John Jonas breaks down hiring a virtual assistant in six steps: cast a wide net, use a weed-out instruction in your job post, ask staged screening questions by email, run paid practical tests, watch for hidden traits like response speed and attention to detail, and optionally do a late-stage video interview.
Questions this video answers
John Jonas (creator of OnlineJobs.ph).
February 18, 2020.
1) Cast a wide net; 2) Include a weed-out step in the job post; 3) Ask lots of questions; 4) Test their competency; 5) Pay attention to details; 6) Skype/video interview late in the process.
1vaaway.com (the "Virtual Assistant Away" 7-day course).
Chapters
My six step framework for recruiting a rockstar virtual assistant. So I've had so many people say wish me luck as I try to find a va. Or that in order to find a good VA you just have to go through a bunch of bad VAs before you find a good one. And I'm here to tell you that there's a better way. It's not luck and it's not hard and you don't have to hire a bunch of bad ones before finding a good one. My personal recruiting process is about 75% effective at finding a great VA the first time. So here's my six step framework. Step one cast a super wide net step two include a weed out step in the job post step 3 ask lots of questions step 4 test their skills step 5 pay attention to the details in step 6 Skype interview late in the process so that's my framework now. I'm going to explain each step. I'm not going to go into super detail in each step. I do that in my one virtual assistant away challenge available at 1.vaaway.com. step one cast a super Wide Net I see too many people trying to shortlist candidates before they've interviewed people. This is the wrong way to go about hiring a great va. For me, I do two things. First, I look at tons of worker profiles by searching on onlinejobs ph for the skills I'm looking for. This gives me a really good idea of what skills I can find and what kind of salary I should be paying people. I bookmark some people who look good to me. Then I post a job on onlinejobs ph My job post will be pretty detailed, but I'm not as detailed as other people. Those who I bookmark, I'll likely contact them and paste in my job post into the contact form. That way I cast a wide net and I have a good pool of people to recruit from. Step 2 include a weed out step in the job post so this is super important and I see almost all successful employers doing this. I've always included a line in my job post where I ask them to do something specific with the subject line of their job application. So I know if they read the job post and can see if they follow directions. So I'll say something like include the word amazing VA in the subject line of your application or Please make the title of your application Graphic designer your name but substitute your name in it. Anyone who doesn't follow this direction I can immediately discard their application and this will instantly weed out about 50% of applicants Step 3 Ask lots of questions so as soon as I start getting applications or responses, then I start asking the applicants lots of questions over lots of emails. Usually I ask one to four questions per email and I'll do this five to ten times. So the reason I do this is because I find I get a really good sense of who they are, their personality, their English, their attention to detail, and just generally how well we mesh together. So here's a pretty good list of some of the questions I ask. Where in the Philippines are you? How are power outages where you live? Do you have your own computer? How fast is your Internet connection? Please send me a link to your onlinejobs PH profile. What show did you watch when you were a kid? So with this one, if they say Sesame street or other American shows, then I ask them if they watch the English version or the tagalyzed version. This will give you a really good idea of where their base of English comes from. What shows or movies do you like to watch? What books or magazines do you like to read? Do you have another job? If so, where are you working and how many hours are you working there? How long have you worked in this other job? How long have you been doing whatever type of work I'm asking them to do? What's the best piece of work you've ever done and why did it turn out so well? What's your favorite piece of work you've ever worked on and why? What have you done in the last 12 months to improve your skills? How long would you expect to work for me if you get the job? Do you have other skills which weren't listed, which might be useful to us? So there are so many more questions I might ask, but that's a pretty good starting point for you. Step 4 Test their competency so sometime during my asking them questions, I almost always have them do a test for me. I always pay for this test if it's something that takes more than 30 minutes or so. So examples of some tests I've done are like redesign this page on my website for me and I'll give this to a designer or edit this video. And here's another video with the same style that I like for like an editor or write a piece of content for a writer va or take a programming test or for a general va. Like, here are some instructions. Complete this process for me 10 times. So with the test, I'm looking to see who completes it, how well they did it, how fast they did it, and most importantly, how well we work together. So for me, how well we work together is often more important than the person's skill at a specific task. Step 5 Pay attention to the Details so this is where my recruiting process is different than most other people's. The reason I asked so many questions across lots of emails and why I give a test is so I can see a bunch of hidden characteristics about the person I'm considering. So here are the characteristics I'm looking at. Number one Speed of communication if it takes you three days to respond during the recruiting process, chances of you taking three days to respond after I hire you are high and that doesn't work for me. Number two their attention to detail. So if you if I ask you four questions in an email and you only answer three of them, then the chances of you skipping tasks that I give you once you're hired are pretty high and this really doesn't work for me. Number three Their English skills so it's reasonable to have your friend help you with writing your profile on onlinejobs? Ph it's not reasonable to have your friend help you respond timely to 10 different emails across six days. So I get to see their full command of English. Now this really only matters for a writing position, but I pay attention to it for every position except for programmers or designers where I really don't care about their English skills. Number four Pay attention to their consistency. Is what they're telling you in their emails the same as on their online jobs profile? Is their attitude consistent throughout the process or do they get aggressive at some point? Generally, what you get during the recruiting process is what you're gonna get after you hire someone. Which leads me last to number five. Are there any red flags in this process? Like is the person actually in India and they're trying to cheat the system, or is this a company posting as an individual or just are there things that didn't seem right during the recruiting process? If there are any red flags, I move on to another candidate. So at this point in the process, I usually have a really good idea of who I want to hire. And if not, or depending on your comfort level, now's the time for step six, the Skype interview. So I don't have a lot of tips for the interview itself other than that it allows you to just make sure that they are who they say they are, especially if you're going to do regular meetings with them after they're hired. So I personally don't do this interview or I haven't done it very many times, but a lot of employers I know do so. This also allows you to verify one more time if you two mesh well together before committing to hire them. So a word of caution with this interview. Most Filipinos are very scared of doing a video interview, so be aware of this when asking them to do it. Be sensitive to the fact that they may not have a microphone, or they're worried that their Internet might not be fast enough for a video interview, or they're worried about you hearing their chickens clucking in the background. Most Filipinos want to be very professional in their career, but their home situation just doesn't allow for this in a video interview. So be aware of their situation before you require this interview with them. So after this, I'm done. You should now have recruited a really good VA to work with you. So one tip about this is don't skip steps. It's super tempting even for me to try to shortcut the process because you think you've found the one right away. Don't do it. Go through the process anyway. It will save you a lot of potential headache in the long run. So if you want more details about this whole process, I have a seven day set of videos where I'll walk you through this step by step in great detail. I cover every step and the reasons behind it and the cultural hangups you need to be aware of and basically everything I know about recruiting great VAs. To get this go to 1vaaway.com I really believe you're one VA away from getting freedom back in your life. I'm John Jonas and I created onlinejobs Phone.
