Virtual Assistant Hiring Process: The 10 essential steps you should take

March 8, 2023
6:00 pm
BPO Insights
Customer Services, Virtual Assistant Services

Hiring a Virtual Assistant (VA) can completely change the shape of your business in a lot of ways. A Virtual Assistant can help you become more effective and more efficient, and help you grow your business exponentially. They can also help you get your life back.

There are 3 core issues that cause many businesses to have a bad experience with virtual assistants. In this article, we explain how you can deal with them. At the same time, we will guide you through the Virtual Assistant Recruitment Process with 10 essential steps you should do.

Should I Hire a Virtual Assistant?

No one can answer this question but you.

You should absolutely hire a Virtual Assistant if you’re working far longer hours than you’d want to, you can’t keep up with your workload (to the damage of your business), or you waste much too much time on tedious activities.

It may be wiser to postpone hiring a VA if you can’t actually afford it right now and instead wait till your company has expanded.

Yet, finding a Virtual Assistant isn’t a quick procedure that can be started one day and finished the following morning.

Finding the ideal VA requires a lot of work, from ensuring that they are a good fit for you and your business (and vice versa) to determining the kinds of activities you’ll have them assist you with, to training and onboarding them. That’s why you should master the Virtual Assistant Recruitment Process.

The 10 essential steps you should take in about Virtual Assistant Hiring Process

Step 1: Decide What Your Virtual Assistant Will Do

There are Virtual Assistants (VAs) for just about any task. VAs can do data entry, calendar management, bookkeeping, social media management, correspondence, research… the list goes on. The point is: you need to know what you want your VAs to do from the start. Otherwise, it will be impossible to find the right person.

VAs tend to market themselves as general Virtual Assistants and specialized Virtual Assistants. If you just need help staying organized, a general virtual assistant will be able to best meet your needs. However, if you need support in a particular area, you’ll want to hire a specialized VA.

Unsure about what you need? Spend a week (or perhaps a month, if your activities are quite diverse) making a note of everything you do. Decide what doesn’t require your expertise and that you could outsource to a Virtual Assistant.

Uncertain of your needs? Make a list of everything you do for a week (or possibly a month if your activities are extremely varied). Determine what can be delegated to VAs and doesn’t require your knowledge.

Step 2: Figure Out Your Budget

A Virtual Assistant could be able to handle a lot of your chores, but it would probably be too pricey. Start by concentrating only on a few chores, possibly the most boring or difficult ones.

You’ll need to know how much a VA will cost in order to decide how many jobs you can afford to delegate. Regrettably, there is no simple answer; it varies on a variety of elements, including the services provided, the VA’s level of experience, and whether employees are hired domestically or abroad. As a result, you can anticipate earning anything between $3 and $75 each hour.

To determine the highest price you may pay a VA, try to assign a monetary value to each duty you require. Keep in mind that higher quality will cost you more. Hiring a Virtual Assistant who is just starting out but does have relevant experience can, however, frequently help you save money.

Step 3: Create a Training Program

Training could take a few seconds or several hours, depending on the assignment. Whatever the case, you will need to design some sort of onboarding. This will enable the Virtual Assistant to execute tasks in accordance with your standards and employ your procedures. Training can take the form of a written paper outlining stages (perhaps with screenshots) or a video that demonstrates the process. With this training program, a replacement Virtual Assistant will find it simpler to take up the workload if your original Virtual Assistant leaves.

Step 4: Search for a Virtual Assistant

We now reach a crucial point: where to locate a Virtual Assistant. You have three primary choices:

Freelance platforms
A virtual assistant agency
Job site

There is a large pool of people available for you to choose from on freelance platforms and employment sites, including Innovature BPO’s Virtual Assistant Service. Payment protection is an additional benefit of freelance platforms over employment sites, albeit the interviewing process may be more constrained.

You’ll probably have less control over the VA you’re allocated with an agency. This presents a challenge for some small business owners. Others, however, genuinely favor this because it reduces part of the work involved in selecting the ideal candidate on your own.

Step 5: Write a Job Post

Important in your quest is stating what you want and how you want it. This could entail asking for certain services if you’re working with an agency. But, you must create a job posting if you’re looking to recruit someone.

The ideal job posting will specify the tasks you require as well as any skills or qualifications the Virtual Assistant should possess. You won’t waste time on unqualified candidates if you do this. Asking for some inquiries is also a good idea. This will enable you to quickly determine whether respondents have read the whole job posting in addition to allowing applicants the option to describe their qualifications.

Finally, it’s crucial to specify how many hours each week or month the VA needs to work. Virtual assistants need to know that they have enough time for your project if they are also working for numerous other small business owners or have other responsibilities.

