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7 Virtual Assistant Pitfalls To Be Aware Of

 

Virtual Assistant Pitfalls To Be Aware Of

 

Like most things in business, hiring virtual assistants can seem straightforward, but there are several pitfalls you must be aware of before starting the hiring process.

Your new virtual assistant is meant to take the pressure off you and free up your time to allow you to concentrate on your clients.

If you are unaware of all the potential disadvantages of hiring a remote worker, you will make a bad hire, costing you money, time, and a lot of unwanted stress.

Therefore it is paramount that you know the common pitfalls of hiring a virtual worker to understand better how to navigate your way around them.

7 Common VA Pitfalls To Avoid

1 – Wrong Expectations

One common mistake is expecting miracles when you hire a virtual assistant.

Yes, virtual assistants working for your company will save you money on wages, but often business owners expect the person they hire to be perfect at their job within a few weeks.

In reality, it can often be a steep learning curve for most remote workers to get to grips with the new skills your company requires.

With this in mind, setting realistic expectations is vital before starting the hiring process. Selecting the right expectations will mean you are far more likely to hire virtual assistants most suited to the job.

It is essential to understand time zone differences when hiring overseas virtual assistants, and you need to factor this in when you set out their job requirements.

Over time your virtual assistant will enhance their technical skills through on-job experience, but in the short term, you have to be patient and see them as a quick fix for your business needs.

2 – Poor Job Description

Don’t fall into the trap of hiring a virtual assistant just because it is on trend and every business seems to have one.

It is imperative to assess if you need to hire a virtual assistant. The likelihood is you do, in which case you need to have them doing tasks that benefit your company.

Many small business owners write poor job descriptions, which means they hire a virtual assistant who is unsuitable for the job.

As the company director, you must first clearly understand what your company needs, but often business owners forget to communicate their needs within the job description.

This isn’t the fault of the virtual assistant. They applied and got the job based on what was written in the job description.

Don’t advertise for 15 hours a week when you only have enough work for 10 hours a week.

For example, if you want your new virtual assistant to focus on working on data entry related to marketing, then you have to be clear in the job description. Many applicants can do data entry, but not everyone will have marketing skills.

3 – Unprepared For Language Barriers

The economic benefits of hiring overseas virtual assistants often mean business owners forget to consider the disadvantages.

They will work remotely and live in different time zones, so communication may be difficult. Often there will be several cultural barriers, not to mention language barriers.

Most foreigners can speak English to some level, but being able to get by and make yourself understood in English is different from having a solid command of the English language required when working.

What makes sense to you in terms of the technical and business terminology your company uses won’t make sense to someone who speaks poor English.

Therefore it is vital not to hire the first candidate to apply for the job you advertise.

4 – No Plan For VA Training

Many business owners hire a virtual assistant, spend a day explaining what they want them to do, and then think they are good to go.

This approach is doomed to fail as every worker needs a certain level of on-the-job training and virtual assistants are no exception.

When virtual assistants are expected to use different online programs to do their job and participate in virtual meetings, they must have training in how to use these software programs.

In addition, every business will have its internal software set to suit its needs. Therefore training will be needed.

Also, neglecting to provide ongoing training will mean the worker will become more stressed and likely to make mistakes that may cost your business money.

Planning and providing quality training is a win-win situation that will benefit your business and your virtual assistant.

5 – Micro Management

Some business owners still find it hard to relinquish control of many aspects of their business.

It can be hard to trust an outsider with tasks that could have a detrimental effect on your business if performed poorly. However, with excellent levels of open communication, you should be able to build a good relationship with your virtual assistant.

Hiring a virtual assistant will prove pointless if you don’t allow them the time and space to develop into their role.

Constantly undermining their work for the wrong reasons will lead to them being too afraid to perform their tasks due to your recent comments about specific work they performed.

6 – No Standard Operating Procedures

Every business needs standard operating procedures if they want to be truly successful.

All too often, businesses start off and hit the ground running but forget to be clear about their SOPs and then encounter a problem they don’t know how to deal with.

For example, if you allow one member of staff time off to attend their child’s school sports day but refuse another member to do the same, it will cause friction within the workplace.

The same fundamental rules should apply to all staff, including virtual assistants. Otherwise, your company has no handle on how to deal with team enquiries in certain situations.

Having core rules and principles that all staff must adhere to helps to build a working environment where all staff knows where they stand.

Keeping the communication lines open to staff to ask for time off in particular circumstances also helps to build loyalty and trust. Still, all staff must be treated as equals to achieve good working relationships.

7 – Lack Of KPIs

Every job role should have key performance indicators. It is a way of constructively evaluating employee job performance.

When companies hire a virtual assistant, they often forget to set KPIs despite having them for full-time office-based staff.

The only difference between an office-based employee and a remote worker is that they aren’t physically in your place of work.

Therefore, setting KPIs for virtual assistants is arguably more important because you need to be able to evaluate their work differently.

Setting clear goals helps the worker know what is expected from them and gives them targets to aim for weekly.

Without KPIs in place, your virtual assistant will often lack motivation, leading to poor performance, which may lead to you needing to terminate their contract and seek a replacement to become part of the team.

Call Us Today For A Free Consultation

As you have learned, there are numerous pitfalls that business owners fall into when hiring virtual assistants.

Sometimes the pitfall can be as fundamental as the worker having a poor internet connection.

You want your virtual assistant to be able to perform all the tasks you hired them to do, but they are not mind readers, so you have to be clear about what is expected from them.

If you are uncomfortable with the hiring process, please contact us and let us take care of all that for you.

We can source, hire, train, and manage your virtual assistant, so give us a call today.

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