Domestic Staffing Agency vs. Private Online Listings
You may already be familiar with how useful it is to employ a personal assistant. There are many benefits, such as saving time and delegating busy work. Having a personal assistant available to you will cut down on the energy and time you must spend on menial tasks, freeing you to spend time and energy on much more important work. Hiring an assistant, however, can be difficult; finding someone competent and trustworthy may be a frustrating and only somewhat successful endeavor. You can try to find someone via private listings, but at the Joanna Gray Agency, we recommend using a domestic staffing agency to seek an appropriate assistant.
Benefits and Drawbacks of Private Listings
A private online listing is simply a personal advertisement online. You can find them on classified ads websites, on general databases, and even on forums and message boards. You may be able to find someone very capable who may not be able to register with a staffing agency at a cheaper price. However, keep in mind that anyone can post an ad for anything. The danger in hiring an assistant from a private listing is that the person may not be who they say they are. They may lie about their experience or qualifications, and they may even be planning to scam the person who hires them. It is difficult to determine whose ads are legitimate until you have hired them.
Benefits and Drawbacks of Domestic Staffing Agencies
A domestic staffing agency is an agency that provides such people as nannies, housekeepers, and personal assistants. If you are looking for a dependable personal assistant, we recommend contacting a staffing agency. If you explain what you need from an assistant, and a staffing agency can put you in contact with the right person for the job. This is a much less dangerous approach to finding a personal assistant because the agency will perform the proper checks before a person is even recommended. The downside to using an agency is that you may miss out on the perfect assistant because he or she either did not register with the agency, did not know about the agency, or does not have the required experience, education, or other such things to be considered for the job.
Competency and Qualifications
When someone responds to a private listing, you are responsible for asking very pointed questions about the potential assistant’s abilities and specialties. If you need your assistant to accomplish very specific tasks, you must ask if they are willing, comfortable, and able to perform those tasks. Asking about how detail-oriented the potential assistant is a good idea as well. No matter how the potential assistant may answer your questions, until you have worked with the person, you can only trust that they are telling the truth when they answer your questions. This is why we strongly recommend using a staffing agency who can vet your potential assistants before you even make contact with them. Staffing agencies know what to look for and which questions to ask.
