If you have just hired a Virtual Assistant, you might start thinking that the hard part is over because you have already found someone. However, in reality, your endeavor doesn’t end there. You have to keep engaging with your virtual assistant in order to get the best out of them. Keep in mind that the best things always happen when your virtual assistant feels that they are supported and engaged with. They will do their best that in every single thing they do and they’re doing the best for you.
To help you out in making sure you an effective work relationship with your virtual assistant, here are my top tips on basically how you can be a better employer to your VA.
Create Communication Systems
You must create a structure that is going to be easy and convenient for your virtual assistant to be able to communicate with you. A system where they can easily bring up problems they’re facing or initiatives and solutions that they can share. Having that space in a form of a daily report or weekly check-in call, it’s basically up to you how you want to set it up. But you must find a way where your virtual assistant doesn’t need to wait for specific meetings in order for them to bring up concerns. This could be as easy as setting up a slack channel or a dedicated space where they can share different ideas or raise concerns as they happen.
Support Their Well Being
Beyond just checking in on them and making sure that they are doing what they’re doing, as their employer, to keep engaging with them also means asking for their well-being. Try to remember recent things happening in their life that you can ask about or check in on them regarding their mental health. Basically, asking them “how are you” and “do you need anything?” is very essential for your assistant to feel that they are supported and that they are not just another robot or cog in your system, but a person valued in your company.
Honor their Boundaries
One of the things that are a little bit tempting when it comes to working with virtual employees is that you might overstep and have them work on weekends and holidays. Since you are aware that remote employees basically can just fire up their computers any time because they don’t need to be physically present at the office, you might be tempted to have them finish or work more even on days that they’re not supposed to. You and your virtual assistant should negotiate and come to an understanding on the days and hours your VA should be working, and you must respect your agreement and their boundaries. Although there will be times that an overtime work might be needed, it is important that you communicate with your VA ahead of time and ask if it is okay for them to do so.
Having a good dynamic on the work schedule is essential for you and your virtual assistant to be able to work effectively even on different time zones. You must always keep in mind that your VA will not be able to perform or give their best if they are already burnt out from overworking.
Feel Heard and Valued
To keep your engagement with your virtual assistant, you must make them feel heard and valued. This can come in a form of just asking them if they have any suggestions or advice on how to improve certain things and picking their brain on some things that you might not ever thought of. Train your virtual assistants to tell you if they find better ways on doing things, better tools, and better systems to help you and your business be more efficient.
When you help your virtual assistant feel heard and valued, that you value their opinion, that you will listen to them, then of course they will say more. They would want to put their best foot forward to give you the best suggestions or short cuts they can think of that could benefit you and your business.
Give Timely Feedback
What I mean by this is, for example, if your virtual assistant messes something up, don’t wait until the end of the week before you give them the feedback. The moment that you see it, give them the feedback that they need. This does not only apply for things that they need to improve on but also for things that you want them to keep doing. Every time they are able to achieve something or move something forward, give them feedback so that they’ll know that they are on the right track and they’re going to keep doing well. As the employer or manager, you must focus on catching the right or positive things your VA has done rather than just focusing on the bad things because then you will just start looking at the negatives and miss out on all the positive things your virtual assistant has done for you.
Host Virtual Meetings and Casual Hangouts
From time to time, allocate 15 to 30 minutes of your time to have a virtual bonding with your virtual assistant and other virtual employees beyond that of the usual work. You can talk about interesting things outside of work or have a short trivia night or game night. So, it’s bonding with them and getting to know them a little bit more, making them feel like that they are part of a group who can support them and are working towards a common goal.
Help Them Feel Involved in the Company Culture
The different ways that you can do this are…
- Create an actual company culture with great values.
- Have a way for people to communicate effectively while respecting boundaries.
- Create a culture of how you treat your employees and ask your them for feedback on how you can improve your company culture. In this way, your employees would feel that they are involved in making things better for your company and for the other employees as well.
Encourage Remote Employees to Communicate with Each Other
Have your remote employees engage with one another. When you stick to be the only person that everyone has to talk to, it can get a little bit frustrating and time-consuming. But if you’re able to connect people with each other even if they’re all working online, it’s going to be easier for them to get information from one person to the other. They’re going to be comfortable to ask for assistance or feedback from other people and not just always directing concerns on to you.
Schedule a Co-Working Time
As you are working with different people in different time zones, schedule a time, maybe just once a week, 15 minutes to an hour, where you can work with your remote employees side by side on zoom or any video communication platform you are using. Basically, just a platform for them to see how everyone works and to be able to work with you a little bit more closely, raise and discuss concerns, suggestions especially if you are working on a project with different team members. This is a good way for your virtual assistant to know who are the other people involved in the project and who they can talk to in the team regarding specific issues or concerns.
Constantly and effectively engaging with your virtual assistant is crucial to having a good working relationship with them. This may sound taxing but by following the tips mentioned above, you can find that it’s not as frustrating as you think it is and it’s actually kind of refreshing to know more about your virtual employees beyond the scope of work.
If you have more valuable tips you can share that’s not mentioned in this article, feel free to drop it in the comment section below.
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