John Jonas covers four steps for bringing on a virtual assistant: tell them they're hired, get the terms in writing (hours, pay, time off), require daily reports, and give them a first task with clear instructions to solve problems themselves before escalating.
Questions this video answers
4
1) Hours per week; 2) Salary and payment schedule; 3) Specific working hours; 4) Paid time off; 5) Holidays.
Daily report (via email, project manager system, or Slack).
The Outsourcing Lever
OutsourcingLever.com
Chapters
Tips for onboarding a new virtual assistant. So here are my four tips for onboarding a new virtual assistant. I'm going to assume that you've already gone through the recruiting process and you are ready to hire someone. Here's what to do next. Number one, tell them they're hired. Oftentimes people will beat around the bush about this and say, oh, let's do another test or let's try this, or no, tell the person you're hired, I'm giving you a job. Number two, finalize the things that I hope you've already negotiated with them and this time put it in writing. So in the Philippines, they expect a formal, almost like a formal letter of hiring. So here are the things you're going to want to make sure you've negotiated and that you're putting in writing for them. Number one, how many hours per week they're going to work. Two, their salary, like how much you're going to pay them and how often and how you'll pay them. Number three, are there specific working hours that you expect them to do? And then you have paid time off and then you have holidays. So those are the, like the five things that you, hopefully you have negotiated with them and you're putting it in writing for them. Number three, the third thing when you're onboarding someone is you're setting their expectations for daily reporting. And for me, this is super important that you expect a daily report from them. Whether it be through email or through a project manager system or through Slack or however you want to communicate, you're going to expect a daily report from that person. And that's. That's number three in the onboarding process. Number four is the first task. So at this point, you're ready to give them the first task. Here's what I do. I tell them, great, you're hired. Here are my policies. Here's what we've gone over. Here are my expectations. Here's your first task. Here are instructions for your first task. Here's what I want you to do for this first task. And here's where this gets really important. This first task. I will tell them, I know that you're worried about this task. You're worried about not doing it well. You're worried about letting me down. You're worried about not keeping your job. What I want you to do is try to do this thing. Try it until you get stuck on something. When you get stuck, then I want you to try and figure it out. Try and Google it and see what you can find. Out. Ask a friend. See what you can find out. When you get stuck on something and you and you feel like you're not making progress, this is when I need you to come to me and I'm going to help you solve the problem. So if you'll do this, if you go through this onboarding process with them and you set the expectations for daily reporting and you do this first task for where you tell them, I expect you to try and solve it, but then I want you to come to me when you're not making progress. That will set you up for so well for the rest of your working relationship. So here's my process for onboarding people. Number one, tell them they're hired. Number two, finalize in writing the things you've already negotiated. Number three, set expectations for daily reporting. And the number four, give them the first task and let them know that you're there to help them. My name is John Jonas. I wrote a book called the Outsourcing Lever, all about my experience in working with VAs, where I detail everything I've learned over the last 15 years. I bought a bunch of copies which I'm giving away for free. If you just pay shipping to get it, go to OutsourcingLever.com see you later.
