a personal assistant through an agency:
The cons of finding a personal assistant through an agency:
- Still considerable lift
- Higher cost than a freelancer
- Security issues
- A bad hire, and you start over
3Find a Personal Assistant through a Managed Service Provider
With a personal assistant managed service provider, you are not hiring an individual personal assistant—you are hiring a company. Managed service providers hire, train, and oversee the performance of the personal assistants. The assistants go through background checks, sign confidentiality agreements, use secure, company-owned computers and phones, and work in secure facilities and on secure networks. They also use encrypted password managers, so the assistant never sees your passwords. Finally, managed service providers provide trained backup assistants for continuity when someone is on vacation, sick, or doesn’t work out.
In this model, all you need to do is communicate your preferences for:
- Tools and tech you use
- Communications channels
- Response times
- Scheduling times and lengths of meetings
There’s no job description, recruiting, interviewing, training, or performance management. But you will need a list of the tasks you want to offload. The service provider’s managers train the assistant in your tools and preferred processes, and your assistant shows up ready to work. Most have worked with other executives and individuals and are quick studies.
The pros of finding a personal assistant through a managed service provider:
- Zero lift
- Highest security
- Lowest risk
- You never start over
The cons of finding a personal assistant through a managed service provider:
Most managed service providers are U.S.-based, and their assistants work in offshore centers. The cost is typically around $25 per hour, sold in monthly blocks of hours per month. You get training, performance management, backup assistants, high security, and ongoing service optimization for that price.
