In trying to scale their online businesses, many entrepreneurs choose not to have a remote assistant. As for why, they cite what nightmares others have experienced and how difficult they are to train.

There really are some bad apples though. Be it calling in sick on their first day, being late often, or shirking their duties, there are instances when things aren’t as expected after hearing the wonders of remote personal assistants.

Be aware that these tales might be exaggerated. Not all VAs will fall off the face of the earth and leave your project incomplete. They can save you time, money, and resources in the long run—if you hire the right person.

What to Do Before Hiring a Remote Assistant

Whether it’s your first or fifth time to recruit for such a role, it’s important to prepare your team and yourself to work with a remote virtual assistant. Doing so will spare you the continuous effort of finding replacements because the one you got is disappointing.

Be specific about what you want

Don’t post that you want someone to ‘do social media marketing’, ‘build a website’, or ‘handle your work overload’. Not only are these too vague but also they’re about results, not processes. To properly hand anything off to someone else, be particular about what you want done.

Write down the process step by step if you can. Describe the what, when, where, why, and how in as much detail as possible. This helps you determine what you really need outsourced.

For reference, here are 6 urgent tasks you need to outsource right now.

Consider taking 3 days to note every single task that you or your team works on. It might be meeting clients, emailing leads, writing articles, managing invoices, balancing books, and the like. Out of all of these, figure out which ones you can teach another person to do easily.

Determine the value of each task

After listing down the work you want done, take some time to compute the value behind all of it. Any recurring tasks that you deem to be under USD 30 per hour should be the first that you outsource. This way, you can focus on jobs that will profit you more.

Choose 3 main tasks that you want to hire a remote assistant for. These are what you’ll be listing in the job description to help you find the perfect candidate. This will also enable you to determine if you want a specialist, such as an accounting VA or a digital marketing VA.

Buff up your employee budget

Generally speaking, it’s better to hire someone full-time than part-time or per contract. As you know, a contractual worker is going to be temporary so they have 100% turnover. A full-timer is going to stay with you to grow your business.

At first, it might seem like you can’t afford full-time at first, but find a way to make it happen. It’ll save you in future recruitment costs since you won’t have to spend again to find a replacement. Of course, that’s if you know how to retain them.

If you want to know how to keep your workers happy and make them loyal to you, we have 8 sure-fire strategies to share in a previous blog post. Included is making your expectations clear which is what happens when you’re specific with what you want as per above.

Create resources for training

To make the orientation process more efficient, it’s a good idea to create training videos and write standardised procedures for the tasks you’ll be outsourcing. There are many applications that allow you to record your screen as you perform and complete your assignments while explaining them.

OBS Studio is free to use without restrictions. It supports recording in high definition without limiting the length or number of your videos. If you’re willing to spend a little, there’s Loom Business though you can still use the program for free but with some limitations.

Establish the flow of work

Now that you’ve decided to hire a remote assistant, commit to operating collectively. What this means is that you must make it easy for them to see the stuff that needs doing, like the deadlines, the insertions, and so on. A project management platform is just the thing for this purpose.

Asana has a free plan that allows up to 15 users, has basic search features, and unlimited storage. For spreadsheet-like features, Wrike has columns for every type of information you need to track. Agile and Scrum teams may appreciate Yodiz more for planning releases and sprints.

Make a workflow diagram which gives your remote personal assistants a clearer picture of where they are in the process and how their work contributes to the overall outcome. They’ll know who is waiting for their output or where to ask for input and so on.

Know how to let them go

Despite your best efforts, there are cases when the fit just isn’t right. Maybe they’re on the right bus but you’re putting them in the wrong seat so they’re dissatisfied with the role. There’s no use forcing them to become comfortable if it really isn’t working out.

In these situations, remain as patient as possible and communicate with them often. Ask what they’re struggling with or what they’re stuck on and determine if you need to let them go. If you do, make sure to properly explain why and with a full month notice.

Time to Hire a Remote Assistant!

With the necessary preparations over and done with, you’re finally ready to recruit a remote virtual assistant.

Don’t hire the first candidate you come across, even if they’re offering the lowest price for the job. You want someone who will actually care about your company and clients. Preferably, they should be capable of growing with your business as well.

We at Remote Workmate can make the hiring process easier for you. Our specialty is connecting companies to experienced virtual assistants with minimal hassle. Screening and carrying out initial interviews can be left to us so you’re free to do more important work.