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What Should You Look For When Hiring A Virtual Assistant In The Philippines

It’s frustrating if you missed one or two tasks on your to-do list, right? All those late responses on an email of major stakeholders, typo error on a pub mat, missed appointments, unsent reports — when combined can lead to burnout and disappointment. Small mistakes shouldn’t affect the business’s condition, but most of the time it gets on your way. And that’s when you need a Virtual Assistant.

Virtual Assistant Philippines

A Virtual Assistant is a person who offers assistance services from a remote location. Social media management, calendar, email and appointment management, report creation, and other tasks assigned are what he/she usually does. It’s like having a secretary or personal assistant but only virtually present.

But with several qualified candidates, especially in the Philippines, what should you be looking for?

1. A Person of Integrity

Any businessmen would want someone who will not trick them and worthy of their trust as honesty and trust are the foundation of integrity. Normal are the days filled with transactions, appointments, and activities with other stakeholders and most of these are confidential and crucial for the company’s overall health.

Also, one should look for someone who must be able to live up to their word or someone who walks the talk.

2. Always Reliable

Of course, that is why you hired a Virtual Assistant because you need someone you can rely on. These are usually the days where you can’t even separate what’s urgent, important and not.

He/she must be competent and professional enough to handle every task you would give.  The last thing you want is to repeat or re-do tasks that you already hand down as they are supposed to make your corporate life easier. There must be minimal to none supervision or even follow-up when you already provided detailed directions.

3. Must be Proactive

They are not robots. Virtual Assistants may be ‘virtual’ but there are human beings existing and functioning behind that PC monitor.

They should be someone who does not just accept tasks, but someone knows how to initiate. He/she must be full of ideas as businessmen are also human capable of committing mistakes, so virtual assistants must be there to call things out or suggest ideas.

4. Keen To Detail(!)

Any detail can be a game-changer to anyone’s game. So, every detail, no matter how small, is crucial.

One example would be attention to the language used in marketing materials or campaigns. A simple error or typo could easily destroy the company’s authority and credibility. Also, figures. What if you sent the wrong account number or entered an extra zero? That’d be a disaster.

5. Always Resourceful

An excellent virtual assistant knows how to source important references and other stuff. There should be no “I can’t find one” in the vocabulary of a virtual assistant. He/she is not required to know everything, but the VA should have a system and a consciousness of how to make things possible.

6. Excellent at Time Management

Have they heard of the Eisenhower Decision Matrix?

There will be times that tasks will pile up. VAs should know how and what to prioritize and manage his/her time on finishing these. VAs should know how to be efficient and effective no matter how much volume of tasks was given.

Time is gold, yes, time is money.

7. Outstanding Communication Skills (A must)

Since the only way of communication is through the Internet, VAs should still be fluent in expression. A simple miscommunication can destroy everything, so one must be careful.

However, outstanding comm skills also mean excellent writing skills and English proficiency. What if there’s a task to draft a business letter? Or edit a copy? Tasks are unpredictable so he/she must be ready and equipped to handle it excellently.

8. Superb Computer and Social Media Skills

It’s obvious. Don’t ever hire a VA who is computer illiterate.

He doesn’t need to be an IT professional, but a good VA must master the basics of computer and social media platforms. He/she will surely deal with a lot of this.

Virtual Assistants who know how to accept mistakes and criticisms will always stand out. There are excellent ones out there and he/she must tick all the boxes beside what’s written above. 

The Philippines has been known to be globally competitive for outsourcing because of excellent set of skills, that is why the Philippines is one of the top choices when hiring or outsourcing virtual assistants.

Let’s talk about that! Write to us at bd@athl.com.hk.

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