As a help in recruiting the technology-adept assistant, let me share with you the ad I ran when I hired my most recent assistant. Keep in mind that I’d already been through several assistants who were basically incapable of using even basic technology and that it had hurt my business severely.

Here is the classified ad I typically use:

Personable but disorganized national real estate speaker needs personal assistant. Work from home. Must have great organizational skills, IBM compatible computer. Must know Microsoft Word and desktop publishing. Email resume to allen@afhseminars.com.

Note that I gave no phone number, fax number or “snail mail” address for sending the resume: if a person didn’t have email or didn’t know how to attach documents (the resume) to an email message, then he or she didn’t have the skills I needed. This way, only people familiar with the technology I need to run my business responded to the ad.

If your personal assistant doesn’t have the technical skills outlined above, begin a 30-day Rehiring Process, the goal of which is to retain your assistant while having him or her be more efficient in doing what you need done. I learned the Rehiring Process years ago while teaching real estate management seminars, and it has three phases: an initial meeting, a thirty-day training period, and a “rehire or fire” meeting.

At your initial meeting:

1. Outline your view of what needs to be done in order for the assistant to be truly effective in his or her present position. Be very specific in stating your expectations. Don’t just say, “I need you to get better with technology so that we can grow the business together.” Instead, outline specific expectations such as:

• I need you to be able enter all my important activities into our real estate database and to have daily activity reports on my desk when I come in each morning.

• I need you to do a personalized group email to all our buyers every Monday morning, asking them if they have heard of any properties they might like to see and to give me a report on each buyer’s needs.

• I need you to be able to create a separate page on our Web site for each of our current sellers and to keep the page current with any information, documents, etc. that pertain to their transaction.

• I need you to take this multimedia software I got at the convention, install it on our computers, learn to use it within a week, then sit down with me and teach me how to use it.

• I’ll need you to put together multimedia presentations for me on a regular basis that I can show at listing presentations.

• I need you to take over all technical support functions, meaning that I’ll rely on you to call the software company or hardware company and fix the problem using their help.

2. Outline what you will do for the assistant to bring him or her up to speed on the objectives you’ve outlined. This would include classes you will send the assistant to, learning materials you will purchase for the assistant, and the fact that during the rehiring period you will assist him or her in any way you can so that the objectives can be met.

3. Tell him or her that the two of you will meet thirty days from now to see if you are both in agreement that the objectives have been met. Make it clear that at that time a decision will be made: if the objectives have been met, the assistant stays with you; if not, the assistant leaves.

At the thirty-day rehiring period:

The thirty-day rehiring period is crucial to the success of this process, and you have some responsibilities here. Among them are getting your assistant to the classes which will help him or her accomplish your mutual objectives. Here are some of the classes I’d suggest the assistant attends during the thirty-day rehiring period:

• A comprehensive class on using Windows

• A full-day class on using Microsoft Publisher

• A full-day course on whatever word processing software you use

• The two-day RS 206 technology course (See www.crs.com for a schedule of classes nationwide)

Your final meeting, after the thirty-day rehiring period, is decision time. Remember: the goal of the Rehiring Process is to retain the assistant while having him or her become a more productive member of your business. Presumably, you have done everything you can to bring the assistant to where he or she needs to be. Presumably, the assistant has done everything in his or her power to meet the objectives. If you are both satisfied, you can go forward as a team with increased efficiency and profitability; if not, it’s time to part ways. If the assistant is now able to meet the mutually agreed upon objectives, he or she stays; if not, he or she goes.

This last fact took a long time for me, a “people pleaser,” to grasp. The owner’s inability to make the tough decisions on personnel has been the ruin of many a small business, and you face the same choice. Having a technically efficient personal assistant make all the difference in the world, as you will find out by following the Rehiring Process!

Editor's note: This article is an excerpt from Allan F. Hainge's new book, Making Money With Today’s Technology!. For more information about the book, visit Allan's Web site at www.afhseminars.com.

Published: May 11, 2001

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