A Personal Assistant (PA) manages the practical running of one person's working day, including their diary, travel, inbox and correspondence. An Executive Assistant (EA) does this too, and also works as a business partner to a senior leader, managing priorities, projects and stakeholders on their behalf. The simplest way to [...]
Most agencies will not answer this question in public. Ask what an EA costs and you will usually get a call back, a discovery meeting, and a number three weeks later. Here is the honest version instead. Hiring an Executive Assistant on a salary of £55,000 will cost your business [...]
Most businesses that come to us for salary benchmarking already believe they know the answer. They want the data to confirm what they've assumed for a while: that their pay is competitive, that the market hasn't moved much, and that any attrition they're seeing is down to something other than [...]
The Chief of Staff is one of the most talked-about career moves in business support and operations right now. It is also one of the least understood, which makes sense, because the path into it is anything but standard. We speak with candidates about this role every week: experienced EAs [...]
The market for business support professionals has tightened this year. Vacancies have eased back and pay is working harder against the cost of living, which you have probably felt in one way or another. A shifting market, however, is exactly when the people who keep quietly investing in themselves pull [...]
Not every employer invests in your development. Some don't have the budget. Some don't have the structure. Some simply don't prioritise it. If you're an EA or PA working in a fast-paced environment, it can feel like the expectation is that you show up, perform, and somehow figure out the [...]
If you are looking for Executive Assistant salary data for the UK, you are probably doing one of two things: working out whether what you are being paid reflects what you actually do, or trying to set a budget for a hire you cannot afford to get wrong. Either way, [...]
There is a pattern we see repeatedly in our work, and our 2026 Salary Survey has confirmed it with data: Business Support professionals are doing more than ever, taking on more responsibility than ever, and being rewarded at a rate that has not kept pace with either. If that sounds [...]
Every year, the question at the top of almost every EA and PA's mind is the same: am I being paid what I'm worth? And every year, the answer gets more complicated. The 2026 Lily Shippen Salary Survey, our most comprehensive to date, gives a clear, data-led view of what [...]
You've heard the title. You've seen it appearing more frequently in job descriptions, LinkedIn profiles, and leadership team bios. But when someone asks what a Chief of Staff actually does on a Tuesday morning, the answer is rarely straightforward. That ambiguity is by design. The Chief of Staff role in [...]
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