Let’s rewind a bit; there was a time when working remotely consider as an excuse to get rid away from work. But now, the scenario has totally changed, virtual employment or virtual assistance has become the dream job for most of us. And more and more companies want to hire virutal employee

In 2012, the President of the United States of America Barack Obama declared Small Businesses as “engines of job creation” and a crucial factor in boosting the US economy.

The virtual employment has turned into a sharp culture and becomes a top trending topic over the last couple of years. The most essential part of remote working is that it has started making people happier and this trend is rising steadily.

Why are so many people prefer working remotely?

Well, courtesy goes to the revolutionized technology. The massive development in mobile technology and the latest remote access connectivity have taken the game to the next level.

Although not every job can be performed remotely, the job like web development, UI/UX, writing articles and etc. are the most in-demand for this current era. Numbers of small businesses have an eye to hiring virtual employees with the relevant skillset.

If you are the one who’s looking to hire the right virtual for the small business, stick together, and this article a full read.

Let me tell you this; hiring isn’t a piece of cake!

The reason for writing the above analogy is most of the small companies or startups rely on hiring virtual employees as they have a bunch of tasks that need to be compiled in a short span of time.

In that way, it reduces their resources and saves precious time for not looking for the manpower physically.

Now the question arises in your mind, why do I hire virtual employees, and what will be the advantages?

Let’s quickly go through the below points that will give you a better and clear idea of why you should opt to hire a virtual employee.

• As the owner of a small business, you can’t bear the cost of a full-time worker
• You can’t have all the skills, so it’ better to authorize the tasks to those who are a subject matter expert
• You aren’t willing to do a specific job, so you can save time and invest something on more relevant
• It gives more opportunity to look after the other activities and increase the focus on how to 10X the ROI
• It reduces stress and doesn’t allow you to do everything in your own business

It’s time to get deeper and look at the bigger picture of the benefits of hiring virtual employees for small businesses.

Earn More with Virtual Employee

One of the primary reasons that most of the small businesses consider having a virtual employee as they are really cost-effective. First, the owner doesn’t have to bear the cost of physical spaces or offices, neither electricity nor other expenditures.

A virtual employee is less expensive as compared to full-employee and almost save 40% in the operational expense.

Strengthen the Financial Board

In the event that financials show that your volume of business is persistently growing, anyway the turnaround time for desires has backed off, that infers it may be a chance to scale up your business. Scaling needs an additional asset to oblige the extending volume of work.

It’s a fact that virtual employee keeps your costs lower, just as keeps your business adaptable. For scaling up your business, a virtual employee is the best choice.

Arrange your Business Easily

Excellent planning and making full of your time, cash, and mental soundness is the critical factor that will end up with great success.

With a virtual employee, you can set up a virtual workplace where everything from the board, document, and timely correspondence with ease. Initially, it takes a bit of time to get things smoother, but it becomes beneficial in the long run.

With a dedicated mindset, you can achieve more with the help of a virtual employee.

You can Find Better Talent

When you start looking for a virtual employee especially from WoodBows, you have no limitations. You got a chance to meet multiple sorts of talented people, along with their respective domains.

It becomes easier to choose for you to hire virtual employees for your desired projects or task. Besides, you also get a chance to work with the international talent virtual employees, and through this, you can also mark your footprint for the global audience.

High Retention Rate

Companies that work remotely are seen to be more in contact with the needs of their workers. And are more likely to attract skilled workers by giving them a chance to travel more. It has found that the virtual employee is happier than the office employee who works for 9-5.

Where a virtual employee doesn’t have to work at any physical or specific location, virtual employees have more freedom. They set their own time and generate the desired output in the given deadline.

Improves Morale & Happiness

There is no doubt that a happier, satisfied virtual employee will be more likely to put in your company’s extra effort. But also bear in mind this factor that fulfillment is not always related to payment or promotion.

It is only possible to obtain the opportunity for employees to work flexibly through a virtual work environment. It means better work/life balance, more family time, and less commuting, which saves time and money for your employees.

This is how you, as a company owner, can stable a delightful relationship with your hired virtual employees.

Virtual Employees are more Productive

One of the crucial reasons that small businesses, entrepreneurs, and startups switch to remote work and hire virtual employees is to gain more productivity.

This finding is such a fascinating two-year analysis when Stanford professor Nicholas Bloom and Chinese travel company Ctrip found a productivity boost among telecommuters equal to a full-day job.

The explanation is, homeworkers worked a real full-shift (or more) that stimulates imagination and brings more innovative ideas into their work plan.

This result is such a fascinating two-year study by and Chinese travel company Ctrip found a productivity boost among telecommuters equivalent to a full day’s work.

The reason being, work from home employees worked a true full-shift (or more), which enhances creativity and puts more innovative ideas into their work plan.

How to Hire a Virtual Employee

Hiring virtual employees for specific roles for your team is different as compared to hiring someone physically for dedicated projects.

