Virtual assistants (VAs) can help reduce the workload on employees in your workforce by taking on tasks for them that would otherwise fall to them, like being too exhausted to add in another task. VAs offer businesses another solution and reduce operational costs: one study shows they save as much as 78% while cutting attrition rates by half.
Finding a virtual assistant may be easy; however, mistakes when hiring one could prove costly to your bottom line. Here in this blog, we discuss common mistakes associated with hiring virtual assistants.
Virtual Assistant
What Are Virtual Assistants? Virtual assistants work remotely from their homes and provide administrative duties for multiple clients, similar to administrative assistants, offering greater flexibility about hours and business needs. A virtual assistant acts as an independent contractor providing administrative services outside their client's office setting - often from home offices but accessing documents like shared calendars remotely.
Things To Keep In Mind When Hiring A Virtual Assistant
Here are several things to remember when hiring a virtual assistant:
Evaluate Your Needs
Before searching for a virtual assistant, it is critical to assess your business needs. Knowing precisely what is expected will allow for clear expectations set by both sides and help eliminate confusion or misunderstandings in working together more efficiently.
Determine Which Tasks Need Outsourcing
Start by reviewing your current workload, noting any time-consuming tasks, and delegating those to virtual assistants - whether administrative duties like scheduling appointments and responding to emails or more specialized duties like social media management, graphic design, website maintenance, or anything else. Make a list of everything that requires your time; identify which can be outsourced to virtual assistants.
Determine Your Skills Needed In A Virtual Assistant
Determining precisely which skills your virtual assistant must possess is vital to any business, as every situation calls for different solutions. Hiring one with relevant expertise could make a substantial impactful difference when it comes to efficiency and productivity. Hiring employees who require intensive training costs both time and money; hiring those equipped with appropriate abilities enables them to start helping immediately.
Common Mistakes When Hiring Virtual Assistants
Hiring a virtual assistant saves both time and money while increasing team productivity. Outsourcing can make an immense difference by fulfilling non-core tasks while freeing your team to focus on what matters. Unfortunately, mistakes happen; here is our breakdown of some common pitfalls related to outsourcing virtual assistants that you should try to avoid to ensure success. Here are some mistakes to avoid while hiring virtual assistants:
Doing Your Due Diligence
With so many virtual assistants, hiring the first VA or agency you encounter can be tempting without doing enough due diligence beforehand. Doing so could prove costly as this decision could have dire repercussions for your company's safety and future growth. Always conduct due diligence for safety concerns before outsourcing any virtual assistance service provider.
Before hiring a virtual assistant, conduct extensive research. Do not let unreliable or scammer individuals steal your hard-earned cash. Review all terms and conditions, which should be easily accessible via their website and client testimonials on Facebook, LinkedIn, or Google review platforms, and call past clients directly about their experience with that VA.
Due diligence will provide valuable and relevant information about a VA that can assist in making an informed decision about whether they're your ideal partner. Although due diligence might seem like extra work, investing in it could save your business from potential threats or liabilities that threaten its survival.
Lack Of Communication Between VA And Employee
Not communicating effectively with virtual assistants when outsourcing virtual assistants should also be avoided, especially if offshore outsourcing involves language and cultural differences that need to be managed effectively, especially since you might work with virtual assistants whose native tongue might not be English.
A communication breakdown between you and a VA can have severe repercussions for your business, leading to miscommunications or misunderstandings that result in errors or delays in completing tasks. While they should do their part by communicating effectively themselves, being transparent with expectations and what should be completed can reduce costly errors made by virtual assistants.
Various project management and communication tools at your disposal could work for project management. At the same time, Skype, Zoom, Viber, or WhatsApp could serve for communication; these can all help delegate tasks more quickly to a virtual assistant.
Unclear Scope Of Work
While virtual assistants (VAs) can do almost any task for you, they still must be trained on what they should be doing before beginning. While VAs may possess expert skill sets in what they do, they need more explicit instructions to yield more-than-stellar results and hinder reaching business goals. Please don't assume a VA can handle tasks alone without discussing their scope in detail with you first.
