I know I am probably being unreasonable but please can you help me anyway?

[mameulah]

My DH needs to advertise for an admin role at his work. The person who is currently there is only okay so it is no great loss but without someone making up the invoices etc he is going to be working even longer hours than normal.

I really want to get the advert in the paper this week so that hopefully the new start begins and there can be a couple of days handover. It would make my DH's life so much easier if that could happen without him having too involved.

Without your help it is unlikely that I will get the advert in the paper before Friday.....what do I need to put?

All I know so far is the usual stuff, time keeping, accuracy, and I think there is an important system called SAGE.

It is a kind of book keeping role really but if the person was quick at picking up technical knowledge there is potential for their role in the office to really grow.

Any help would be VERY gratefully received!

tia

I would look at your target newspapers for adverts for similar roles and take your cues from there.

I guess so. I was hoping there would be people in a similar job out there who would maybe say what would appeal to them in an advert?

Or search "bookkeepers" or "payroll" (I think that's what SAGE is) in jobs.co.uk to find out the buzz words.

Okay, I will go and do that now. Thanks!

You don't know what skills, attributes or qualifications the candidates need. None of us are going to be able to tell you. Will your husband's company appreciate a non-employee putting a recruitment ad in a paper for them?

This is all really bizarre, don't do it!

what would appeal to them in an advert?

Any staff benefits (above-minimum pension, healthcare etc)? Family-run company (staff aren't just a name)? Training opportunities or on-the-job qualifications? Flexible working hours?

Well obviously don't forget to include the expected standard hours and pay, that is what particularly annoys me about some adverts.

Will your husband's company appreciate a non-employee putting a recruitment ad in a paper for them?
Ah, I had assumed that husband owned the business (as that was the only scenario where I could imagine the OP placing an ad on his behalf).

Good point about hours and pay. And the training opportunities and flexible working hours.

Lola

I appreciate it sounds bizarre, and actually it is, but I will run it by him beforehand. It just means I am going to him with something rather than nothing.

You need a proper job description before you can advertise, otherwise your advert will be wooly, you will get 34263456 responses and won't be able to sift through them properly, and will probably end up hiring a numpty. Your DH needs to tell you exactly what software packages he uses, alongside Sage.

I am assuming this is your husband's own company. He needs to give you a list of the tasks the person would be expected to do. How big is the company, would the new admin person just be invoicing for you DH, or for 50 consultants and researchers?

You mention that there is room for progression, so do mention that in the advert if it is true.

You seem to think that having an ad in the paper by this Friday will get you the perfect employee by next week - bear in mind that the best person for the job may well be in another job already and have to give notice, so you might want to be flexible on start dates.

PS. I don't want to be rude, but I can ALWAYS tell when the job advert has been written by the MDs wife. Always!

this is funny.

Dh present office person is not very good

I don't really know what he needs but I'd like to advertise for non specific knowledge as it can't be very hard can it!!! Something possibly technical might be necessary on something called a com pooter.

Seriously if the office person sees this She could get you on bullying and harassment.

There are processes like appraisals for ensuring work standards. Does dh follow them? Shall I guess not or you don't know? Surely dh is competent at employing people for his own business or is he also shit at it?

Would you like to 'open mouth insert foot' any further....?

Get a display or semi display (in a box) advert, and run it for at least a couple of editions. if the paper you are going to use has a dedicated day for job vacancies make sure your advert goes in for that day.

Put a closing date for applications in the advert.
Give an indication of pay and hours.

Graywackejones

Thanks for your help? To answer a couple of your concerns...

The reason I am being vague is because I am aware that this is the internet and don't want to expose information that will expose me, or my DH's company. When DH comes home tonight I can present him with some ideas that we can adapt accordingly. We are then going to give it to a friend who works in HR. This will take less time than starting from scratch. Soon I am going to give birth to another baby. That will mean we have two babies under the age of one and one under the age of three. If my DH has someone already in place who is bloody excellent then it might mean that he can take more than two whole days off for paternity leave. And if the other girl was amazing she would be doing this, not me!

EVERYONE ELSE Thank you I have learned heaps, including...

jobs.co.uk
perks of the job, pensions, training, software, daily tasks, progression, closing date, pay, hours.

Thank you.

If happy for person to grow into role, why not try local college, anyone on AAT course should be able to do book keeping.

I don't understand, are you asking for help to replace the existing person who is going to just be sacked, with no capability procedure, no warnings, nothing ?

Or do you mean this is an additional role?

If it is the former then I think you are very much in the wrong here.

I agree with gray You aren't painting DH as being a competent manager or businessman.

The other person is not at all being sacked.

My DH doesn't even know I am doing this. But if I present him with something he can work from it will save him starting from the beginning.

Mameulah stop meddling fgs. Its your husbands call, not yours. You can't hire someone for him

Imagine if you totally cock up and get it all wrong? salary, benefits, hours etc and then your husband is left with 50 candidates that are no good and has to re do it himself anyways. I really can't see it as you being helpful.

Please...just STOP for one moment.

Does your husband own the company?

Are you creating this role completely?

Are you expecting this person to take on some of the work which currently falls under the remit of the person who is already there, and not very good?

There are a lot of considerations to make first to stop you getting your husband into a potentially messy situation by meddling.

Here is the ACAS guidance on recruitment which has templates and examples for job description, personal specifications etc. I always wrote the job description and personal spec first and based the advert on them. If there is an existing description/spec then these should be reviewed.

I personally believe that a salary range should be included in any recruitment advertisement but I've had lots of people disagree with me.

This is incredibly strange and completely inappropriate on many levels.

Thank you Five, that looks really helpful!

My DH doesn't even know I am doing this. But if I present him with something he can work from it will save him starting from the beginning.

I know you are trying to be helpful but as you know pretty much nothing about the role or the requirements, you are likely to get a big eyeroll from him for this. Well, if he's like me, that is. If he's nicer he'll say thank you very much and then file in bin.

It takes about 5 minutes flat to write a job advert if you know what you are doing. He can do it.

If he doesn't know what he's doing, then he needs to prepare a Job Description and a Person Specification. This again only takes a few minutes if you are on the ball and understand the role. It's extremely helpful then, both in writing the advert and then in shortlisting applicants and deciding which to interview, and then picking the 'winner' at the end.

Job description - duties of the role. Hours. Pay. Etc as other people have stated.
Person specification - skills and qualities the person needs. Can split into 'essential' - those are ones they will not be considered if they don't have. 'Desirable' - puts them above other candidates but are something you can compromise on, the ideal person has them all.

For example, for your bookkeeper/admin person, person spec might have:essential - bookkeeping qualifications to AAT Level 3 or equivalent experience. Experience of using accounts software.
desirable - experience of Sage

(so you want someone with some experience not just theory, who can use accounts software, it'll be nice if they've used Sage before but you'd be willing to train someone if they've used something else.)

This helps you clarify the ad.

Ads are free on the official jobcentre site. I know people knock it from a jobseekers point of view, but it's how we recruit all our staff, works well for us.

And you can't specify a gender, age, race etc even in sneaky ways like saying 'must have 20 years experience' or 'must speak English as mother tongue'.

It is only strange because I haven't explained it fully.

I haven't explained it fully because this is the internet.

Thanks to everyone who has given me the benefit of the doubt. Your help is much appreciated .