When you start looking for a VA, you might be thinking of someone who’s a cross between a guardian angel and a robot, someone with superhuman powers or who can do magic.  If you hire the right person then this might be your experience eventually. But to get to that point you need to clearly identify the experience and qualities you need in someone you’ll work closely with.

In this module you’ll clarify exactly who you want and what considerations you need to take into account for your business.

What Type of Person Are You Looking For?

Once you know the skills you need, you can identify the experience, qualifications, and qualities you want from your VA.

Think of it in these three parts:

1.  Experience

• Do you need a defined level of experience in a task or with a type of business?
• Be specific – “five years general office experience” doesn’t mean much

2.  Qualifications

• Do you need a qualification in a skill, for example a Microsoft Certification?
• Don’t ask for things you don’t need
• Relevant experience can be much more useful to you

3.  Qualities

• What are the personal qualities needed that will help the VA be successful?
• Things like: reliable, accurate, responsive, detail-oriented, calm, positive, results-oriented
• Most small businesses want these attributes and they are difficult to assess.

Only ask for what you really need. For example, there’s no point asking for a degree in business administration for someone who will be doing basic admin work.

You could have a list of ‘must haves’ and ‘nice to haves’ which will help you if you are inundated with applicants.

Identify Tasks for Your Business

Most small business owners will start by looking for a VA who can handle admin tasks. These are the repetitive, daily tasks that are crucial for a business but take up precious time in your day. Your business may have specific requirements and an all-round admin person may not be right for you.

Get clear on the tasks you need to outsource. This makes it easier to find the right person at the advertising and selection stage.

Don’t assume you’ll remember all the tasks. You need a list.

Set Your Parameters

Depending on your business, there will be additional considerations on top of the skills, experience, and qualities.

These all need to be considered before you start recruiting.

• Hours per week/month – Refer back to the last module when you calculated the time taken for the tasks you need doing. How many hours do you need a VA per month or per week? Does this make it a full or part-time opportunity? Is this a one-off project or ongoing support?
• Budget – What can your business afford? You looked at your hourly rate in the last module and it’s clear that you will be paying your VA less than this. Remember the savings you’ll make and additional business you’ll bring in when you calculate your budget for a VA. You’ve worked out how many hours you need, so do you have the budget for that? What’s the maximum hourly rate you can pay for a VA? You can always start with fewer hours and increase them later.
• Location – Does it matter where they live? This is a remote hire so in theory it doesn’t, but if you have a very local business and you want your VA to accompany you to trade shows from time to time, you might restrict recruitment to your neighborhood. If your business is strictly online, then you can hire from anywhere in the world.
• Language – If you want a certain language level, then look for ‘native’ or ‘fluent’ speakers. You can test a person’s level of spoken and written language when you look at their application and speak to them in an interview.
• Time Zone – Do you prefer that they are roughly in the same time zone as you to make communication easier? Do you want someone in another time zone altogether so they can work when you’re asleep and you can serve a global market? This is important to some businesses and unimportant to others. At the very minimum you’ll need to find a suitable time for the two of you to discuss work tasks from time to time.

Write a Job Specification

A job specification (often called a job spec) is an internal document that lists the skills, qualities, and other considerations you’ve decided are important to you. You add in your parameters – geographical location, hourly rate, and so on. There will also be a space to write the salient points about your company and your company’s values.

The job spec is very useful as a basis for writing an ad or discussing the opportunity. It’s primarily for your own use, but you might want to share it with potential candidates.

Here’s an example of a template you can use to draw up your own job spec:

Job Title: Virtual assistant to XYZ Company

Location: Remote

Hours per week/month:

Hourly rate:

Company details: List information about your company in motivating terms

Company values: Set out your core values as a company, e.g. committed to environmentally friendly practices, putting the customer first, etc.

Job Overview: Provide a brief description of the role and its importance to your business

Responsibilities and Duties:

• List the essential duties required to carry out this job
• List them in order of importance
• Use complete sentences
• Start sentences with verbs
• Use the present tense
• Use gender-neutral language

Experience:

• Specific skills needed

Qualifications:

• Education level
• Certifications
• Language requirements

Personal Qualities

• Ability to work on own initiative
• Reliable
• Accurate
• Detail-oriented
• Results-oriented