As an entrepreneur, your time is better spent growing your company. This includes attending meetings and brainstorming new ideas. Sadly, if your business is still small, your days are often wasted on basic administrative duties like answering emails or managing your calendar.

Investopedia states that the 4 most common reasons why small businesses fail are: financing hurdles, inadequate management, ineffective business planning, and marketing mishaps. Concerns related to management and marketing are crucial yet repetitive, which is why they’re often overlooked.

Hiring a virtual admin assistant lets you focus on more important aspects of your company as they deal with such routine work for you.

Hiring an administrative virtual assistant

1 – Make expectations clear

Be specific with your needs. You might know you need an administrative virtual assistant but can’t put your finger on what you need them for. Over time, you’ll discover what things to take off your to-do list and assign to them.

You can check our previous blog post to know the types of tasks to outsource to an admin VA—there are plenty! Anyway, a good VA will help you figure out what assignments to give them or what areas to focus on.

2 – List preferred qualities

Like with any other hire, make sure the virtual assistant candidate has the qualities you’re looking for. Interviews must be oriented towards how they handle specific situations instead of just previous work experience.

Encourage them to use the STAR response method wherein they provide concrete examples that they possess the right attitude for the job. Ask them to elaborate what their contributions were and how they handled any mistakes they made.

3 – Determine desired skills

Look at the tasks you plan to assign to your VA to know what skill-set your ideal candidate must have. Do you want them to manage your social media profiles? Do they need to have customer service experience? Do they have to send out invoices to clients?

Remember to be realistic though. Consider which skills are mandatory and which are highly preferred but you can do without. For instance, if they’ll mainly be handling your Facebook page, it might be fine if they don’t have knowledge of Quickbooks.

4 – Keep communications open

Unlike a full-time employee, your virtual assistant cannot visit your cubicle or poke their seatmate to get answers. So, look for someone who understands the importance of communicating more because you’re online. They have to be transparent about any questions or concerns they have, for starters.

To maintain clear communication, pick a channel and approach for everyone to adhere to. Think about whether you need a daily call or only a weekly one. Decide if you’ll be using Zoom, Skype, Slack, Teamwork, or any other platform for chatting.

5 – Ask for references

Gauge an applicant’s qualities and skills by checking testimonials and references from past employers. Pay special attention to what previous clients have to say about the quality of their work and their attitude when working. You’ll find the right person based on the testimonials you hear.

It’s even better when you learn that their past clients are in the same industry as you. This way, you’re assured that they’re familiar with how your industry operates and what your target audience wants from your company. You’ll also spend less time teaching them niche tasks and terms.

6 – Do a trial

Want to test the waters before giving a job offer? A trial project is perfect for checking how your relationship with the administrative virtual assistant will turn out. It lets you identify which applicant possesses critical thinking and attention to detail too.

If you want, you can arrange for a probation period for a few days as well. Assign tasks that are small and specific to build trust while minimising risk in case they aren’t suitable. Then, give them bigger assignments if their trial project goes well.

7 – Gauge trainability

You don’t necessarily have to find someone with years of experience. An individual who is less experienced might excel in the role as long as they’re willing to learn. You’ll have to train them how to do their job first but it all pays off in the end.

When you’re having a hard time finding the ideal candidate, choose a person with potential instead. Someone who is interested in learning can be groomed to meet your expectations. They have to take feedback well and strive to do better though.

8 – Check organisation skills

An administrative virtual assistant must be good at managing their time and tasks. They must know what assignments to prioritise over others and multi-task while meeting all their deadlines. Also, they have to value your time and ensure you agree on timelines.

You can tell they’re organised because they deliver detailed reports of their projects. They arrange the status, progress, and areas for improvement in a way that’s easy for you to understand, so you won’t waste too much time checking documents.

9 – Treat with respect

Understand that a virtual assistant is a partner in your company and not a slave for you to boss around. Treat them with respect and avoid ordering them around unreasonably. Make sure that all of the tasks and deadlines you give them are reasonable.

Even as applicants, treat them with dignity. You might not hire them but see to it that they have a good candidate experience. Doing so improves your employer brand so people have the impression that you’re a great company to work for.

Do you need a virtual admin assistant?

Any business, especially a small enterprise, will benefit from hiring an administrative virtual assistant. It’s tempting to do everything alone but an admin VA saves you more time and money than you think. Don’t waste your hours and knowledge on mundane tasks and leave it to an assistant instead.

When you need help with finding a virtual assistant, Remote Workmate can be of service. We specialise in connecting small businesses with the right remote workers. We aim to help you scale your business faster by handling your hiring needs.