Any modern entrepreneur can appreciate the benefits of hiring a remote personal assistant. As you’re freed from time-consuming tasks like sorting emails and organising files, you can focus more on growing your company that hires virtual assistants. Not to mention you can save on wages and overheads.

The actual process of finding the right candidate can be daunting, however. To make recruitment smoother and easier overall, we’ve put together some tips on how to tackle the common challenges of hiring remote assistants.

Identifying tasks to outsource

Virtual assistant work is no longer limited to secretarial tasks. You can find someone to manage almost any project or job these days. This is why it’s important to be specific about a candidate’s responsibilities in case you hire them.

If it’s your first time outsourcing, you may be unsure about what to include in the task list. We recommend starting with basic administrative work, such as:

• Preparing presentation materials.
• Setting appointments.
• Handling phone calls.
• Managing the calendar.
• Filtering emails.

Once you have a better idea about the assistant’s tasks, slowly add more responsibilities or move on to advanced assignments (e.g. bookkeeping and payroll).

Narrowing down the list of applicants

With such a large pool of candidates available, it’s inevitable that you’ll get many applications for the role/s you have open. You’ll need to figure out how to narrow your list of applicants.

The solution: have a multi-part selection process and qualify at each stage. Here are some suggestions:

• Talent acquisition – include a specific instruction in your job post to determine which applicants are attentive to details; eliminate those not following instructions.

• Due diligence review – check for irregularities or red flags in their online profiles; look up references and portfolios of work; and perform a Google search of their name.

• Preliminary interview – ask questions about their resume, technical subject matter, and their personality; record the interview to review at a later date.

For a more stringent selection process, schedule a paid test period of no more than 2 hours for your top five remote virtual assistant candidates. This provides greater insight as to who fits the bill better.

Establishing a means of communication

Communication has a major impact on work performance but coordinating a remote IT staffing virtual team can be difficult. If you make a mistake, interactions may decrease, employees can feel isolated and morale may decline. Hence, establish a system beforehand by:

• Making use of chat, instant messaging and other tools.
• Keeping these channels open and monitored throughout the workday.
• Scheduling regular meetings or check-ins to establish and strengthen bonds.
• Ensuring everyone is on the same page, especially regarding company goals.

Also, think about how you’ll make the virtual assistant feel comfortable enough so that they’d bring up any issues or provide suggestions without being asked.

Tracking employee performance across time zones

It’s easy to set working hours when you’re in the same geographic region. However, it’s common for members of the same remote team to be located in different parts of the globe. You may be concerned about knowing when and if your employees are actually working.

This can be easily resolved by making your remote assistants log in during the same time as you. If the time difference is significant, you can compromise by:

• Overlapping their work shifts by only one to two hours with your time zone.
• Using email to announce important updates rather than requiring a meeting.
• Recording meetings and tutorials for those who cannot attend the event live.
• Evaluating their contributions quantitatively where possible.
• Utilising productivity software to collect data including screenshots and output levels.

The above tips will also help you determine if the remote virtual assistant offshore worker is underperforming or is unsuitable for your business.

Overcoming barriers for culture and language

A globally diverse workforce brings with it language and cultural divides which affect how virtual assistants in the Philippines team members interact with each other. You’ll need to learn how to navigate these differences to ensure everyone is efficient and productive.

Management issues such as favouritism will be hard to avoid. You may find yourself favouring those who have similar processes and work habits as yourself. At the same time, you may avoid types who are outside this preference. But there’s a problem: resentment may arise from this over time.

How can you avoid this dilemma?

1. Invest in team-building exercises to establish and nurture relationships, thereby boosting employee retention.
   
   
2. Enable and encourage remote assistants to share details and insights about their locations and cultures as part of a team-building exercise.
   
   
3. Make a conscious effort to reach out to workers who are of a different gender, belief system and background than those you naturally relate to.

Being clear about KPIs is valuable for getting the results you want as well. When hire staff in the Philippines employees are aware of your objectives and expectations, they are better able to move past any differences to achieve them.

Parting thoughts

Hiring remote assistants should be a well-organised process that requires time and energy. Fortunately, offshore staffing providers like us at Remote Workmate make the procedure more streamlined while providing full support with every step of the way.