Annie [00:00:01]:
Welcome to the whole Assistant Podcast, where assistants come to embrace their badassery and discover how to show up more strategically for their careers, their executives, and most importantly, themselves. I'm your coach, Annie Croner. Join us as we dive into the skills, strategies and mindset that will help you unleash your full potential. Let's go. Welcome back, everyone. So I'm really excited to dive into what I'm gonna share with you today. But before I actually dive in, I just wanna share with you a little bit about what's been going on in the background with what I wanna share and rethinking me and authenticity and showing up more authentically in my social media feed and here on the podcast. And one of the things that I've discovered after working with someone who managed my content for three months was that I found that I was losing my voice and that it didn't really feel like me, the content didn't really feel like me.
Annie [00:01:02]:
Now it felt more so like me on the podcast because I ideate the topics we're going to talk about. I come up with a plan, all of that, but it's more my social media feed. And as I think about my social media and what I want to share, I do want to share more of me. So I'm going to be sharing more about dancing because that is such a huge part of my life, especially since I took up country dancing last summer. Going to share more about what it's like to be a single mom and a business owner. And I'm going to share more wins from Empowered Seat because I'm really excited about all the wins people are getting inside that community and that membership. And I'm just really looking forward to the future. I'm really excited about this upcoming year and about how far we're going to go together and the fact that you're listening to this podcast right now.
Annie [00:01:49]:
So thank you for being here. I'm really excited to take you along this journey with me. And I'm also going to share more stories about my time as an executive assistant and a lot of weird things that I hear as a coach and the funny stories and the good and the bad and the ugly with that. And then also my own personal growth journey. I've been pretty decent about sharing those details here on the podcast, but that is going to continue. So, yeah, stay tuned for more goodness as we evolve and as I bring more people onto the podcast to talk about their stories and things too. I've got great plans for this year and. And it's all starting today, where I'm going to talk about something that we are covering inside Empowered Seed this month, which is navigating HR functions.
Annie [00:02:32]:
As an executive support professional, I support a lot of people who work in the startup space and who are frequently tasked with HR tasks. And I've coached one on one, a good number of people who have been thrown into these functions and a lot of functions which they probably shouldn't be because there are certain certifications that HR professionals have and they have those certifications for a reason. And I've actually tried to source in the past a trainer to come and speak with my people about HR functions and about what they should be doing and shouldn't be doing. And nobody has wanted to touch it until now. So I finally found somebody. I finally sourced a a great trainer who prepared a training for Empowered Seat that goes over the liabilities and all of that. So that's what this podcast episode is going to be about. Just giving you some insight into that training.
Annie [00:03:29]:
And even if you only want to join for a month, it's $35 a month, as at the time of this recording, you can just come join for a month, take the training, participate in the discussion, participate in the coaching, call this month, see if Empower Seed is for you or not. But I am a huge fan of us covering our butts, especially in roles where we do cross over into other functions. And the HR function is a tricky one. So that is why I decided to talk about this on this podcast. I just really want to make sure that you are covering your butt and that you aren't putting yourself out there in a way that will be a liability for you or that you aren't actually causing your company to be liable for things. Also, I just got done listening to the training and I find it really fascinating just how much Melissa covered in this training. Melissa Leland There are so many HR functions as well, and she was so good at actually summarizing what those are. So onboarding, benefits, payroll, compliance, recruitment, offboarding are just some of the things that you can do.
Annie [00:04:32]:
And there are certainly safe tasks to own and tasks like tracking and coordination and documentation. But even with the documentation, there are certain guidelines and parameters around documentation and what should be kept and what should not be kept and what should actually be collected from employees and what should not be collected. So that's something for us all to be aware of. And I didn't know this, I actually came from working from several organizations that didn't actually have a designated HR person. And now I'm thinking back and like, oh, my gosh, that is such a liability because of all of the things that is covered in this training, things that you should not be handling, like policy interpretation, terminations, handling sensitive medical data you can actually be personally liable for, which I had no idea. So these are the things that you need to be aware of. And I'm flagging this because nobody in our space is talking about it. And especially if you work in a startup environment, especially if you're being tasked with handling some HR functions, you actually need to be aware of that liability.
