How to Hire a Virtual Assistant

Scope the role before you post it

The most common VA hiring mistake is posting for a general assistant and then discovering the work needed a specialist. Write down what you did last week that you should not have been doing. That list is the job description, and it is far more useful than a list of desirable qualities.

Hire for the constraint, not the wish list

Most VA roles have one thing that genuinely cannot be missing: timezone overlap, a specific tool, a language, or the judgement to answer messages unsupervised. Identify it, filter hard on it, and be flexible about everything else. Filtering on ten requirements produces a shortlist of nobody.

• Timezone overlap, if the work is time sensitive.
• The specific software your operation runs on.
• Written English strong enough to represent you.
• Evidence of working unsupervised, which is what remote actually asks of someone.

Test the thing you are worried about

If you are worried about written English, run an English test. If you are worried about speed, run a typing test. Attaching the test to the job means it happens before you spend time on interviews, and it means every candidate is measured the same way rather than on how well they present themselves.

Hand over properly

Delegation fails on context, not capability. Record how you do the task once, write down where the things live, and expect the first fortnight to cost you time rather than save it. A VA who has to guess will make the choices you would not have made.