A Guide To Recruiting And Managing Virtual Assistants

There’s more to it than just working from home with a virtual assistant. They have the potential to serve as the pillars upon which your company is built while you focus on other responsibilities. It’s possible that their work won’t always have a direct impact on the bottom line. Despite this, everyone on the team is able to sense their presence, particularly when they are able to shift their attention from more repetitive tasks (like social media or data entry) to other priorities. If you provide them with clear objectives and instructions, virtual assistants have the potential to completely revolutionize the way your team works.

Set expectations from the start

Always begin with the overall scope of the project and the duties that are anticipated of the virtual assistant. How long should the project be expected to take? How exactly will the VA be compensated? What does it mean to be within the scope of the project, and what is a stretch goal? These are the kinds of inquiries that you should be asking yourself, as it is highly likely that your virtual assistant will inquire about them once they have been hired. Because of this, it is extremely important to provide clear guidelines and process documents such as an SOW (Scope of Work) to set the scope and responsibilities. Doing so eliminates the possibility of confusion and increases the likelihood of the project being successful.

Define a daily schedule

The next step, which should be taken after all of the contracts have been signed, is to establish a regular schedule for working or checking in. Since virtual assistants are not physically present in the office, it can be difficult to monitor their productivity and ensure that they are communicating in an understandable manner. Talk to the virtual assistant about their availability, and look for windows of time that overlap with the schedules of both your business and theirs. If they are located in a different country, you will also need to take into account the time difference.

Define a budget

The cost of hiring a virtual assistant is one of the most compelling reasons to do so; full-time employees are significantly more expensive to employ than virtual assistants. However, if you do not have a budget, it will be very easy for you to spend more money than you had planned. When you are organizing a project for a virtual assistant (VA), you should make estimates for how long each task ought to take, as well as how much money each If you are as forthright as possible about your financial plan, you can prevent any potential fallout or disagreements regarding the amount of compensation you will receive.

Track time and tasks

When it comes to working remotely, accountability is of the utmost importance. There is nothing that prevents a virtual assistant from falsely claiming to have worked on something when they have not, or from working on a project for a significant amount of time without having that time tracked. Even though it is based on a code of honor, self-tracking is an efficient way to monitor both the amount of work that has been completed and the total amount of work that has been done. Make use of project management apps such as Mavenlink, Asana, or Basecamp to assess the overall progress made by your virtual assistants as well as their level of productivity.

Provide useful performance feedback

It is important to provide your virtual assistants with monthly or even quarterly reports; this can be as simple as a quick conversation between the two of you, but it is most important to address the greatest strengths and opportunities for improvement. This will allow you to truly support and push your virtual assistants to improve. Your virtual assistant will respect your candor and will show their gratitude by working harder as a result of your honesty.