Annie [00:05:39]:
And in the past, I'll never forget, this isn't an HR story, but I was working for this executive, and she had told me that there was no line that I could cross. And so she gave me carte blanche. She gave me access to all of her financial information and everything. And early on into that role, I was preparing a wire transfer and. And I created an E signature, pulled another signature off of a document that she'd signed, created an E signature out of that, adhered it to the wire transfer document, and sent it off. And you guys, I had this drop in the pit of my stomach, and I was like, oh. She said I couldn't actually cross a line, but I'm pretty sure I just did. So I emailed her immediately and I said, hey, I just sent this document off.
Annie [00:06:27]:
I created an E signature, sent it off, but I just have a feeling that you would rather have given a verbal confirm of the wire transfer rather than have me adhere your signature to it. And she called me immediately, and she's like, annie, Annie, don't ever do that again. And what I appreciated about that story was that that mistake actually served to strengthen our relationship as opposed to diminish it or undercut it. And that is because I own the mistake. And I went running to her with the understanding that I had crossed a line that I didn't know was there to begin with, and that actually served to strengthen our relationship. But the point of that in this context, is that I wasn't actually being mindful of covering my tracks too, and of protecting myself too. So especially when it comes to HR functions, we need to be protecting ourselves. We need to be really mindful of what we agree to take on and what we don't.
Annie [00:07:23]:
And so there's certain functions within the HR sphere that we should not be handling. So if you are handling HR functions, I beg you, please join us this month inside Empowered Seat so that you can know what is acceptable for you to do as a support professional. And what somebody with greater expertise should be handling in terms of those functions. Because the last thing I would want you to do is to put yourself out on a limb and to create a liability for the company or to create a liability personally for you. So Melissa has really broken down what you should be doing and what you shouldn't in terms of sensitive data, in terms of sensitive information or complex requests, knowing where the line is with regards to what you should be handling. There's actually a decision tree that she talks about that she provides for us in this training where she's like, if this, then that. If this, then that. It's just so helpful.
Annie [00:08:19]:
And this is what I love about Empowered Seat is that I really want to help us all improve our business acumen overall. That's a point of Empowered Seat is first of all, incremental growth and the context of community, and then also improving our business acumen so that we kind of know where that line is for us with what we should be handling and what we shouldn't be handling. So I know that this is a very short episode, but I just wanted to flag this for those of you who are providing HR function in your company, especially in startup environments, so that you can guide leadership with regards to what is appropriate for you to manage, or what needs to be outsourced, or what requires greater expertise that is outside the line or outside the purview of your role. So that is what I have for you guys today. I hope you found this episode helpful. If you'd like to join us, please do go to wholeassistant.com empowered seat in order to learn more and register. And even if you only want to join for this month, that's fine, it'll be $35. But I really feel like this training, especially for those of us in startup environments, will be so super helpful.
Annie [00:09:26]:
I just don't want to see any of you exposed to something that could be potentially damaging. So that is what I have for now. I hope you have a great rest of your week. If today's episode gave you language, clarity or just a quiet oh, it's not just me. I am so thrilled you're here. If this podcast has been helpful for you, the easiest way you can support the show is by taking 30 seconds to rate and review it on Apple Podcast or Spotify. This helps more assistance find this work. And if you're ready for ongoing support, guidance, community and growth that actually fits into your life, Empowered Seat is where we continue this work together.
Annie [00:10:04]:
It's affordable, flexible, and designed for assistants who are done white knuckling their careers in isolation. You can learn more and join@wholeassistant.com empowered seat or click the link in the show notes below. And until next time, go embrace your bedassery.
