We’re just going to come out and say it - every executive should get their own Admin Roadmap.

You may have noticed the signs you’re ready for help. Perhaps you don’t have time to get key tasks done because so much of your current schedule is taken up with organization. Or you’re getting those key tasks done at the expense of taking time with family and friends, having relaxing evenings, or fitting in a vacation.

There are many reasons to seek administrative help, but a big one is that it can help your business. After all, you can’t pour from an empty vessel. A key question is, who do you need? What will take you to the next level? That’s where your Admin Roadmap comes in...

What is an Admin Roadmap?

An Admin Roadmap is a deep dive consultation that helps to identify an executive’s specific administrative needs. It explores additional ways an executive assistant can support the executive and adds recommendations for best practices over the first 90 days with an AP.

The Admin Roadmap is a presentation that includes a detailed profile with specifics on the administrative support that you need, along with recommended administrative solutions (the recommendation isn’t always for an AP!). We also explain how you can access the administrative help that you need.

Key benefits of an Admin Roadmap

Why should you have an Admin Roadmap created? One very good reason is that while executives often realize that they need help, they don’t necessarily know what kind of help will be the most appropriate. An Admin Roadmap takes into account your needs and preferences for how you work so that you can find the best solution.

For example, administrative help might come in the form of an executive assistant, but it might also be more appropriate to hire an administrative assistant (such as a virtual assistant). The answer for who you should hire very much depends on how you prefer to operate.

Know who you need

Executive assistants work with a high level of autonomy. They create processes, are proactive about getting tasks done, and operate at an executive level. They’re quite at home in a boardroom and often act as a “voice” for the executives they serve.

On the other hand, an administrative assistant has a lot less autonomy. They tend to work from lists of tasks that are assigned to them and are more reactive rather than proactive. While executive assistants usually see their role as a career, administrative assistants often see theirs as a stepping stone to something bigger.

Why does it matter which type of support you hire? It’s unlikely to work well if you get the wrong kind of help. An AP is severely under-utilized if you just want to give them a task list to work through, while an administrative assistant is likely to see any expectations that they’ll take a more proactive role to be above their pay grade. In either situation, you as the executive, or your assistant, will end up frustrated.

Define some best practices for success

Another key benefit is to define some best practices for your success with your new hire. Executives that are happiest with their new administrative personnel tend to have a solid process in place for their onboarding period. They have formal check-ins to make sure they have “the right person in the right seat” and some practices to make sure the assistant has the tools they need to be successful.

An Admin Roadmap looks at your particular circumstances to customize recommendations for best practices. It takes your goals into account so that you have a plan in place that will help you to achieve them.

Gain clarity over your current situation and desired direction

Sometimes we can be so busy that we’re not entirely conscious of what we’re busy doing. That means you can be doing things just because they need doing, but not necessarily because you’re the person who should be doing them.

An Admin Roadmap helps to clearly lay out what you’ve been doing and can put that alongside the tasks you want to be doing, so that you can identify the gaps.

Steps to creating your Admin Roadmap

An Admin Roadmap is specifically something that we, here at Worxbee, consult on and prepare. Your first step as an executive is to contact us to request a consultation. We have devised this process over years of experience, having discovered the most important factors that go into administrative hiring success.

Here are some other steps:

1. We meet with you and have an in-depth discussion about your work, your goals for your work, and how you prefer to work (what’s your style?).
2. We identify your current pain points. For example: inability to take breaks, struggling to get through workload, feeling that you’re the only person who can get the task done…
3. We help you to identify your short-term and long-term keys to your success in terms of getting help. For example, you might say “in the short-term, I’d like the task of scheduling taken off my plate. In the long-term, I’d like entirely new processes for how we handle the administration of our partnerships.”
4. We make a recommendation on the type of administrative assistant you need. It might be an executive assistant, or it might be another type of assistant. If it’s an AP that you require, we define the type of AP that you need. Yes, there are different types of executive assistants! We also will take note of work style and personality type - those are important when you work closely with someone.
5. We note best practices for hiring and onboarding the right sort of AP to suit your business. For example, interview questions should be based on your core values and help to draw out whether the AP shares those values.
6. We present your final roadmap - a document that is easy to use. You’ll get personalized suggestions based on how you work. For example, how will you maintain strong communication? How will you deliver feedback?

Final thoughts

An Admin Roadmap is an invaluable tool for executives. It defines your administrative pain points and identifies who you need to come in and help.

Your Admin Roadmap acts as a guide so that you can achieve the goals you need from hiring help. You’ll get personalized suggestions and practices for the best chance at success.

Do you need administrative help? Worxbee is here to help with your own Admin Roadmap. Contact us here today.