You are an entrepreneur and you must be an expert in your field and have a vision of your business. But that doesn’t mean that you are a jack of all trades. Trying to do all things on your own will burn you out quickly.

When you find it difficult to manage time to meet the increasing demands of your business it's time for you to hire a virtual assistant.

In this blog, I will not only tell you the steps to how to hire a virtual assistant for your business.

But also gives you a complete guide on how to write your job description that will make the hiring process a breeze.

But before diving into the steps, let's start the process by discussing why you need someone to outsource your tasks.

Learn more: Why should companies outsource their work in 2024?

Why you should consider hiring a virtual assistant?

As a business owner, there are a lot of time-consuming tasks that distract you from your vision. The list of tasks is like

1. Social media management

2. Scheduling meetings

3. Administrative work

4. Customer service

5. Email Handling

6. Bookkeeping

7. Advertising

8. Marketing

A list of these time-consuming yet necessary tasks keeps growing with your business. Delegating these tasks by hiring a virtual assistant, can allow you to devote more time to the company's strategic goals such as

• Increasing your customer base

• Developing your brand

• Improving profitability

• Innovate and adapt

• Raising income

Also Hiring a virtual assistant is cost-effective as there is no overhead cost, taxes, insurance, and office expenditures for these remote professionals.

Moreover, virtual assistants' salaries are less than compared of in-house employees because they are charged on a project or hourly basis.

You can find all kinds of benefits of a virtual assistant over an employee just by clicking here.

However, as an entrepreneur, you must want an expert or skilled professional for your business. In this aspect, Virtual assistants are experts in their fields as they work with different cultures, business behaviors, and companies. Explore the amazing trends of virtual assistants in 2024 here.

Categorizing Your Tasks for Optimal Virtual Assistant Hiring

Before outsourcing your business tasks, first, divide them into general to specific categories. It will help you to understand the scope of your work. You will also be able to learn which tasks need you and which tasks need to hire virtual assistants.

Plus, categorization can ensure that you are using your time and skills wisely by performing the right tasks.

Low-value tasks

Low-value tasks are those tasks that are time-consuming and mundane like data entry, scheduling, and bookkeeping.

Although, you can hire a virtual assistant for any kind of task. But tasks like these typically do not require hiring someone who has specialized skills. In other words, you can hire a general type of virtual assistant for low-value tasks.

Relevant: Benefits of hiring a virtual assistant for your business.

High-value tasks

On the other hand, high-value tasks are those that require expertise and strategic skills like marketing, product development, and financial management.

For high-value tasks, you need to hire specialist virtual assistants in their relevant fields.

After dividing the tasks, it will be easy for you to find the most convenient type of virtual assistant.

Which type of Virtual Assistants should consider hiring?

Freelancers

Freelance virtual assistants are independent contractors that work on project bases or specific tasks. Hiring these self-employed workers is cost-effective as they charge less.

The main benefit of hiring a freelance virtual assistant is, that you can talk to a person directly to explain the scope of work and get your tasks done at an affordable rate.

However, given the saturation of freelancing platforms, it is getting really difficult to find the right talent and good value for your money.

Niche specialists

Niche specialist virtual assistants are experts in their specialized fields and can work effectively and efficiently.

They have vast knowledge and experience in their relevant industry and can tailor their expertise according to the needs of your business.

Niche Specialist Virtual assistants have loads of practical experience in their respective fields and are well aware of the tools, software, and CRMs that remote companies use to complete their tasks.

Hiring Niche specialists is costly, as they charge more for their expertise. They are also well aware of the work culture because of their experience working with established and grown companies overseas.

Freelance VAs lack this expertise as most of them only work on short-term projects mainly and it's difficult to find an expert or specialist on freelancing platforms.

Learn more: How a virtual assistant can save you time and money?

How to write an effective job post to hire a virtual assistant?

Here are the 7 most effective steps to write a job post that will attract the right talent for your needs.

Determine your business needs

Identify the expertise and skills of the tasks that you want to outsource. In this way, you can define the services of the virtual assistant that you want to write in a job description of hiring a virtual candidate.

