How to hire a Virtual Assistant - Blog Image

How to hire a Virtual Assistant?

Kelly Barcelos on June 1, 2021 in Insights

With working from home becoming the new normal, the vacancies for Virtual Assistants are growing in number. According to FlexJobs, Virtual Administration is one of the fastest-growing remote careers.

Many companies have begun to hire virtual assistants for their companies. Whether it is for a full-time role, part-time or freelance basis, Virtual Assistants have simplified the lives of many teams. In this blog, you will learn more about Virtual Assistants and how to hire a Virtual Assistant for your company. You will also learn how you can streamline your recruitment process without much effort.

In this blog,

  1. Who is a Virtual Assistant?
  2. What are the warning signs that you need a Virtual Assistant right away?
  3. What does a Virtual Assistant do?
  4. Which skills should your Virtual Assistant must possess?
  5. How to write the best job description for the Virtual Assistant role?
  6. What will Virtual Assistant do to help you with your business?
  7. How to hire a Virtual Assistant?

Who is a Virtual Assistant?

A Virtual Assistant is a person who works remotely to help you carry on your administrative, and/or technical tasks. This job role is similar to that of an Office Manager or Administrative Assistant. A Virtual Assistant reduces your work burden by carrying out mundane tasks of your team.

An ideal Virtual Assistant would carry out all his/her duties diligently without any supervision.

What are the warning signs that you need a Virtual Assistant right away?

The following signs in your business operations certainly call in for hiring a Virtual Assistant.

  • There is always an excessive workload on you and your team.
  • You always have pending paperwork to be done/filed.
  • You are not able to utilize your time for important tasks. As a result of which, your productivity is reduced.
  • Hiring another team member on a full-time basis is out of your budget.
  • You and your team do not have the required skills to complete the tasks.

What does a Virtual Assistant do?

A Virtual Assistant is responsible for a variety of tasks ranging from administrative tasks such as managing files, scheduling meetings to basic digital marketing tasks. Here is a list of tasks that you can employ a Virtual Assistant for –

  • Scheduling appointments and meetings
  • Making phone calls
  • Planning and booking travel arrangements
  • Managing emails communications
  • Managing basic finances
  • Offering customer service
  • Conducting thorough research and submitting the findings
  • Carrying out clerical and bookkeeping tasks
  • Handling and maintaining databases
  • Creating presentations when required
  • Tracking orders, if any

Which skills should your Virtual Assistant must possess?

As Virtual Assistants work remotely, they ought to have extraordinary communication skills, both verbal as well as written skills. They should have phenomenal organizational skills. In addition to this, they should be excellent at time management and have outstanding listening skills. These skills will help Virtual Assistants stay ready and up-to-date with the tasks allocated to them.

Furthermore, they should also possess a sound knowledge of cloud-based technologies such as file sharing and management, password managers, video calling/conferencing apps, remote access software, and online marketing. They should be skilled in social media networking and should have basic knowledge of content management systems. Designing a graphic quickly using online tools or compiling a blog post or article should not be much of a trouble for Virtual Assistants.

Excellent customer service skills are also a must for Virtual Assistants. You can hire such candidates to send out emails to your clients or tele-calling. They should also have the ability to perform multiple tasks at a time and meet the set deadlines. Having excellent problem-solving skills is a must for this role. To sum up, a Virtual Assistant is a person who you can rely on to carry out basic tasks and save your employees’ valuable time.

How to write the best job description for the Virtual Assistant role?

As you know what Virtual Assistants do and what skills are required, you have a better understanding of the role of Virtual Assistants. You should be able to write a good job description on your own.

But we all know that writing an engaging job description consumes a lot of time. Hence, we got our Expert HR from the Administrative industry to write a job description for you. You can use this job description as it is or customize it according to your job requirements.

Virtual Assistant Job Description

Job Overview

Our Administrative Department is seeking an experienced and talented candidate to join our team as a Virtual Assistant. As a Virtual Assistant, you will be responsible for offering remote administrative support to the client. You will also be responsible for performing administrative tasks as and when required.

Read Job Description

What will Virtual Assistant do to help you with your business?

A Virtual Assistant will take away all the administrative tasks and repetitive tasks off your to-do lists. You can rely on your Virtual Assistants for carrying out mundane administrative and petty tasks without any supervision. Virtual Assistants helps you utilize your employees’ time in a better way. Allocating mundane tasks to such professionals speeds up your task completion and helps you quicken your business processes. It helps you save ample of your time.

Virtual Assistants are generally hired on a contract basis. That is why they are not entitled same benefits as that of your regular employees. There are reduced labor costs. You do not owe any paid leaves or holidays to your Virtual Assistants. You ultimately save on training costs as well as salary and other benefits. In addition to this, you are also saving money on infrastructure costs like workspace or a desk or a computer system.

You will also find improvements in your work quality and reduced workload on your employees. As you can hire candidates from all around the globe, it will ensure 24*7 availability and increased flexibility in work.

How to hire a Virtual Assistant?

Advertising your jobs on leading job boards is one of the best mediums to hire a Virtual Assistant. Some of the best sites or job boards to hire Virtual Assistants are –

    • Upwork
    • Indeed
    • FreelanceMyWay
    • VASumo
    • WoodBows
    • Prialto

You can maximize your job advertising efficiency by posting your jobs on multiple platforms at a time. This will ensure that your job reaches out to all the potential candidates. However, posting your job on each platform manually is a time-consuming task. It is advisable to use recruitment software like Jobsoid for seamless job advertising.

With Jobsoid, you can post your jobs on various job sites (like the ones mentioned above) as well as social media networks in just a few clicks. You can also avail exclusive discounts on sponsored listings on premium job boards by promoting your jobs via Jobsoid. If you wish to promote your jobs on platforms that are not connected to Jobsoid, you can generate a job advertising link and use it for job promotions.

Jobsoid also offers you real-time insights into your job performance. You can check out the same and accordingly, make changes in your job advertising strategies. Register for a Free Jobsoid Account today and learn how to hire a Virtual Assistant seamlessly without many efforts.

 

Kelly Barcelos

Kelly Barcelos is a progressive digital marketing manager specializing in HR and is responsible for leading Jobsoid’s content and social media team. When Kelly is not building campaigns, she is busy creating content and preparing PR topics. She started with Jobsoid as a social media strategist and eventually took over the entire digital marketing team with her innovative approach and technical expertise.