Making A Success Of Having A PA

The key to developing a successful woking relationship with your PA is good management. This may be your first experience of managing staff so here are some tips to help.

Tips for being a good employer

  1. Have clear job descriptions and contracts of employment. The resources already mentioned supply excellent templates for these.
  2. Build a probation period into your employement contract. These are essential to see if the person is right for the job and also if they feel the job is right for them.
  3. Have regular supervison sessions with your staff, (say once a month) to chat through how they are managing the job. This enables you to acknowledge good work and identify any areas for development – through training. It’s also an opportunity to nip any issues in the bud before they escalate.
  4. Provide training. This can be done in a variety of ways; on the job, using equipment in the home (Occupational Therapist can help with this), local training courses available via the Local Authority, charities, private organisations, specialist training.
  5. Train yourself. Training is also available for for you as an employer and can be paid for out of your personal budget, direct payment, or health grant.
    You can apply to Skills For Care for funding for training.
  6. Have procedures in place;  for completing timesheets, disciplinaries, dismissal and redundancy processes. ACAS (The Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service), offers employers advice and information and can help you with any issues.
    Employers advice from ACAS .
  7. Make sure you understand and fulfil your legal responsibilities. There are certain legal obligations you must carry out.
    You can read the legal responsibilities here.

The importance of creating boundaries

Having all these things in place helps to create boundaries. As you will see from the personal experiences here, it is easy to develop a friendship with your PA when they are so involved in your daily life. It can then become difficult to address any issues or concerns you have about the job they are doing. This can be particulary difficult if you opt to employ a friend or family member, which many people choose to do.

 

Personal Experience – Roz and Rob’s Story

Read Roz and Rob’s story, where Roz explains how she and Rob adhere to the rules and regulations as Employers of PA.

Personal Experience – Geraldine’s Story

Read Geraldine’s story about how employing her niece works well for her.

 

 

Be a good employer and you’ll have a great PA

Getting the most from your PA isn’t just about following rules and regulations, if your staff are happy and treated fairly and well, they are more likely to stay.

If you would like to discuss this futher or are interested in having support to employ your own PA, we have a group of peer mentors who would be happy to help and support you. Please contact us here.