For example, the type of skills you are expecting from a virtual assistant like communication skills, or specialized skills like copywriting, sales, content writing, web development, etc.

In this manner, you can write the targeted job description to hire a virtual assistant and find the right skilled one.

Choose a job title

The job title may be the first phrase or line that a virtual candidate will read. So, writing it accurately and concisely is important to hire an exact virtual assistant.

Be specific enough to write a title that shows the necessary services of your job. However, don’t make it too narrow that it excludes some important information for the role.

For example, while hiring for administrative tasks instead of writing "Need a virtual assistant", write "Virtual Administrative assistant needed for an E-commerce business".

Also, ensure that you are writing the relevant keywords in your job description. It is the best approach to show up in search results and get more exposure for hiring any type of virtual assistant.

Write a Compelling Summary

Writing a compelling yet brief summary is also essential for job descriptions. The summary may include the key tasks, benefits, and responsibilities that are required for a job.

The summary of job posts for hiring any remote member for your business team should be easy, concise, and clear so that it can attract the most relevant candidates.

The effective summary makes it easier to hire the best virtual assistant out of the pool of remote workers.

List the requirements

The easy approach to writing a job description for hiring a virtual assistant is to make a list of requirements for the job.

These requirements include certifications, experience, degrees in relevant fields, or any other qualification or use of any software.

In this way, the potential candidates can match themselves with the requirements and can easily determine whether they can be the best match or not.

State the project deadlines

The most important thing in the job description of finding any virtual assistant is to include the deadlines and deliverables.

It is the best approach to write the date or duration of the project to be delivered while communicating with remote workers.

However, writing how many deliverables or milestones you are expected is also a good practice. This helps the virtual candidates to understand the possible outcomes of the project.

State the budget

Writing a budget or salary in the job description of a virtual assistant is a must-have. It will help remote candidates to check whether they fall in this range or not which will save you time and energy.

However, to hire the virtual assistant within your budget, clearly state in the job description that you will pay on an hourly basis or offer a monthly salary.

Application Instructions for Hiring a Virtual Assistant

To create urgency when hiring a virtual assistant or get the ultimate goal in the required time, state the last date and time of applications to apply.

Also, write the methods for how to apply and submit the proposals.

Additionally, communicate clearly, if you want any sample work or portfolio, which is the common practice nowadays.

By following these simple and effective steps you can avoid the juggle of the hiring process and can create up-to-the-point job descriptions for hiring any type of virtual assistance.

Learn more: How can you maximize productivity with virtual assistants?

Bonus Tip:

To make the hiring process easier you can ask the candidates to record a 1-2 min introductory video on Loom or GoogleDrive.

Doing so will ensure that you are only shortlisting candidates who stand out from others with their experience in their respective fields and most importantly can efficiently speak and understand the language you are going to communicate in.

Discover more: Freelancer vs Virtual Assistant Agency - What to choose?

How to Hire a Virtual Assistant: The Step-by-Step Guide.

1. Identify your business needs

Start the hiring process by identifying the specific tasks and needs of your business.

For this, the best approach is to make a list of all tasks. Then choose the tasks that you can do yourself. In this way, the tasks that require the hiring of virtual members can easily be identified.

Moreover, identifying your tasks helps you to define which tasks are more important and allocate the resources accordingly.

Learn more: How to start a business? A step by step guide.

2. Determine your budget

The most crucial part of hiring a virtual assistant is to decide the budget of your business. You must assess your company's financial status as well as the value of the tasks.

The skill set and experience required for the job are essential parameters in establishing the budget for the job. Also, consider what amount of time you need the services of a helping member.

For example, you may require virtual assistant services on an hourly basis, for three or four months, or even for an unknown period depending on the nature of your work.

It will assist you in finding the best fit for your company's needs and ensuring that you get the most out of the money you spend.

3. Create a job posting

Writing an effective job description is the key element of hiring the best virtual assistant for your business

Always write in a clear way that will distinctly show the specific tasks and responsibilities of the hiring candidate.

Earlier we discussed the steps of writing the job description. By implementing those steps, you can create a perfect job posting and hire the right talent for your business.