Step 6: Interview Candidates

Holding an interview is an additional step if you’re recruiting a Virtual Assistant through a job board or freelance website. The interview may involve asking candidates a few straightforward questions by text message, phone call, or video chat. There might be restrictions on how much communication you can have with a Virtual Assistant before hiring, so this will partly rely on the platform you’re utilizing.

Step 7: Create a Short Test

You could want to create a test that Virtual Assistants can do in 10 minutes or less to evaluate prospects. Make it no longer than this because doing so can give the impression that you are looking for unpaid labor. You should be able to assess a candidate’s ability to follow directions, pay attention to detail, and applicable abilities during the test. Also, it should be relevant to the work the VAs will perform for you.

Tests are often suitable for general-purpose Virtual Assistants. For expert VAs, nevertheless, it may be useful to see samples of past work. For instance, you might want to view profiles the VA is already managing if they will be handling your social media accounts.

Step 8: Do a Trial Run

A brief test and interview can only reveal so much about a candidate. It’s a good idea to engage the Virtual Assistant for a brief trial period before signing a long-term contract. You might only require a week, or you might need as long as 30 or 60 days, for example, if the work you have is scarce. You’ll be able to determine whether you two will get along on a trial run. Also, it will imply that neither of you is determined to carry on when the trial is over.

A trial run is especially simple if you are employing a Virtual Assistant through an agency. You can frequently work with a VA for a few jobs through an agency, and if you’re not satisfied with the outcomes, you can switch to a different VA right away. You will be back at square one if you use a freelance platform or job site, unless, of course, you have a few backup options in mind.

Step 9: Set Reasonable Expectations

It’s crucial to set reasonable goals after hiring a Virtual Assistant. While the VA adjusts to your working style, there will be a learning curve initially. Yet, as time passes, you should anticipate advancements until the work you are receiving is flawless—or very close—to perfection.

Expect tasks to take longer and be of worse quality if you hire a VA with little to no expertise in order to save money. The best Virtual Assistants cost a lot of money. In the case you can only afford someone charging a few dollars an hour, you may need to cut in your expectations.

Yet, it is realistic to anticipate that your Virtual Assistant will work independently after a while. Don’t feel obligated to extend the contract if the job you receive continues to be subpar.

Step 10: Adapt Your Approach

Several small business owners employ a number of Virtual Assistants, but nothing ever appears to be successful. Under these circumstances, you should consider if you need to make any changes.

Think about the instructions you’re giving first. Do you know exactly what you want, how you want it done, and when you want it done? You should be as descriptive as you can. If not, even the best Virtual Assistant will become disoriented.

How are you communicating after that? You’ll probably need to check in frequently throughout the first week, possibly through SMS and occasionally through video chats. Following then, keep it in check. If you have nothing particularly important to say, there’s no need to plan a chat. Just be sure to provide feedback each time the VA completes a task. If everything appears to be in order, a simple “thank you” might do.

Consider the deadlines you are setting as a final step. If they are excessively strict, your VA might not be able to keep up, which might lead to subpar performance. As a result, the VA might leave to work for someone less demanding.

How To Shortcut The Hiring Process And Get A World-Class VA

If you’re a founder or executive who wants an effective, reliable Virtual Assistant that can manage a high volume of tasks for you, the hiring process can take weeks or months to execute correctly.

The likelihood that you will make the best hire will be much increased if you use the above-described procedure. But a lot of those in this situation just don’t have the time. They require assistance right now since they are overwhelmed.

So, we created Innovature BPO to help. To discover the best Virtual Assistants in the world, we’ve devised a thorough process; we hire about 1 in every 1,000 candidates.

Essential tasks like email and calendar management, research, and data entry can all be completed by our assistants. However they frequently also assist consumers with items like:

Social media management
Workflow and project management
Bookkeeping
Payroll
Customer support
Employee onboarding
Presentations
eCommerce management (on platforms like Amazon)
Personal assistant tasks like booking dinner reservations or Scheduling grocery deliveries

Innovature BPO assistants are more capable of handling these kinds of tasks with a higher level of dependability and competence than what most VA companies can provide thanks to the rigorousness of our hiring process, which places a strong emphasis on evaluating candidates on the qualities we’ve discussed throughout this post.

From small business owners to executives at huge corporations to former workers of internet behemoths like Google, LinkedIn, and Uber, we assist a diverse variety of people.

Success with a Virtual Assistant needs careful consideration of each step of the hiring procedure. You need to be clear about what you’re looking for and screen prospects by asking the correct questions. Then, you need to create a supportive culture where your VA can thrive. Do this and your VA will become a valuable member of your team, putting your business on the path to growth.

Choosing Innovature BPO is a simple method to discover a Virtual Assistant who fits your demands. You won’t need to screen applicants or publish a job posting. Set up a meeting with us to go over your requirements, and we’ll discover the ideal match.

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