John JonasOwner, OnlineJobs.ph · Scale Your Business with Filipino VAs

Johannah Barton talks about her Job Posts & Expectations

17 Mar 2021 · 2 min

Watch on YouTube

1:48

Johannah Barton shares how to hire virtual assistants: adjust job titles to match your audience, test different wording if you're not getting the right fit, and keep applications open for only 3–4 days to attract faster, more motivated people. For Philippines-based hires, she pays slightly higher hourly rates year-round instead of bonuses, offers two weeks paid time off plus unpaid leave, and accommodates roughly 24 public holidays.

Questions this video answers

Three to four days (she does not give two weeks).

About 24 public holidays (she says "there's 24 public holidays").

Two weeks paid holiday.

Paying a slightly higher hourly/salary year-round (an extra couple dollars per hour) rather than giving a 13th-month payment.

Chapters

I was looking for a VA to help with QA and the title just wasn't getting the right type of person that had the right skills. So we tested it out a couple of times and I don't give them two weeks to put an application. So I go three, four days. If people want a job, they want to get a response quickly. So I found that that was also a really good tip, is to only give them three or four days and test it out. If you're not getting the right type of person, change the title and change kind of what you're looking for because it means that it's not resonating with the audience. Get the applications, test out the type of job description, make sure you're giving back as well as just taking from, you know, in your application form. I want them to really want to work for us and stay with us. The salaries aren't very high in the Philippines. So often people moonlight and they do two jobs and they can because they're maybe working the first half of the day in one time zone and the second half in another time zone. I don't mind if they do a bit of that, but I like to be upfront. So I kind of say, look, you get two weeks holiday, you get unpaid leave, you know, throughout the year. There are sometimes there's 24 public holidays in the Philippines. Like if we had them not working 24 days, like when they coincide with Australia, it's okay. So. So I kind of say you can have 10 of those unpaid and we've got to book it in. So we kind of say, you know, we'll give you a bonus, but we don't. A lot of people do the 13th month and I prefer to give them a higher salary all the way through the year. So give them an extra couple of dollars per hour than not have that 13th month because I'd prefer to just give them two weeks paid holiday. So.