Hiring a Virtual Assistant Hiring a virtual assistant could be one of the most important moves for your business. However, if they aren't leveraged to their full potential, they could be a waste of your investment. Before hiring your first remote employee, you should have everything planned out and ready for them to take over. The seamless transition would mean they aren’t lost during their first day, and you have already delegated tasks they should focus on.
First and foremost, congrats on hiring your FIRST Virtual Assistant. You are in the right place if you need help utilizing the individual or group you have hired. We have gathered all the necessary information to provide you with the best guide to assist you in this milestone.
Allow us to walk you through the end-to-end process of fully utilizing your VA without the hassle of giving them too many tasks that get overwhelming or too little that they become complacent and underperform.
Build Trust And Connections
Any working relationship starts with a sturdy foundation, and that foundation is grounded by trust and effective communication. When you hire your first Virtual Assistant, it will always be shaky in the beginning.
Since the only connection you have with them is through the interview process, surface-level connections won’t be fruitful unless the necessary action to build trust and communication has not been initiated.
Getting to know your virtual assistant through questions that showcase their skills and experience can work in your favor; however, it only exemplifies comfortability if you reach common ground or share experiences.
Let’s face it: people only trust at a level they are trusted. If you cannot trust your virtual assistant, it would be a total waste of time since the exchange between you and your VA will be limited.
What are the steps in building trust and connection? Here are some of the main points to keep in mind while building Trust and Connections with your hired VA:
Set Clear Expectations - First-day jitters between the VA and Client are inevitable; after taking off the heavy load of awkwardness, it becomes easier to set proper expectations. These expectations should cover what you expect from the VA and the tasks they have to achieve within specific timeframes and deadlines you have set.
Discuss Accountability - Accountability is a two-way street; if the VA or the Client is not accountable for specific tasks and functions, neither can move towards the next step. It must be established from the beginning what particular tasks and functions the latter should be accountable for, and both should take responsibility should any inconvenience arise throughout the process.
Schedule Check-ins - Virtual Assistants are productive individuals if given the right direction and delegation of specific tasks under their bucket. Scheduled check-ins help build connections and trust since they work remotely; the bare minimum of providing progress reports or at least seeing their progress will evade suspicious activities.
Practice Active Listening - Active listening isn’t a one-way street; it’s an exchange between the client and their respective Virtual Assistant. Ensuring all bases are covered can only be done if both parties understand each other. You should remember that hearing about what someone says is different from listening to what they have to say.
Build Rapport - Admittedly, building rapport with someone you barely know can become challenging. Not knowing their likes and dislikes, how they respond to negative and positive criticisms, or how they accept what you have to say. Then again, something can happen or be built if someone takes the first step.
Maintain Engagement
With all that being said, managing engagement is the next step. Building trust and connections becomes seamless if your relationship (client-virtual assistant) has already been established. Active engagement or continuous engagement helps strengthen the said relationship.
How so? The simple answer is that maintaining engagement also comes as a challenge for remote employees. You can’t quickly establish trust and connections without engaging with your employees. In a corporate environment, each employee can interact with one another within close parameters. With Virtual Assistants, on the other hand, or remote workers, maintaining engagement throughout their work environment seems impossible, yet highly doable.
As a client, it is essential to note that even if these employees you hire are remote workers, they should still be treated as employees who complete a function for your business.
Create And Maintain Boundaries
When creating job descriptions for remote workers, you tend to sell your business and ensure the candidates know they are entering a community that focuses on work-life balance. Now that you have hired your first Virtual Assistant, it is pivotal that you showcase how your business and community cater to the balance above.
After mentioning active communication and regular check-ins, clients tend to overstep and provide too much to handle, expecting that their hired Virtual Assistants can easily handle the job. On the other hand, Virtual Assistants can also overstep by taking the job for more than what it is.
Setting and maintaining boundaries would mean that the client and Virtual Assistant understand how to respect the time of the person they are working with. Maintaining this balance is the next step to ensure that both parties are aligned, the work limitations are set, and their responsibilities are discussed.
Things You Can Do As A Client
Set Feasible Targets And Goals - One of the biggest mistakes clients make when hiring their first Virtual Assistant is giving them too much to do. Making sure you give your VA enough work within their expertise may seem impossible since you have a lot on your plate, but take it one step at a time.
Practice Asynchronous Work - The relationship between clients and VAs may require constant communication. If you provide your VAs with enough wiggle room, everything is possible.
Remember that hiring your first virtual assistant is to ease them in and transition tasks that take up too much of your time. Asynchronous work gives them the leniency and freedom to do their best without the need for constant monitoring.
Provide Room For Growth - It may seem too early to think about growth and opportunities after hiring your first VA; however, giving them a target to look forward to will give them the extra boost of performing at their best. Don’t forget that the same thirst for growth and scaling in a business is the same as growth as an individual.
Conclusion
Hiring your first VA will be like a challenge to overcome. Allow Elly to take the load off for you and provide seamless transitions alongside our Virtual Assistants. Rest assured, you are in good hands; not only will we provide you with high-performing virtual assistants, but we will also work with you to ensure that you aren’t overwhelmed by building relationships.
Let us be the right step towards growth scaling in your business as we provide you with world-class services.