Whoo Hoo....Help!

JM in ATL

I don't know where to start.... My boss and I had my annual review last week. Went great. We discussed bringing in an assistant for me. I NEVER dreamed he would say yes, b/c we only have about 50 ee's in 6 states. Not a whole lot I can't handle, but there are a lot of projects he wants me to work on and I have no time b/c of all of the administrative work that goes along with being a one person HR department.

He said he wanted a cost analysis, a job description and a training outline for this position. BY THIS AFTERNOON!

I myself am not even sure what I want to give up to this person. I have a very hard time letting go of work. Cost analysis? Well that is a little more intensive and thought provoking, I don't even know what I want to pay this person! I can analyze the cost in a beneficial way if I don't know how much I'm going to pay this person.

Does anyone have any suggestions on a quick way to structure a proposal in a day? I don't know if I'm venting, excited, or really asking for help. It's all a little crazy right now.

mwild31

Hi JM in ATL - How exciting for you! I'm happy to hear the review went better & that your boss wants to give you an assistant! Great news x:-)

So here's a couple of things, hopefully others will add to it:

1. Hire this person as an administrative assistant - assigned mainly to HR, but with the ability to work on administrative tasks throughout the company (if you can) this will help you spread out the costs.
2. Perhaps start part-time, until a full-time position can be established. I did this for my assistant as I too was unsure what to split up. Once your comfortable & the person is trained you can move them to full-time or hire a full-time assistant.
3. My assistant does:

* All of my filing - I never do it any more
* She makes all of the payroll inserts & stuffs
* She preps the newsletters
* She does new hire orientations (according to the script I created for her)
* She tracks advertising success
* She completes loan paperwork, rental verifications, etc. all for my signature
* She enters safety incidents into our system so we're in compliance with OSHA
* She organizes the smaller company events (blood drives, credit union, pizza parties, etc. - with my help & okay)
* She prepares review material packets for managers/leads & ensures they receive the packets 2 months before the employee's anniversary date
* She writes procedures when required
* She's the backup to payroll & the receptionist

There's a bunch more, but hopefully you get the picture.

Make sure your new person has computer skills & for lack of a better description - a capable presence about themselves - this helps when delegating further issues & with keeping the integrity of your department alive. I have a job description & a confidentiality statement for HR types - you could use it for reference, but you may want to pass it through your legal. As to cost, research what admin. assistants get paid in your area & match that to what your company can afford as well with your benefits package. As to a cost analysis - I'm sure your boss has the format he wants to see, since he asked for it. Just follow his lead.

ritaanz

I strongly advise you not to rush through this. Your boss should know that his request, coming out of the blue, will take more than a couple of hours.

Start with the job description. What will help is using your own job description and passing on job duties and responsibilities which will free you up for bigger and better. The other 2 items he wants will fall into place. Good luck.

KathiHR

One year ago, I got an administrative assistant - best thing I ever did! She was a senior in college - majoring in Business Administration -skilled in Word, Excel, Access, etc. She does all the administrative work - files, new hire paperwork, tracks expiration dates on insurance & licenses, background checks, PTO, enters all our info into HRIS, sends out notices for performance reviews that are due, binds our training manuals, runs all ads, checks the HR e-mail everyday, tracks all the paperwork on disciplinary actions, conducts firedrills & does our annual ADA checklist at all office locations, & I could go on & on. We are growing so rapidly & she's been such an asset to us that I just promoted her to HR generalist - so I'll have to get another administrative assistant. As you go through the day, make a list of things you're doing that get in the way of "thinking work." Just having her to answer phone calls & e-mails has freed up an amazing amount of time for me. Managers actually drop in on me & talk about stuff they need help with because I'm not overwhelmed in piles of paperwork.

One afternoon is not enough time to compile this (although your boss sounds just like mine - once he decides something is a good idea, he wants to do it right then!)

And finally - be very careful of the personality you hire. This person could end up having more contact with ee's on a day-to-day basis than you do, so you want them to portray the department exactly as you would. But the right person will be a great asset to you!

Kathi

Pork

All above hit the mark. I brought mine on with payroll responsibilities and activities pertaining to payroll. She is now my HR Assistant and is fast pushing this ole "dawg" out the door. She might get her wish in about three years, when I start drawing SS, and old age disability, because my teeth fell out from eating on the Hog bones.

PORK

sonny

As an aside, prior to this person starting, work on your reluctance to delegate/let go of work. There is NOTHING more frustrating than to work for someone who won't let you do anything .

JM in ATL

Thanks everyone. I'm really looking forward to the opportunity to take on an assistant to do the work that really does tie up my day.

It will give me the ability to write and implement all of the training courses I need to do. Busy busy busy.

You have all been a tremendous help and I really appreciate it. Thanks again!

stilldazed

If you can distinguish between simple, repetitive, routine job tasks and complex, nonrepetitive, nonroutine job tasks that you currently perform, that may help you some. I am not getting a new HR assistant (I wish I were, congrats to you), but we are a 2-person HR department (director & assistant). For more reasons than I want to remember, I have for the last six months been challenged to redesign the HR assistant position, and I am one who hates to let go of work. Separating the two categories of work have been helpful to me. My HR assistant (with me now for 6 months) basically manages paper flow of evaluations, wage increases, staffing (hiring/terms), orientation, benefits enrollments, income verifications, routine state/federal reporting, interacting with payroll, and serves as the department receptionist. All of those tasks are repetitive and continuous. Now that six months have passed and she's proving herself in these areas, we are moving toward more complex issues in little steps. As much as I don't like letting go of work, the fact is that I don't have time to get to more strategically oriented projects that need very much to be addressed. Every time my boss asks me for the current status of a yet unfinished project, it becomes more clear to me that letting go of work may mean my ultimate survival as HR director. Not letting go of it may mean my boss letting go of me and someone else getting the chance to let go of work after I'm gone!

As far as a proposal goes, surely if your boss wants something today, the objective is something quick and dirty. If I produced a proposal for additional staff in such a short period of time, I would reserve the opportunity to formalize it and fill in some blanks later. Consequently, generally identifying the position as clerical/administrative support, whether it will be full time or part time, and overhead costs could be put together in a couple of hours. Focus on how many hours you perform routine tasks, look at competitive wages inside or outside your organization, and determine benefits and other overhead costs if the position will be eligible for benefits. Remember hiring costs, training time, and learning curve as well. It sounds like you have the approval for the position, so you're not trying to sell that idea. You already did. The next question is, are you looking to fill the position today? Probably not.