Tips to Get More from Your Virtual Assistant

Whether you have hired your first Virtual Assistant or have had one for years, there’s still more you can do to make sure she’s functioning at her fullest potential. In this blog, we will discuss what you can do to get more out of your VA!

Train Your VA

One thing you should never let go of is training your Virtual Assistant on your processes and systems. This is even if she’s been working with you for years. Sometimes assistants have their own way of doing things which may affect their productivity. It’s important to teach her tips and tricks to get her work done quicker.

Besides your personal training, you should also enroll her for some online courses. These courses can help your VA bring a new idea to your business.

Also, request your VA to document her process. This will not only help you to identify where the productivity inefficiencies are, but it will also help you to transition to a new VA quickly when your VA is sick or when you hire a new one.

Offer Coaching Sessions

Training and coaching are two different things. When coaching, you want to focus on building up your VA’s confidence in her abilities. This will help her to do her work more efficiently.

Coaching can take the form of one-on-one sessions, courses or even advising her to listen to a motivational CD for 30 minutes daily. Include this as part of her job and soon enough you will have an excellent assistant.

Give Constructive Feedback

If no feedback is given, your VA cannot grow. Similarly, if you give destructive criticism, it won’t help either one of you.

Focus on giving constructive criticism. This is when you point out both the good and the bad, and recommend ways for improvement.

Here are tips for giving feedback:

• Make sure you give written and verbal feedback.
• Use the feedback sandwich method (Positive-Improvement-Positive) often used at Toastmasters and the corporate world. This is when you begin by laying out the positives, then you criticise, and finally, end off with another positive.
• Criticise the work, not the individual.
• Be very specific. Instead of saying; “You need to pay attention to detail”, say; “You made grammar mistakes in your recent article. I pointed them out in red. Just make sure you focus on grammar and punctuation.”
• Only criticise things that can be changed. There is no point in telling someone they need to improve their voice for example.

Show Some Appreciation

Human beings love recognition. It pushes them to work harder to get even more recognition. Recognise any hard work or improvements made by your VA by giving something of value. Gift cards, days off and verbal appreciation work well for a VA.

Throw Her in the Deep End

They say when someone is thrown into the deep end it’s either they sink or swim. Hopefully, your VA will swim when given a difficult task. Push her to take on projects that she hasn’t before. This will not only help her grow but keep her challenged in her role.

Make Room for Growth

If you want your VA to stay with you for a long time you must make room for growth in her role. Challenge her to take on more responsibility and speak to her about where you see her in the future.

That’s all the tips for teaming up and getting more from your Virtual Assistant. If you are yet to hire your first one, there are reasons to hire a VA:

• They are often highly skilled individuals who left the corporate world for work-life balance
• You can pay them per hour or per project
• There are no company costs involved
• They can work during off-peak hours and high seasonal periods
• They often give their all because they’re responsible for their own income

Ready to hire a VA? Give us a call!