Question

I have 2 x apprentices (both 19 years old) starting at my office. I was only going to employ 1, but 2 came across well so I bit the bullet. They are on a probation for 4 weeks anyway so have the option to cut ties if they dont show willing. Ill be wanting them to learn about social media management, different traffic sources, contests, ways to generate engagement, email marketing etc. I know they wont be experts within 4 weeks but ill be there to explain things and im hoping to build in depth SOPs as we go along to make things easier to refer back to. Primarily it is to push traffic to my amazon listings. but. growing my current non existant social media presence across fb/YT/SC/pinterest etc would be a bonus. Having only taken on virtual assistants in the past, in-office employess (especially apprentices) is a new experience that im looking to tackle head on for longer term benefits. What advice would you give to someone in my position, and can you recommend some information resources/blogs/YT channels/'GOOROOs' etc for them to digest content from that inexperienced people would find helpful in their position? :)

Answer 1

Why did you hire 2 apprentices when u could probably hire 1 person who knows most of the stuff you need?  

Comments

Quite a few reasons. This year my business is going into much bigger markets so will probably at least 5X. This is going to create a large volume of tasks that arent necessarily skilled but i could do with having someone in the same office within talking distance to do them. As apprentices. i have more flexibility regarding employment (they get no sick pay, easier to get rid if they are playing up or arent performing etc). This is huge due to the national plague in the UK of 'anxiety' and depression (who doesnt have it now?! ). I can mould them to the business instead of someone coming in trying to do everything 'their way'. More potential long term loyalty from younger starters as they cant compare the job to multiple other jobs theyve had before etc.  

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@chamomile that part i fucking believe, i lived in UK for 5 years and its ridiculous. Normal people deal with their problems in their head and shut up about it. Unless its something really serious. In UK they took it to another level. All i see my mates from UK posting is some shit about some made up disseases they apparently have and everyone have to be aware of. Fucking get laid and stop bothering ppl haha

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The anxiety bandwagon must be costing the uk economy billions. It also is taking the help/attention away from people who genuinely need it.  

Answer 2

Need to understand what is their job scope and what level of tasks do you need them to do to help you

Answer 3

What course are they doing and who’s training them?  

Comments

This is what im asking for. content recommendations etc. Id say 50% of their job is going to be reasonably simple repetitive tasks that have SOPs/instructions etc already made (easy enough to do). 50% is going to be new learning and projects to generate traffic and social media following etc

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I’m sure when you employ apprentices they’re through a college or training provider? How are you supposed to train two social media apprentices when you don’t know how to do it yourself?  

Answer 4

For the social media portion, it is an investment but, I would consider continuing to work with a social media VA/Consultant to work closely with your apprentices to setup a social media strategy and execute and train them along the way. They will never truly learn just by consuming premade content out there, in my honest opinion. and how can you choose content and train on something you aren't knowledgeable on?  

Answer 5

We struggled with this years ago, and ended up creating our own in-house training videos/courses that we tightly integrated into our SOP’s. It has worked out extremely well. We’ve had so many client companies ask us if we could begin offering our training as an online course / certification program for their own in-house teams. We’re definitely considering it! Even when hiring relatively experienced people, it will most often require some level of detailed training on how your business “does things” in terms of your processes, workflows, expectations, standards, best practices, ect.  

Answer 6

Map out what success looks like on a weekly basis. With achievable goals.