Virtual PA Studio

How to onboard your virtual assistant

Onboarding your virtual assistant

One of the most successful ways to bring your virtual assistant onboard is to have an onboarding document that contains the most important information of your business. For many start-ups or small businesses, hiring a virtual assistant can mean the first hire for the business. This could leave you feeling a bit intimidated on how to get started and onboard your very first employee. Having clearly documented processes helps to make tasks repeatable allowing your VA to refer to a single document when they need to know their next steps.

 

Here are some things your onboarding document should contain:

 

Company vision and values

When it comes to your first impression, it’s important that it conveys your values, vision statement, and purpose clearly. Referring to company values frequently will help solidify them as a framework for best practices.

 

Key responsibilities

List all the responsibilities you want your new VA to take over. You don’t have to list everything right away.

 

List of contacts and logins

Your contact details such as email, phone number, website url, social media, etc.

 

Instructions for repeatable tasks

If you have specific tasks that your VA will be regularly doing such as arranging meetings or sending monthly mailers.

 

Expectations

Document how you communicate and what feedback you require from them, how deadlines are set, how performance is tracked and your expectations of work hours and days.

 

The onboarding process should engage and educate your virtual assistant about your business mission, vision, work standards, culture, and performance expectations. Virtual assistants are usually dedicated people who excel at helping others become more organized and productive. An effective onboarding process will ensure your assistant has everything they need to help you, including your trust and support.

 

Of course, any onboarding document that covers a lot of ground is a great way to get started. But there’s no way to anticipate every question that a VA might have for you. What’s important is to be open for feedback and allow your VA to make suggestions because part of the pleasure of hiring a VA is that they can introduce new ideas that you might have never considered.