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5 Things Virtual Assistants Wish Employers Do When Hiring

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Written By Bryan Grey

Though virtual assistants are the hidden weapon most online entrepreneurs activate to scale their business and productivity, the hiring process can greatly reduce or maximize the effectiveness of a virtual assistant.

I’m going to share from experience what virtual assistants wish employers do during the hiring and onboarding process. These little things, if put in place, will cause your expectations and that of your virtual assistant to align in a way that fosters productivity.

You are not going to get frustrated because your virtual assistant will deliver on all assigned tasks in your preferred way and style. It’ll be like you’re the one doing it because you’ve created systems in place to replicate yourself in your virtual assistant.

This is what a virtual assistant yearns for…

…that he’ll find a roadmap, or training, to read your expectations and perform all delegated activities in the same way you would’ve done it. Do you know why? It’s because the biggest fear of a virtual assistant is to let you down.

There is nothing more dreadful to a virtual assistant than getting paid for a job and then failing to deliver. Nothing is more haunting than realizing they’ve worked amiss, producing results that are different from what you had in mind, leaving you and other clients feeling disappointed.

Virtual assistants put in their energy to optimize their remote work and learn every digital skill needed for the job, only to start struggling with meeting the employer’s expectations because the onboarding process contains no clue on how the employer wants things done, only information on what should be done.

So the virtual assistant (VA) gets the job done, but the employer isn’t satisfied, because the VA could’ve done better, could’ve done it his way.

And that’s why smart VAs wish to communicate the steps to take in eliminating this gap in expectations. That’s what I’ll be sharing in this post.

5 Easy Things VAs (Virtual Assistants) Expect From Employers

5 Things Virtual Assistants Wish Employers Do When Hiring

These are the things most virtual assistants badly want to tell employers, but won’t. They’d rather struggle in the dark to meet your expectations. As a savvy entrepreneur, you know better now. 

You know to master these tips on how to hire a virtual assistant, clearly superimpose your expectations on your VA with what I’ll share below, and watch them perform those tasks as you would’ve done it.

Only then, will you enjoy the true benefits of hiring a virtual assistant – doubled productivity, more time for yourself, rest of mind, scaling of your business, and ultimately more revenue. Can’t wait? Let’s go over what virtual assistants wish to communicate to employers.

1. Virtual assistants wish for a screen-recorded walkthrough of all assigned tasks

There’s no better way for your virtual assistant to grasp how you want things done than watching you do it.

Executing those tasks yourself in a video screen recording not only allows your virtual assistants to know what to do in a step-by-step manner but also lets them see how you do it. This is very important because you probably have a little preference for the tools and methods used in executing those tasks.

I understand that most people use a written training manual called a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) to explain to their VAs what to do. As a virtual assistant, I find SOPs to be far less helpful than a screen-recorded walkthrough of tasks.

Most VAs do because most people learn better with videos than with text. You can create a free screen recording for your VA using Screencast-o-Matic.

Then you give your virtual assistant a link to all the screen-recorded videos of you performing those tasks. Your VAs will be at ease because they can always make reference to those videos whenever they are in a tight spot.

Doing this alone will speed up the onboarding process of your VA and make them get the hang of the job faster. This is one unspoken concern of virtual assistants.

2. VAs want a clear itemization of all outsourced tasks

Most online business owners hit a level of growth in their business that they get overwhelmed with the day-to-day operations.

This is a welcoming phase for a business because it means that you’ve reached the point where your business scales from being a one-man show to directing a team.

The only problem now is that, in that state of overwhelm, they hire a virtual assistant, introduce their business, and just tell them to help out.

Helping out is a vague job description. There are no clear expectations. Your virtual assistant would do as much as he can and you wouldn’t know what “done” looks like.

VAs prefer that you itemize all the things you’ll have them do for you. That way, they can mark out the checklist of all finished tasks, and both you and your VA will have a sense of accomplishment and progress.

VAs want a clear itemization of all outsourced tasks

3. Use a project management tool to streamline communications and workflow

One way to efficiently manage the communication and workflow of your remote team is by using a project management tool.

With a project management tool, your virtual assistant and other remote team members can monitor the progress of all ongoing tasks, and you can also tag and communicate with your virtual assistant. 

This is far better than using only lengthy email threads for communications, as it’ll reduce a lot of back and forth communications with your VA. There are several project management tools to use like Trello and Asana. 

4. VAs don’t want access to every part of your business

Some unethical virtual assistants and team members with undue access to an employer’s business go behind their employer’s back to steal their clients.

Online entrepreneurs can curtail this by only allowing access to parts of the business that a virtual assistant needs at the moment.

It is easier to just give your VA a password and email with full permission to your online business and ask them to get to work. However, it’s smarter to create permissions and access levels when you do this.

Ethical virtual assistants prefer that you put appropriate restrictions in place so they can only work on the parts of your business that concerns them. With this, there’ll be no case of betrayals.

5. Virtual assistants want your honest feedback on the job

At least, in the early stages of onboarding, virtual assistants want your sincere thoughts on how they performed. They need it so they can align their performance with your expectations in the shortest time possible.

Letting them know what they could’ve done better, coupled with the screen-recorded training of all tasks in your VAs job description, will help your VA perform their duties just the way you like it.

Nobody will notice the smooth transition of activities that went on between you and your virtual assistant, as it’ll look like you’re still the one doing those activities.

To outsiders and customers, your online business will seem to run 24/7 in such a fluid manner, almost like you are everywhere at the same time. Only you would know that you have a powerful secret of most successful entrepreneurs – virtual assistants.

Things Virtual Assistants Expect From Employers

Things Virtual Assistants Expect From Employers

The considerations for remote work have changed in the past few years, giving place to the rise of virtual assistants. Here are some of the things virtual assistants expect from employers during the hiring process:

  • Virtual assistants wish for a screen-recorded walkthrough of all assigned tasks.
  • VAs want a clear itemization of all outsourced tasks.
  • Use a project management tool to streamline communications and workflow.
  • VAs don’t want access to every part of your business.
  • Virtual assistants want your honest feedback on the job.

Armed with this knowledge that virtual assistants want you to know, you are about to maximally harness the full powers of a VA for your online business. Cheers to greater productivity and an improved relationship with your virtual assistant.

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