4. Shortlist the applicants

After posting a job to find and hire a virtual assistant on any platform, you‘ll receive the proposals and resumes of the potential candidate. Review them carefully by keeping in mind the requirements and experience needed for your job.

For shortlisting, check the reviews and previous records of the candidates. Also, you can hire rising talent because new virtual assistants often go the extra mile to bring your vision into to get the best reviews and experience on their CV.

5. Conduct an interview

To find the best match for your business, conduct a phone or video interview with the shortlisted candidates. You can ask anything related to their skills, work ethics, their availability, and working hours.

However, conducting a small test or quiz of the candidates is also an option for hiring the top-grade virtual candidate. In this way, the employer can measure the level of their expertise and skill.

If you are unsure of what to ask the candidates, then first list down the questions and queries and then conduct interviews and tests.

6. Hire the virtual assistant

Now you are at that point where you can select the right candidate for your job.

But be sure that you give them the proper guideline or contract of the job, and mention the terms and conditions of the work, especially the deliverable deadlines and payment methods.

However, confidentiality and data privacy issues arise when working with remote workers. The best practice to ensure the privacy issues of data is to mention the measurements in the contract that should be taken to resolve this matter.

By following these effective and simple steps you can hire the best virtual assistant for your business.

But it's not finished yet, there’s more to the picture.

After finding the best talent, it's time to train them according to the company's culture.

Although, remote workers are well trained as they make them up-to-date with the help of online tools and courses. But to give them an orientation regarding the company, work ethics, and culture is a good approach.

Online Platforms for finding and hiring virtual assistants

With the availability of many online platforms, finding and hiring virtual assistants has gotten easier. These platforms provide a pool of skilled virtual assistants that can support companies and businesses of all sizes.

There are many freelance marketplaces for hiring virtual assistants like Fiverr, Upwork, Guru, and Freelancer.

Businesses can use these platforms to share job descriptions and browse profiles of virtual assistants with different skills and experience levels.

However, most freelancing platforms like Fiverr and Upwork are highly saturated now, so it can be challenging to hire an efficient virtual assistant for your business needs.

Most virtual assistants on these platforms have tons of reviews but have only worked on short-term projects and lack the experience of working in a real-time environment of a remote company.

They work on multiple different projects at the same time which affects their work efficiency, focus, and commitment to each project. All they worry about is getting a good review from you.

Experienced remote workers and virtual assistants on the other hand work on contracts with companies and are nowhere to be found on these online platforms. They are working full-time with a remote organization and have no time to juggle around anymore.

But, you are in luck. There are still options out there where you don't have to worry about getting into a bad experience and can find the right person for your business needs.

You can hire an experienced Virtual Assistant who has experience working in a remote culture, possesses the communication skills you are looking for, and can take the burden off your shoulders right away.

Vaforus

Our trained and supervised virtual assistants at Vaforus will take on your project and will work together closely with you to deliver exactly what you are looking for. Virtual assistants at Vaforus are in contract with our agency and will therefore work solely on your client's project to ensure that the quality of work isn't compromised at all.

Virtual assistants at Vaforus are only assigned to one client at a time to ensure that the quality of work stays intact while working with you. Our virtual assistants will take part regularly in your team meetings and will keep you updated on their work progress weekly.

All virtual assistants are in a contract with Vaforus where we sign agreements to ensure that the sensitive data and any business operations of an organization aren't disclosed to anyone outside your organization.

We take short-term and long-term work projects and offer a trial period for you to decide if you want to carry forward our services for the decided period of time. If you want to discuss your needs with us, feel free to schedule a meeting with us here.

Conclusion

Finding and hiring virtual assistants to outsource your tasks can be a game-changer for your business.

Outsourcing work to virtual assistants can prove to be one of the best steps you have taken so far.

Not just small businesses, big enterprises like Microsoft have also adopted remote work. Bill Gates is a big fan of outsourcing as he said in his book that “Outsourcing is the secret weapon that frees up your time to focus on what you do best.”

So by finding and hiring virtual assistants to delegate your tasks, you can save your energy and time to focus on your business's strategic goals while they carry your workload and deliver you top-quality work.