If you lead an EA function, you carry a question you can rarely answer with evidence: where are the strengths in the team you already have, and where are the opportunities to develop? Appraisals lean on opinion. Benchmark Your Team gives you an objective read of every assistant against one standard, the same one you would hire against. Take the seat one of your EAs would sit below, then see what you get back.
Most teams have never had a consistent, evidenced read of how their EAs actually perform, only appraisals, opinions, and the fluency of a good conversation. Benchmark Your Team fixes that: every EA measured against one standard, so the results are directly comparable and you can develop and deploy with confidence. Here is where it helps:
This is one module of the assessment, Inbox Triage. The candidate has minutes, not hours. For each message, they decide: action now, hold, escalate, or decline, and then explain why. Try it yourself. There is no single right answer. We score the reasoning behind the ranking, not the ranking itself.
Made your calls on each message? Now see how a strong candidate handled them, and the reasoning we score.
There is no multiple choice, and no hidden right answer to click. Across the day the candidate is asked what they would do and, every time, why. The responses are written in their own words, and the reasoning is where a capable EA separates from a good guesser. Two more modules from the same day:
Illustrative prompts and answers. In the live version these become real, anonymised candidate responses.
Everyone sits the same assessment; the result is the level they reach. Here is what Level 1, Level 2, and Level 3 look like, through the same client message handled three ways. All three are competent. Watch what the higher levels add. This is the scale each of your EAs lands on.
Illustrative drafts, shown so you can see the format. These are ready to swap for real, anonymised candidate answers.
Every EA sits the same full day, all eight modules, against one clock. Every module feeds the scored dimensions, and together they place the person at Level 1, 2, or 3.
You get three things, not one report. Each EA receives their own certification report: their tier, their score, every dimension and scenario, and a development plan, theirs to keep. You receive one team report placing everyone on the same standard, plus a 30-minute debrief with Lily to talk through what it means. It is built to be read in ten minutes and acted on, so you can develop your team on evidence and defend the investment in a board meeting.
Every EA placed on the same standard, side by side: who sits where, who is ready to step up, and where development spend lands the biggest lift.
A single view of the whole team, on one benchmark. Illustrative sample.
The same expert-reviewed report an individual candidate receives: their tier, their score, every dimension and scenario, and a development plan. It is theirs to keep, so the assessment develops them, not just measures them. Here is a real, anonymised sample.
A measure of judgement, not just experience. This report sets out how this EA approached a live, unscripted day in an executive office: where they showed real strength, and where to focus next.
Alex reached Level 2, the EA to Senior Leadership tier, and was at their strongest in the moments that carried the most risk. They guarded the principal's reputation under pressure, spoke for her to a frustrated client with a measured, on-message reply, and were disciplined with sensitive information and with AI. Six of the eight scenarios landed at Partner altitude. The one clear area to build is clearing a full inbox at pace, and it is the shortest path to the top tier of The Core Standard.
Alex ran the morning the way you want an EA to run it. The board-pack error was the trap in this assessment, an easy thing to skim past under a full inbox, and they caught it inside the first few minutes and understood immediately why it mattered more than anything else on the screen. That is the instinct that separates a capable EA from an impressive one.
What stood out most was the discretion. Faced with a spend approval framed to make saying yes the easy option, they declined cleanly and put the decision back where it belonged, in one tap for the principal on landing. They did the same with the personal request: held it, protected the surprise, actioned it once the urgent work was contained. You cannot teach that read on where your authority ends. Communication and influence is their strongest dimension, and it shows in the client holding reply, which lowered the temperature without promising anything that wasn't theirs to promise.
The one area to focus development on is execution under the very hardest time pressure. Everything critical was complete, but one lower-priority loop was left open when the clock ran out. Nothing concerning, and arguably the right call, but a useful coaching point on closing out a day that overruns. On balance, a strong Level 2 operator, and someone I would develop toward the top tier with confidence.
Sample report. Names, employer, and principal details are illustrative. The structure, scoring, and reviewer tone are exactly what lands in your inbox.
Tell us how many EAs to assess. Each sits the day in their own time. Every person gets their own report, you get one team report, and Lily walks you through it. Priced per person, and the more of the team you assess, the less each one costs.
Every assessment is reviewed and signed off by Lily Shippen, founder of one of the UK's leading specialist EA agencies. Nothing is machine-only.
Every EA sits the same scenarios against the same standard. Your whole team is directly comparable, side by side on one map.
The clearest read of your team you have ever had, plus a development plan for each person. Against the cost of losing a senior EA, it is about the cheapest retention there is.
Give every EA a single-use link. Each gets their own report, you get one view of the whole team, and a debrief with Lily. Develop on evidence.