Your 3-Minute Guide on How to Hire a Virtual Assistant in the Philippines

After a series of careful considerations, you’ve finally decided to hire a virtual assistant for your business. Hours of research have led you to the discovery that the best country to outsource to is the Philippines. But with the thousands of potential candidates, how can you find and hire the most compatible one for your business?

Here’s how.

How to Hire a Virtual Assistant in the Philippines

Where to Hire

You’ve got two options here. First one is to scour freelancing and online jobs platform for potential candidates. Plenty of businesses run to these sites to hire budget-friendly but competitive Filipino virtual assistants, especially startups. Most of them hire in these platforms for seasonal projects, or if they’re looking to hire only a few VAs for their businesses.

Some of these trusted online platforms are:

• Upwork
• Freelancer.com
• Onlinejobs.ph

Now, if you’re an established business looking to kick your business to a notch, hiring virtual assistants through agencies is your smartest option. They’ve scouted the best candidates for you – all you need is to contact them for your outsourcing needs. Most times, they also handle the training for your new VAs, which can save you time and money.

Even startups and medium-sized businesses can also hire their VAs through agencies. Cost is not really an obstacle here since they’re willing to work out a pricing option that reasonably aligns with your needs. 

Finding Your Virtual Assistant in Three Simple Steps

Whatever which option you chose, the matter of selecting the best among the rest still lies at hand. To filter out the best VA candidate for your business, follow these 3 simple steps:

1. Create your job post

In order to create a job post that describes what position you really need, do it backward. Start with the job description first. Then list down the skills and requirements you’re looking for. The job title comes last so that you can correctly identify the person you’re looking to hire for your business. 

Don’t forget to ask for credentials like resumé or portfolio so you can further evaluate the candidate’s credibility for the task. And of course, where to send their application. 

If you’re hiring through an agency, you won’t need to create a job post. You only need to contact them and discuss what kind of help you’re looking for.

2. Interview your VA candidate(s)

Interviews can help you learn more about a VA candidate, to see if their personality and attitude fits well with your business. There are three important sets of questions you need to ask during the interview:

• Background – the candidate’s past VA experience, his/her working environment, communication preferences and capabilities, and time flexibility.
• Skills – candidate’s technical skills, and their strengths and weaknesses.
• Teamwork – the candidate’s capability to interact and work with other people

3. Do a trial test.

Once you’ve filtered the potential candidates, it’s time to test their skills. Give your candidates some sample tasks they can expect when you’ve finally hired them. For example, if you’re hiring a graphic designer VA, give them a test to create graphics for a sample campaign. 

Jut make sure to ask for a paid trial. This way, candidates won’t label you as a business looking to get free work from others.