The right virtual assistant (VA) brings value to any business. Their work aligns with the company’s values, can provide excellent outcomes, and overall brings a positive impact to your business and community. With so many benefits they bring, finding and hiring the best one is always the first step.
Searching, identifying, and landing the right virtual assistant requires a systematic approach, time, and persistence. Your products and services may be the heart of your business, but your employees, or virtual assistant, in this case, is your lifeblood. When your customers choose to engage with your products or services, the virtual assistant is always at the front line of your brand — may it be in the form of your website, social media, or product development.
So it is crucial to find a virtual assistant who can highly engage with you and your business. We have shared tips on how to find your right VA but to save you from making a mistake that can ruin your business and the virtual assistants’ reputation in general, we have identified the common hiring mistakes of virtual assistants.
Rushing the hiring process
Businesses make poor hiring decisions for a variety of reasons, the most common of which is that they are more concerned about hiring fast. Rushing the recruitment process results in a lack of job description preparation, missed out on the background check, overlooked qualifications, and unprepared interview questions.
Hiring according to biases
There are many reasons why companies embrace diversity. You can tap a wider range of talent with diversity. Diversity allows you to gain insight into the needs and expectations of your client from a different perspective.
Preferring someone of the same race, gender, or background as you, is a common form of bias in hiring. Companies who don’t question their prejudices risk recruiting the wrong employee while overlooking the right candidate.
Take into account the communication skills
Keep in mind that recruiting a skilled and linguistically fluent virtual assistant will have a significant effect on your professional or company performance.
Keep in mind that recruiting a capable and linguistically fluent virtual assistant will have a significant effect on your business.
Close mindset
When a company opens a position, there is always an ideal candidate profile in mind. While the qualification profile can guide you with screening your candidates, if you stick to it too closely, you’ll miss out on some potentially great candidates.
Job listings are no exception to the one-track mentality. If you hire strictly based on your list, you might end up getting the same people and miss out on other great candidates.
Hiring based on interview only
You should also be aware of the halo effect, which is a kind of bias. The halo effect causes one to base decisions on just one or two characteristics. Even though physical attractiveness has no connection to personality, physically attractive individuals are more likely to be perceived as kind, sociable, and intelligent.
When it comes to recruiting, this normally translates as a “good interviewee, poor employee” situation. Regardless of particular talent or experience, a candidate who is concise, fun, fascinating, and polite during the interview is more likely to get the job. When you are still taken by someone, even though it’s just with one big part of their personality, it’s easier to ignore red flags.
Prioritizing qualifications over fit
While having the right technical skills for the job is critical, attitude and work ethics are what make a good employee.
Some recruiting managers focus solely on the virtual assistant’s ability, expertise, and experience, rather than how well they fit and align with your core values. Remember, skills can be learned and acquired, but it is hard to reinforce someone to become a good team player.
Hire your VA through VALUE Virtual Assistants
A bad hiring decision may cost a small company a lot of money. Fortunately, there are plenty of options to avoid falling into the common mistakes when hiring a VA and minimize the losses. You will have your winning remote workforce in no time if you take your time, do your due diligence, pay attention to a candidate’s personality, and know-how to detect the signals of a bad hire.
Sound like too much hard work? Fortunately, there is a way to avoid hiring misfits and possible scams. VALUE Virtual Assistants is a remote staffing solutions agency that provides trusted and competent virtual assistants and a remote workforce so you will have more time to grow your business and live a work-life balance.
Our team at VALUE Virtual Assistants welcomes inquiries and appointments on how we can help your business today. For more information and inquiries, contact info@value-va.com. For more contents like this, connect with us on our LinkedIn and Facebook Page.
