One of the easiest places to start outsourcing some of your work is in hiring a virtual assistant but it can also be tricky to get an assistant that will be an asset to your team. It can also be confusing to choose a source for hiring your assistant and many have a negative experience on their first attempt at hiring offshore workers to be virtual assistants.
If you take a little bit of time though you may find that hiring a competent offshore virtual assistant is one of the best things you’ve ever done for your business.
When hiring a virtual assistant there are really only a few options:
- Hire one directly through classifieds, etc
- Use a freelance job auction site
- Use a company that specializes in hiring virtual employees.
There are benefits and drawbacks to each option but if this is your first time hiring a VA (virtual assistant) then you’ll probably want to go with option 2 or 3.
Choosing option 2 or 3 will usually minimize the risks associated with hiring an outsourced worker but you will still need to follow some basic “best practices”.
To start you need to make a realistic list of what your VA will be required to do. Be as specific as possible because just like any employee you might hire people usually like to know what is expected of them when they take a job on.
The key is to be realistic. Don’t expect that your VA or other remote worker will do every single thing that you do without any sort of direction.
If you know what you expect of your worker and make a clear outline of it you will likely be successful in the hiring process.
Always make it a primary goal that you will hire someone who has a fair mastery over the English language and that is willing to communicate job progress with you on a daily basis.
Last but not least (at least for this list) they should be willing and preferably eager to learn new things.
During the interview process make sure you use a service like skype or some similar service to conduct a real time interview. Ask for samples of their previous work and ask them to complete a small task that takes a very short amount of time during the interview.
If you use these tips to find your virtual employee / associate you will likely succeed on your first attempt at hiring offshore workers.
Recommendation:
A highly recommended resource for finding outsourced labor including virtual assistants can be found here. We have hired very competent english language writers that also do virtual assistant tasks at $2.22 and $3.33 per hour and love the results.