The Recruitment Process

A young woman in a T shirt is being interviewed by an older woman

Recruiting the right people as your Personal Assistants is very important.

This article talks you through each step of the process to give you the best chance of attracting the right people to work for you.

How you recruit is also very important. You need to make sure you are not discriminating against anyone in the way you advertise for PAs and the questions you ask at interview, as this could potentially lead to someone taking legal action against you. You can find more information on preventing discrimination in the Resource at the bottom of this page.

Support with recruitment

There are many local organisations who can support Employers with recruitment. Some can help with every step of the process, including thinking about what skills your PA needs, placing job adverts for you, helping you interview and supporting you with all the paperwork.

You can search for organisations in your area using the Find Help search tool.

Writing a job advert

When advertising for a PA, consider what skills and experience you need your PA to have.

It is a good idea to write a job description and person specification to give people a better idea of what you are looking for and what skills and experience you want them to have.

You can find a template to help you write a job advert and person specification in the Resource at the bottom of this page below, Templates for PA Employers.

Advertising

There are many places you could consider advertising for PAs:

Job sites eg. Indeed (some of these will charge for placing an advert)
Local Facebook groups
Putting up posters in local shops.

Some areas have a local organisation which advertises for PAs on their website. Find out if there is an organisation that does this in your area using the Find Help search tool.

You may also want to ask family, friends and other people in your community if they know someone who would be interested in being your PA.

Interviewing

The interview is an opportunity to find out more from the people who have applied for the job.

You can choose to carry out interviews yourself, or with someone helping you.

Write down some questions you want to ask the candidates, and ask the same questions to all the candidates. This will help you conduct the interviews fairly and make sure you give the candidates equal opportunity to tell you about their skills and experience for the job.

The interview is a two-way process and allows the applicant to find out more about you and the PA role you have advertised.

Good practice for interviews

To get the most out of the candidates, here is some good practice to follow when doing interviews:

When the candidate arrives for interview, help them relax – maybe ask how they travelled to the interview
Explain that the purpose of the interview is to learn more about the candidate and for them to learn more about the role
Ask the candidate the questions you have prepared, and take notes
At the end of your questions, ask the candidate if they have any questions they want to ask you
Tell the candidate what will happen next – when can they expect to her back?
Thank the candidate for applying and coming for the interview.

Another useful point to remember is that the candidate should do most of the talking.

When interviewing for potential PAs, you cannot ask about things which could count as discrimination. The following list is not exhaustive but is helpful to remember:

Do not ask questions about childcare
Do not ask if they are married
Do not ask if they plan on having children
Do not ask about their sexual orientation
Do not ask about their religion.

You can find more information about preventing discrimination in the Resources at the bottom of this page.

After the interview

Hopefully you will have found a good candidate and want to offer them the job. Let them know either over the phone or in writing.

You need to have a contract of employment ready for your new PA’s first day in the job. Find out more in the article ‘Contract of Employment for a PA’.

Pre-Employment Checks

Before your PA starts work you may want to carry out pre-employment checks. Asking for references are a very common pre-employment check. References can be written or verbal, with one normally being from the applicant’s most recent job. It is important to get the applicant’s permission before you ask anyone for a reference.

You should also check the applicant has the right to work in the UK. You can ask for proof of this during the interview stage.

You may also wish to check if the applicant is a member of the Protecting Vulnerable Groups (PVG) scheme. From April 2025, it will be mandatory for any Personal Assistant to be a member of this scheme. Find out more in the article ‘Protecting Vulnerable Groups (PVG): For PA Employers‘.

Offer

You should send a written offer of employment to the successful applicant as soon as you can. The offer of employment should contain the following information:

Any conditions that apply to the offer (for example that it is dependent on getting satisfactory references)
Terms of the offer, for example, salary, hours, benefits, pension arrangements, holiday entitlement and place of employment
The start date and details of probationary period
What action the candidate needs to take, for example, returning a signed acceptance of the offer.