How To Hire A Virtual Assistant From The Philippines

Don’t know how to hire a virtual assistant from the Philippines?  This guide should help you.

How To Hire A Virtual Assistant From The Philippines – Step 1: Choose Where You Want To Hire 

You have plenty of options here.  If you don’t have the time and patience to handle the entire hiring process, there are agencies like Virtual Staff Finder, OVA Virtual, Virtual Coworker, Remote Workmate, and Virtual Done Well that can help you find the right virtual assistant for your business.  It should be noted that these agencies will be marking up the virtual assistant’s salary, so you will be paying much more if you choose this route.  If you prefer to hire one yourself, we recommend OnlineJobs.ph.

OnlineJobs.ph is where we get most of our virtual assistants here at Awesome Outsourcing, and we have been using it for at least 10 years now.  Our experience using the site has been mostly positive.  However, we do have our share of misses, but that’s few and far between.  The website is basically a resume database.  You can search for virtual assistants according to industry, skill level, and desired salary.  It also has an ID Proof system, which measures the accuracy of the resumes on the site.  The higher the score, the more trustworthy the job applicant.

* Disclosure: The link above is an affiliate link, meaning, at no additional cost to you, I will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase.  To find out more about our view on affiliate products, please see this page.

With over a million job seekers in their database, OnlineJobs.ph is by far the best place to find quality virtual assistants from the Philippines if you want to do the hiring yourself.

You can sign up for free.  However, the free account only allows you to view applications and browse resumes.  It lets you take a look at the talent pool that is available on the website.  If you want to hire or communicate with the applicants who responded to your job ad, you will have to upgrade to a paid plan.

There are two pricing plans available: the Premium plan for $99 per month and the Pro plan for $69 per month.

With the Premium plan, you can make up to 10 job posts and contact up to 500 applicants a month.  It also gives you access to OnlineJobs.ph’s tracking software, payment system, worker mentoring service, and a video guide to outsourcing.  Unlimited background data checks are available as well, so you can take a closer look at the applicants before you contact them.

With the Pro plan, you are allowed to communicate with up to 75 candidates per month, and you also get to access their tracking software and payment system.  This plan should be good enough unless you’re planning to hire a lot of people.

Once you’ve found the right person for the role, just cancel your subscription, so you don’t have to pay the monthly fee.

P.S. If you don’t have the time or the resources to handle the recruiting process on your own, we can always help you with that.  Just give us a call.

 

Are you looking to hire a VA?
Click here if you’re looking for someone to work for you remotely.

 

How To Hire A Virtual Assistant From The Philippines – Step 2: Write A Job Ad That Attracts The Right Candidates

When you write a job ad, make sure that it contains all the information that job seekers need to know.  Remember, job ads without limited details are unlikely to get applications.  And be honest about your budget and your job expectations.  Otherwise, you might end up wasting your time on job seekers who don’t have the skills you’re looking for.

Here’s a list of things you should include in your job ad:

• Job title – Do keep the job title as clear as possible. In this case, you’ll want to include the keyword “virtual assistant” since that’s the role you’re trying to fill.  You can write something like “General Virtual Assistant with strong administration skills” or “Virtual Assistant with excellent communication skills.”  You get the idea.  Avoid using quirky job titles with words like Genius, Guru, Ninja, Superhero, Rockstar, and Wizard in them.
• Salary (or salary range) – the amount the applicant can expect to earn.  This is often negotiable.
• Work hours – The range of hours expected for the job.  It can be part-time, full-time, or freelance.  Do include the time you need them to work (e.g., 9 AM to 5 PM EST).
• Job description – A quick overview of the duties and responsibilities.  You’ll want to ensure that the applicants understand what is expected of them when they get hired.
• Skills – The skills that are essential for success on the job (excellent verbal and written communications skills, superb organizational and time management skills, etc.).
• Qualifications – Qualifications required for the position (college graduate, 5 years of project management experience, etc.).
• Requirements – Resume and/or curriculum vitae, sample works, a set of questions you want them to answer, etc.
• Benefits, if any – specify benefits included in the job (paid sick leave, paid vacation leave, etc.).

You don’t need to include details about the company yet.  However, in some cases, it can help you attract the right person.  For example, if you’re looking for a writer for your gaming reviews blog, it may be better if you specify that you’re in the gaming niche.  Otherwise, you might get job applicants who don’t know anything about your industry.

Bonus Tip!

A lot of applicants actually go through the job boards and apply to all the openings they can find.  They won’t read your job ad thoroughly and are likely to waste your time.  To combat this, we recommend that you include an instruction like “Put ORANGE CAT in the subject line of your cover letter.”  This is a simple test that will show you who read and didn’t read your job ad.

How To Hire A Virtual Assistant From The Philippines – Step 3: Screening & Filtering

Our “ORANGE CAT” suggestion should help you weed out the unfit applicants.  After you disregard those emails, continue to narrow down the list until you’re down to five candidates.  If applicable, you may give them a paid test so you can see which of them is serious about getting the job.  This will also show them that you are serious about hiring them and paying them on time.

Once you’re done with that, you can move on to the next phase – the interviews.

How To Hire A Virtual Assistant From The Philippines – Step 4: The Interview

A video interview is the next best thing to interviewing someone in person.  It gives you the chance to assess the applicant’s personality and see if they will be a good cultural fit for your company.  You can’t evaluate them properly by doing audio-only interviews because you can’t see their facial expressions and body language.  Exchanging emails back and forth also isn’t an option.

During the interview, ask these questions:

• Have you had experience working remotely before?
• What’s your ideal type of working environment?
• Tell me about a time you had to deal with an unreliable internet connection on a day you had an important deadline.
• Tell me about a time when you had to rely on written communication to get your ideas across to your team.
• Do you have anything or anyone in your home/work environment that may cause a distraction?

Train Them

Once you’ve hired your first virtual assistant, don’t forget to show them the ropes.  Even the best virtual assistant needs training, so don’t expect them to hit the ground running on their first day of work.  Take the time to set proper expectations from the start, and let them know what those are.

Okay, that’s a wrap.  If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to send us a message.

 

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