Tips before hiring a Virtual Assistant
A VA is quite literally an assistant that works from home. A self-employed entity who offers to do all the tasks that a regular assistant perform, but through online mean. Those tasks might include; Scheduling appointments, managing meetings, making phone calls, travel arrangements, handling your PR, or social media management, etc.
Now if you are an entrepreneur or a public figure that needs an assistant to perform such tasks, you need to create a job description in order to search a willing candidate who is appropriate for the job. For that job description, you have to narrow down the chores and tasks that are a part of the job. You have to write the extent and regulations of that job.
Moreover, you have to figure out what are the requirements of the job that a suitable candidate must be offering. The tasks and responsibilities consist of Responding to emails and phone calls, Scheduling meetings, booking travels and accommodations, managing a contact list, preparing customer spreadsheets, keeping online records, organizing calendars, etc.
For the extent and regulations of the job, you have to figure out the daily time span and range of availability required for the job number of working days per week, and the salary. With all that information, your search for candidates that are willing to comply. The next step would be interviewing the candidates. Now, this is where the requirements mentioned in the job description, come into consideration.
Requirements before hiring a virtual assistant
The first requirement must be of age. Usually, older people are not that active or energetic. They are not familiar with modern technology or psychology. They are usually less flexible and hard to communicate with on certain queries. They might also most have temper or tolerance issues.
As the Assistant Job can be very mentally demanding, it is preferred if you hire a younger person for the job. A mid-20 candidate will be more energetic and more aware of surroundings. They will also have more experience of dealing with people as compared to a fresh graduate. In addition, they will offer more tolerance and enthusiasm for the job than an older person will.
The second requirement is availability and accessibility. A VA must be available 24/7. As the “Virtual”, part of the Job title makes it easily possible. Therefore, it is necessary that a candidate is willing to comply any time of the day if any unusual or untimely task presents itself. The candidate must be familiar with all the basic modern technologies.
For example, Desktop, File management, Emails, Sharing platforms, Social Media applications (If part of the job responsibilities). A large part of the job relies mostly on the efficient use of such technology, therefore it is extremely important that a candidate knows their way around these gadgets and tools, to be able to perform these tasks more efficiently.
The candidate must be efficient in MS Office. All the files including, text, presentations, and spreadsheets are an essential part of the job as an assistant. Therefore, it is very important that candidates have an understanding and experience of this particular set of software.
It is important that a candidate has experience or understanding of tools like Google calendars, in order to manage the appointments and meetings more effectively. The candidate must have solid instant texting skills, along with a sense of aesthetic to handle your Social media. The candidate must also possess a good command of language and communication in order to perform all the tasks required in this job.
Lack of communication skills can jeopardize the entire meaning of the job. The candidate must also offer great management skills. Be it be time management, resource management, or data management; a candidate must show brilliant problem-solving abilities in order to fit the job description.
Conclusion
Last but not the least; the candidate must be a quick learner. The job responsibilities of an assistant vary from employer to employer, and from situation to situation. Therefore, the candidate must possess quick learning skills in order to keep up with the changes and adaptations (if any) required to perform the job.
After the interviews, you can narrow down the most suitable candidates, who check the most boxes of your criteria. Then you can go with a calculated decision of who is the best fit for the job of a VA.
