How To Hire A Senior Administrative Assistant

Complete with job descriptions, skill profiles, and interview templates. Use this Senior Administrative Assistant hiring guide to help you make the right decisions, fast.

SENIOR ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT RECRUITMENT GUIDE

What does a Senior Administrative Assistant do?

A Senior Administrative Assistant provides assistance in more sophisticated and complex clerical tasks in an office. Usually they support senior managers and executives as they are more experienced with their daily tasks.

Day to day tasks of a Senior Administrative Assistant

Greet and attend to visitors.
Answer phone calls and connect them to the appropriate department, if necessary.
Arrange and set meetings; take detailed minutes of the meeting to be distributed to the attendees.
Schedule appointments and update the calendar.
Set travel arrangements and reservations for managers.
Write correspondences like announcements, invitations, and memos.
Create presentations and other reports as requested.
Maintain a filing system–both digital and physical.

Recruitment guide role overview illustration

SENIOR ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT DEFINITION

A Senior Administrative Assistant’s primary responsibility is to provide a more complex support in administrative and clerical tasks. Depending on the department, they usually support senior managers or executives as they are considered more experienced in the field of administrative support.

HIRING PROCESS

Senior Administrative Assistant Hiring Process

1
STEP 1
2
STEP 2
3
STEP 3
4
STEP 4
5
STEP 5

STEP 1

Build the Ideal Candidate Profile

To find the best person for the role, you need to understand what the role involves. You can complete this with the hiring manager to define the role, its contribution, and the skills needed.

STEP 2

Write A Job Description Based On Skills

Once you understand the requirements for the role, you’ll need to understand the skills for success. You can then write an effective job description to promote your role.

STEP 3

Selecting The Ideal Candidate

See which applicants have the right skills for the role. Send all your applicants a Vervoe skills assessment from the expert library, or customize one for your organization.

STEP 4

Interview Top Performers

Your skills assessment results will identify top performers. Focus your time on interviewing those that have met or exceeded your requirements. Assessment results will also help guide which skill areas to focus on in the interview.

STEP 5

Making An Offer

Once you assess your candidates against these skills, you’re ready to offer the top performer(s). You should base your offer on the value that the candidate would bring to your team and your business as a whole. It is also important to ensure your compensation and benefits packages are competitive in the industry and help you attract and retain the top talent.

BUILD THE IDEAL CANDIDATE PROFILE

Skills needed for a Senior Administrative Assistant

A Senior Administrative Assistant must have outstanding communication skills and organization skills. Providing support to senior managers and executives requires a more sophisticated approach in interacting with them.

Organization
Leadership
Communication

WRITE A JOB DESCRIPTION BASED ON SKILLS

How to write a Senior Administrative Assistant job description

Once you’ve determined the skills required for the role, you can write the job description to advertise for your position. Here’s what to include in your Senior Administrative Assistant job description:

Job Title: What position are you hiring for?
Summary: What makes your company unique? What would it be like to work for you?
Responsibilities: An overview of the role’s day-to-day activities, and how the position contributes to the organization
Requirements: Skills a candidate must have to perform the job successfully
Benefits: Details of compensation, benefits, and any perks on offer

Use our sample Senior Administrative Assistant job description

SELECTING THE IDEAL CANDIDATE

Sample skill tests for a Senior Administrative Assistant

Create a free account today to access the full assessment and more from our library

Try Vervoe Now

Question 1

Leadership

Question Type: Text

Describe how you would communicate your performance expectations to employees.When answering, think about the steps you take to communicate expectations.How would you ensure that the person understood the importance and impact of his/her role?How would you ensure that he/she fully understood his/her responsibilities?What was the outcome?

Question 2

Communication

Question Type: Video

What administrative projects are less interesting for you? How do you overcome your disinterest in order to do a good job?

Question 3

Organization

Question Type: Text

Organizational skills are the abilities that let you stay focused on different tasks, and use your time, energy, strength, mental capacity, physical space, etc. effectively and efficiently in order to achieve the desired outcome.What resources and processes do you use and have in place for yourself, that you use in the workplace on a daily basis?

INTERVIEW TOP PERFORMERS

How to interview a Senior Administrative Assistant

Once your Vervoe skills assessment has surfaced the most qualified people for your open role, you can focus on interviewing these candidates. The interview should focus on any skills that require development that were highlighted from the skills assessment.

Now you know that candidates can do the job, the interview becomes more of a relationship building exercise where you can get to know the candidate on a more personal level, understand their motivations, and how they would fit in with the team.

MAKING AN OFFER

How much does it cost to hire a Senior Administrative Assistant?

The US average for a Senior Administrative Assistant is $60,673 as reported by Salary.com, while on Glassdoor.com, it amounts to $50,511. These numbers widely depend on several factors such as education background, years of experience in the field, additional skills, and location.

United States

Senior Administrative Assistant average salaries in the United States range from $50,511 - $60,673. The lowest recorded is at $40,000, while the highest is at $161,000. Aside from the factors mentioned above, some other things to consider that affect the salary is the provision for bonuses, incentives, or profit sharing, all depending on the company.

Source: Source: Salary.com, Glassdoor.com

United Kingdom

Senior Administrative Assistant average salaries in the United Kingdom range from £22,350 - £24, 619 (GBP). The lowest amount recorded is £18,000, while the highest is at £33,000 (GBP).

Source: Source: Glassdoor.com, Payscale.com

Australia

Senior Administrative Assistant average salary in Australia is $71,621 (AUD). The range usually starts at $59,982 and can reach up to $84,591 (AUD). This depends on the educational background, additional skills, years of experience in the profession, and the location.

Source: Source: Salary.com