Virtual assistants may work independently, but you should be precise about their expected tasks. Allowing them to complete their task however they choose is fine, but ensure you provide all of the relevant information to make their task as seamless and successful as possible - otherwise, they'll feel lost and unable to fulfill what was delegated effectively.
Read More: Virtual Assistant Excellence: Can Our Guide Propel Your Earnings By $2M?
Setting Unfair Goals
Miscommunication between yourself and the virtual assistant could result in further headaches and unnecessary time wasted by both of you. Before hiring one, ensure they fully understand your desired objectives for this work and communicate them accordingly; that way, both of you will remain on the same page about their goals for this endeavor. Communicated goals will reduce future headaches as well as save precious time spent.
Virtual assistants excel when they understand your goals for them to assist. Do you wish to increase revenue or lead generation? Whatever it may be, including them as part of the conversation is critical in reaching those targets. Without clear goals, outsourcing partnerships may drift apart; setting concrete objectives with your VA ensures they stay on course in fulfilling them.
Lack Of SOPs And Documented Processes
Working with virtual assistants presents unique challenges due to distance. SOPs and documented processes become essential when working remotely to avoid delays in task delivery; SOPs help eliminate back-and-forth on project details while improving communication efficiency - with these standard operating procedures and processes, timely submission of delegated tasks can be expected.
Every company has standards to abide by, and you should ensure the VA you hire adheres to them. SOPs (standard operating procedures and regulations) must also be strictly observed to safeguard employees and efficiency- failing could leave room for mistakes that could harm the business and jeopardize efficiency levels in general.
Pay Your VA Too Little
Many businesses make the mistake of viewing virtual assistants as yet another expense they need to incur; this should not happen. While hiring one may help save money in general, being too tightfisted when paying their fees could prove disastrous to your company's success.
When hiring a virtual assistant, ensure their pay reflects their experience and value as an employee. Remember: what you pay is what you get; you can only expect them to be as motivated if given fair wages in return; give them what they truly deserve, and you'll see a remarkable transformation.
No Training
Required Virtual assistants are okay with meeting results; however, you still must train them on how your company processes work before hiring one of these experts. Even though their knowledge base extends beyond just virtual assistance, your business processes must still be taught to them so they can understand all that needs to be done for your success.
When using specific tools, new users must know how to utilize them. Refrain from assuming they already understand its functions - provide proper instruction if required so they can complete their tasks quicker and more effectively. Introduce team members they will collaborate with as soon as possible to maintain productivity and efficiency in completing tasks.
Lack Of Appropriate Planning
It takes considerable consideration and preparation to hire a virtual assistant; going without one may be like going into combat without supplies. Once you've set goals and communicated them to your VA, what if something unexpected goes amiss? Don't just have Plan A on standby; prepare Plan B if something needs to be corrected.
Things rarely turn out how we expect them to, so you must plan for worst-case scenarios. For instance, what would you do if the VA you hired suddenly got sick and needed time off work before being replaced immediately? Agencies offering replacement VA services might provide temporary assistance until your official hire returns home.
Not Understanding The Need For VA
Virtual assistants can be invaluable resources for businesses of any kind. From administrative to sales and marketing tasks and customer service support, virtual assistants provide essential assistance that makes running operations smoother. When considering hiring one, however, first consider why. Reading articles about it or hearing advice to do it may sway you, but that shouldn't be enough for making this decision based solely on someone else suggesting one as opposed to real-world needs and goals.
But just because virtual assistants work for other companies does not mean they will also work for yours. First, you should understand your goals and needs as an entrepreneur before deciding if outsourcing makes sense; hiring for the wrong reason could have long-term ramifications for your business.
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Conclusion
Hiring a virtual assistant can be like playing virtual roulette - never knowing exactly who it will be. Only time will tell. If you need help hiring virtual assistants correctly, LiveHelpIndia solves all your worries. LiveHelpIndia offers the solution to all your virtual assistant woes - you no longer have to be concerned that a VA lacks the skills or will disappear at an inconvenient moment; our professional virtual assistant services possess all the expertise required for smooth operations.
