How To Hire And Manage A Virtual Executive Assistant (2021 Guide)

When you hire an employee, it’s not just about matching the skill-set, but we also need to determine if it fits into the unique organizational culture.

After decades of learning, there is a consensus to divide the hiring parameters based on two characteristics - Willingness to work and the skill-set required to work. This division evaluates the prospect’s resource on his will and skill aspect, and it is widely accepted that an employee with a stronger will is a better resource than an employee with better skill.

Hiring for Start-ups and small businesses

This learning certainly helps organizations create a robust system for hiring employees, but when you are at a start-up phase, choosing will over skill is a tricky situation.

You do not have time and resources to invest in a willing employee to learn or enhance their skill-set and people with a better skill-set tend to move easily from a small business.

Fortunately, the 2021 pandemic has started a new trend that will help you solve the Will and Skill problem – Virtual Assistants.

How To Hire a Virtual Executive Assistant?

The best way to hire remote assistant is through a Virtual Assistant Agency. They come with many benefits and create a hassles free experience for the hiring company.

In most cases, the agency hires the resources, trains them for the virtual environment, and also sets processes to track the productivity of VA’s. In addition, they also offer a replacement in case an employee is going on long leaves or decides to move away.

In short, Virtual Assistant Agencies are the best way to hire a Virtual assistant as they come with insurance that covers most of the risks of hiring a VA.

Things to keep in mind while hiring a Virtual Assistant

1. Tracking Productivity

When you hire a VA, you pay for only productive time; hence it becomes very important to track their productivity and set timelines for delivery.

While managing productivity, divide the goals into small milestones and define a timeline for each milestone. This mechanism will create a robust delivery process without micromanagement.

2. Define requirements and match the skill

As you can hire a virtual assistant that is exclusive to your needs, make sure you define your requirement well in advance to the agency and match the individual’s skill as per your requirement.

Write down your requirements with detailed instructions. It will help you create a transparent working environment.

3. Payment Plan

Most of the VA’s are available on an hourly basis with a minimum hour’s commitment. Choose your plan according to your workload and clarify the minimum hours’ requirement.

While planning for the hours, budget 2-3 extra hours in a week for changes and revisions.

Along with these points, also keep in mind that communication and commitment are key for a successful Virtual assistant endeavor. Therefore, You will also need to invest in regular touch-base calls and weekly review meetings.

How to Manage a Virtual Executive Assistant?

Managing a VA is as much important as hiring the right candidate for the job. Since they are a remote employee, few things will remain the way it works in a physical office, but few things will change to keep the virtual work environment more productive.

Here are a few tips to manage a virtual assistant-

Avoid ‘TO and FRO’ emails

When working in a virtual environment, there could be multiple questions that a VA may have about the task assigned; it sometimes leads to a back-and-forth e-mail exchange.

Avoid such e-mails and try to solve these types of issues via a meeting or a call. This will save time and confusion.

Instant message constantly

Since your resource is not physically accessible, constantly be in touch after a set interval, ideally once every two hours.

Progress updates are a great way to keep in constant touch and be in sync with the each-other.

Create Shared Space

For effective management, you will need shared space for deliverables, reports, or any other document. It will keep the work organized and accessible to both of you.

Cloud storage will help you track the performance and quick revisions.

Maintain Activity Sheet

Keep a Master sheet for all the work that the VA has done. You can use a productivity tracker or you can also use a simple excel sheet. The VA’s should list all the tasks assigned to them and their current status.

This way you can track complete performance and also measure the average efficiency of the VA. In addition, It will give you a data point to evaluate the performance.

The Conclusion

Hiring and managing a VA is not complex, you just need to create the right processes. Once your systems are in place, it will be one of the easiest things that you will ever deal with.

Just remember one thing, you will need to commit as much as the VA. You have to be available to share feedback, reply to their questions, and trust the resource you have hired.

In many cases, when you onboard a new employee, they need a couple of days to understand the process and how things work around culturally. It’s okay to give some time to wrap their head around the requirement and delivery.

With all this information, you are off to a head start on hiring an efficient Virtual Assistant.

Happy Hiring!