A virtual assistant (VA) can get you amazing results for your business, but only if you find the right one and have an effective management process in place. Hiring a virtual assistant isn’t always as easy as one may think and finding the right person for the role is crucial.
Before you embark on your recruitment drive, start shortlisting and scheduling interviews into your calendar, take care to read our guidelines so that they can help you to find your new superstar VA, first time to help your business scale.
What Are Your Needs?
This is very important! Before you even make a start, consider what your needs are? What role do you require filling? What tasks and responsibilities with the new VA be responsible for? Are you looking for an expert in a particular field? Assess the costs of outsourcing this role/tasks and make sure that actually hiring a VA is a positive step forward.
We suggest to all our clients, in order to gain a clear perspective, observe, document and evaluate one's processes and task completion across a 2-3 week period (longer is better). Time track if necessary, so you can then analyse in clear view which tasks are repetitive and could easily be designated to a VA, which would free up your schedule and give you time to focus on requirements that need your full attention.
Systemisation
In order to integrate a new VA into your business and assign them tasks with ease you need to have a system in place. You want to get results and no doubt have high expectations, so don’t set your VA up for a fall right from the start and ensure you have a set standard which your virtual assistant can use as a benchmark as he/she tries to deliver output? Clear processes in place that he/she can follow and overtime change for the better.
As a business owner, you should have an idea of what results you’re looking for and what each task involves (clear steps needed to execute). If the tasks that you’ll be outsourcing to a virtual assistant are mostly administrative tasks that are neither technical nor require a specialised skill, then it’s better to have a best practices checklist, or better still, use a project management software like Asana that your VA can use.
Do Your Research
Once you know you need a virtual assistant and have refined the tasks they will be responsible for, you can now proceed and create a tailored job description that enumerates the responsibilities, desired qualifications, experience and other related requirements.
The job description may be easy enough, but there might be other details that you need to include, such as computer hardware and software requirements, minimum internet speed, and work schedule—especially if you intend to hire a virtual assistant from a different time zone.
There are many online recruitment portals available nowadays that cover global locations but some have mixed results. Check where you can have your job posting published, or if you want an agency or staffing service to recruit a virtual assistant for you.
Pre Screen Your Candidates
Pre screening is vital to check the credentials of the VA, to request them to complete role related test task(s) where you can measure their performance and conduct an interview. Their initial application and CV may appear impressive—but don’t stop at that. If you need a virtual assistant who can create amazing copy for your marketing campaigns and/social media posts, at least give your applicants a short qualifying test that will determine if they can actually construct great copy.
Does The Candidate Meet The Grade?
After you have conducted your screening process, you are now ready to make your decision. Who is the best candidate for the role? Out of group that have been thoroughly shortlisted and ticked the boxes, you may have your first, second and third choice based on their qualifications.
Remember that you will be entrusting your business to your new virtual assistant, so it is important not to rush this step and make the right decision. Don’t just hire on a whim because you ‘think’ they will do a good job. Efficiency and productivity is key here and the new VA needs to be able to save you money and time, not cost you more.
Summary
We’ve provided these guidelines to help you understand the vital steps required prior to and during the recruitment process, so that you can select the ideal virtual assistant for you and your business.
Have further questions? Feel free to get in contact with our team TODAY. We are happy to help.
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Here Are Some Additional Resources
Get Expert Virtual Assistants: Want to build your team of transformational VAs and free your time? Learn more here.
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Need to Understand The Benefits of Outsourcing? Download our FREE guide to get all your questions answered.
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