Hiring an executive assistant virtual is an important process because you want the best professional who’ll instantly hit the ground running. To be precise, you want the career version of a ‘match made in heaven.’
Remember, a great executive virtual assistant has a perfect blend of hard and soft skills coupled with the right experience and educational background. For example, fluency in multiple languages is often an important yet underrated skill in an executive virtual assistant.
To get all this in one package, you have to go through a thorough screening process of candidates to find that perfect executive VA.
Key Benefits of Hiring an Executive Assistant
Before we even get to the screening and hiring process, here are the major benefits of hiring an executive assistant virtual.
Optimize Your Business Processes
Gone are the days when entrepreneurs thought they could handle everything independently. Today, failing to delegate to a capable professional creates room for business inefficiencies. And it may lower your competitiveness given that the current business environment is highly competitive with many players in the industry.
An executive virtual assistant will take much of the workload off your plate. They’ll save you time for the day-to-day operations of your business. They’ll also help you improve the efficiency of your business processes.
Better Time Management
Your time as a business owner is best spent focusing on the strategic aspects of your business. But that doesn’t happen automatically. You have to create enough time to focus on the core business activities.
Yet you cannot focus on core business activities if your schedule doesn’t allow you to do this. That’s why an executive virtual assistant will help you create a flexible schedule that creates enough time for your core business activities.
An expert assistant understands where a business owner should place most of their attention. They ensure this reflects in the schedule they develop for you.
Improved Customer Relations
Your customers expect to be a priority every time they interact with your business. That’s why simple issues such as delayed responses to customer inquiries will negatively impact your relationship with your customers.
Yet, the future of your business is guaranteed when you have a good relationship with your current customers.
Your executive virtual assistant will ensure that your customers remain a priority. They will keep in touch with your customers and ensure they get the information or help they need in good time.
How to Hire the Right Executive Assistant Virtual for Your Business
Attracting the right executive virtual assistant has much to do with how you approach recruitment. Here are tips that will serve you right in screening and hiring your executive virtual assistant.
Be Specific about What You Need Your Virtual Assistant to Do
Your executive virtual assistant should understand how you like things done in your business. But that is impossible if you are not specific about your VA expectations. Forget about the vague descriptions like you want a VA to assist in your email management and assist in other administrative tasks.
Specify how you want your email management handled.
For example, specify:
The type of email you’re using
How you want your inbox organized
The number of hours you want it done every week
Other things such as the number of inboxes you want to be managed.
Determine Your Non-Negotiables
When getting into a relationship, there are qualities you are never willing to compromise. These are the traits that help you decide the right person for you.
These traits should form part of your requirements in the screening process. Most of these you can also examine during the VA interview process.
Some traits you may want in a VA include a fluent English speaker, able to face clients, someone who can close calls, and more.
Do Your Prep Work
Doing business or recruiting people online requires a degree of caution. You have to be armed with the right information to avoid inconveniences later.
To get the right information, engage in research. For example, you need to know where other entrepreneurs source their executive virtual assistants. Also, find out the criteria for getting a VA from these sources.
In addition, research the job descriptions that will help you unearth the top executive VAs. Such information will be useful in developing a job description that enables you to screen your applicants in the early stages.
Find a VA in the Right Places
If you want the best executive VA, you must find them in the right places. Sometimes that may require you to incur certain costs, but they will certainly be worth it.
There are known freelance sites like LinkedIn, Fiverr, or Upwork where you can get professional executive VAs. However, landing your perfect match may take more effort and a longer screening process.
Also, the terms of operations may be a bit complicated as your agreements and negotiations are bound by the terms of these platforms. That may present challenges because you wish for more personalized VA services that another third party doesn’t regulate.
A better option would be using a VA agency. Such agencies do much of the screening for you and work towards offering the right executive VA match based on your job specifications.
Their credibility is hinged on their ability to offer their clients professional VAs who can perform competitively in a modern business environment. Therefore, most agencies take the unique step of retraining their VAs to match the high industry standards.
Set Up Your VA for Success
Of course, you want your executive VA to hit the ground running immediately. You’ll have to contribute to this success by setting up an easy and efficient onboarding process for the executive VA.
Ensure you have developed relevant training manuals. Also, record the onboarding videos in advance to facilitate a smooth process. Do not forget to integrate them into your systems, such as the task management platform, file sharing system, and also share any relevant passwords.
Then cultivate your relationship with your executive VA post onboarding. There is so much to learn from each other, including the other capabilities your VA has that they may not have expressed during the recruitment process.
Talk to an Experienced Executive Virtual Assistant Today
It is common to find yourself not having enough time to go through the screening and hiring process to find a great executive VA. In such a case, your best bet is to go with the tested and proven choices in the market. Hire Marie to be your executive virtual assistant today. Business owners rely on her for automation, efficiency consulting, operations management, and more.