When it comes to hiring a virtual employee, it means that you are hiring a team member. You will be their only boss, and although the tasks you delegate to them may change over time according to the specifications of the project.

Essential Steps that You Should Follow to Hire a Virtual Employee

Document the Tasks You Want to Outsource

The very first thing you, as an employer supposed to do, start making a list of all the tasks and processes that you have planned to assign the virtual employee.

It is supposing that the task you were also doing on your own, but now you have to make the training documents, which are also known SOPs (Standard Operating Procedures).

In this way, it will give a clear idea about the tasks which he/she has to perform. There are a bunch of templates and guides available over the internet on how to create effective SOPs that will ease your work.

If you are hiring a skillful virtual employee, you must create a document of outcomes that you want them to accomplish.

Create a Job Description

After getting done with your first step. The next step is to create a well-defined and detailed job description for the specific you will be hiring a virtual employee.

Define each and everything in the clear and mention the bullets points what’s role all about and what are the expectations.

Don’t try to exaggerate the job description as most of the employer does. It’s so evident that you can’t find everything in a single virtual employee.

The better way to attract and engage more virtual employees to your job description is by highlighting the minimal requirements, similar skill level, and hourly rate.

Pro tips: Your job description should include:

• A quick background of your company (your product, buyer personas and targeted audience)
• Mention the education, experience, and/or skills required
• List of duties and responsibilities
• List of any particular application, tools, or software that the virtual employee should have a hands-on on

Post your Job Description on Relevant Channels

Once you have finished your job description, your next step looks really simple if you play smartly. It’s time to post and share the job description on the right and relevant channels.

After posting your job description, you won’t eventually get the responses, but later on, you will.

Once you start getting the responses from virtual employees, start skimming them, and if you couldn’t find them useful, save them for future use.

Here are some popular and useful websites where you can use to find virtual employees:

• WoodBows
• Virtual Assistant Assistant
• Priority VA
• Somebody 2 Hire
• Virtual Staff Finder
• Outsource
• Guru
• Donetown

Review the Application & Start an Interview

It can be a long as you will have a stack of resumes, portfolios that will be lined up for the single vacant position. Review the top useful applications and schedule interviews with the top 5-10 candidates.

Schedule video interviews with your top candidates. With this, it will become easier for you to figure out quickly if is he/she the virtual employee you were looking for and communicate well with them on a video call.

If someone isn’t interested in doing a video call, then it’s a clear sign you shouldn’t hire them.

Don’t restrict your interview with the skills and experiences, do ask them about their goals, hobbies so you can analyze them with soft skills as well.

Conduct a Test of Your Top Candidates

So before hiring a virtual employee for a specific role, conduct an online test among the shortlisted candidates to complete the given task on the deadline.

Try to generate a type of task that would be a part of their regular responsibilities, which also meet your requirements and then see how well they perform those tasks.

It happens quite often, the virtual employees who look great at the time of test are not so great in real life. By running this exercise it will help you to hire the right virtual employee for your company.

Give the Best Candidate a Trial Period

Most of the best companies do run this process, so the virtual employee can jell with the team and know about the methods as well.  Generally, a trial period consists of the (30, 60, or 90 days).

A trial period gives your virtual employee an additional incentive to do an excellent job for you, knowing that it will lead to a permanent role in your company.

What do you guys think? Is game over? A big FAT No! The real challenge has just begun.

How to Manage a Remote Team

What sort of business your run? You have to follow specific rules and regulations to strengthen the correlation among your virtual employees. It’s better to have clear and straightforward policies that both parties really should be aware of.

The following are some useful tips that will help you put the right processes to create a peaceful remote working culture for virtual employees in your business.

• Define clear expectations: Put the expectations in front of your virtual employees. For example, you, as an employer, can’t expect remote employees to work 9 to 5? No, you can’t, so it should be evident between the employer and virtual employee.
• Interactive sessions: Keep up a regular touch-up and communication but don’t rely too much on email, inboxes, etc. which lead to missed messages. Try to talk to your virtual employee over the phone call.
• Document conventional processes: I must say documentation becomes really handy, and it’s essential when there’s a distance between you and your team.
• Online project management: Instead of pinging the remote team to ask for task feedback, use an online collaborative project management system like Asana, etc.
  
  Share documents online: Avoid sending back-and-forth review documents, sharing online documents that can be stored securely in the cloud just like Google Drive so that the entire team can access them.

Wrapping Up!

Phew! That’s it.

I know that hiring virtual employees isn’t an easy go. But it is one of an excellent way for a startup and small businesses to get work done when they aren’t ready to manage to full-time staff.

Now, you have gone through all the processes. If you want to save your time and need a quick and quality services within no time. Then, WoodBows is the best option for hiring virtual employees as they have 10+ years of experience in providing virtual and delighting 1000+ clients across the globe.