If you are hiring an EA right now, you have a shortlist that all looks right on paper, and an interview process that only tells you so much. The Core Standard shows you how each candidate actually thinks under the pressure of a real working day, so you decide on evidence, not on who presents best. Take the candidate's seat below, then see the report that lands in your inbox.
Several CVs that all look right. Interviews that only tell you so much. A hire that, if it is wrong, costs you months and a lot of goodwill to unpick. Whether you hire through an agency or direct, the interview rewards whoever presents best, not whoever will do the job best. Use it before interviews to decide who is worth your time, or after them to settle a close call. 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.
The same dimensions are scored at every level. What scales with the seat is sophistication. You choose the level when you commission the assessment, and the candidate is measured against that level, not placed somewhere on a ladder. Here is how three candidates, assessed at three different levels, each replied to that unhappy client. All three are competent. Watch what the higher levels add.
Illustrative drafts, shown so you can see the format. These are ready to swap for real, anonymised candidate answers.
Every candidate sits the same core scenarios inside a session clock. Every module feeds the scored dimensions. The more senior the seat, the more the day layers on.
Within 48 hours you receive a full assessment report: how the candidate measured against the level you commissioned, a clear recommendation, an overall score, a mark on each of the six dimensions and every scenario backed by evidence from the simulation, and a written note signed by Lily Shippen. It is built to be read in ten minutes and acted on the same day, so you can make the hiring decision now and defend it in a board meeting later. Here is a real, anonymised sample.
A measure of judgement, not just experience. This report sets out how the candidate approached a live, unscripted day in an executive office, measured against the level you are hiring for: where they showed real strength, and where to focus next.
Alex met the Level 2 standard across the day, 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 scored above the Level 2 benchmark. The one clear area to build is clearing a full inbox at pace.
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 I would probe in a final conversation 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 worth a question on how they close out a day that overruns. On balance, a strong hire for a senior-leadership seat, and someone I would be comfortable putting in front of a demanding principal.
Sample report. Names, employer, and principal details are illustrative. The structure, scoring, and reviewer tone are exactly what lands in your inbox.
Use it before interviews to screen your shortlist, or after them to settle the final two. You send a single-use link, the candidate sits the day in their own time, and the report is with you in 48 hours. It does not replace your judgement. It sharpens it.
Every employer 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 candidate sits the same scenarios under the same clock. You compare like with like, scored against a benchmark of EAs at the same level.
A 60 to 90 minute simulation, a report in 48 hours. It surfaces what a CV and an interview never reach, before you make an offer.
Send your shortlisted EA or Private PA candidate a single-use link. Get the scored report back in 48 hours. Hire on evidence.
LAUNCH10 for 10% off your first assessment.