Congratulations on hiring your first virtual assistant. Now anyone who has had prior experience with VA knows that hiring them is only winning alf the battle. Like every valiant soldier, they need to be trained and it is the employer’s responsibility to ensure that happens to the best of their abilities. If trained appropriately, a best virtual administrator can be the backbone of your enterprise. Most people do not know how to get started with their online assistants. This leads to problems when trying to assign them their work. Here are some steps to help you get started with a virtual assistant.
- Good Understanding of Their Job: Given that your virtual assistant India is miles away from your office space, sometimes getting through to them can be a problem. Hence you are expected to make the job as plain as possible. This means you will have to explain the job as best as you can. While this might sound simple, most people undermine the importance of this. This results in incorrectly completed jobs. This applies to even the most experienced of assistants. If you want them to work in sync, they will have to be trained to the very basic level of understanding.
- Details: When outlining the assignment, you need to be as detailed as possible. Most people overlook this point as it seems to be an unnecessary step. When explaining the task, it is important to be as detailed as possible. This leaves out the scope for errors and delineates the overall purpose to the assistant. You also have to make sure that they understand your requirements and stick to defined protocols. Have them repeat your instructions to gauge their level of understanding. When communicating over virtual means make sure you phrase the instructions correctly.
- Interactive Videos: Videos have been unanimously regarded as great learning tools. Thus creating a step by step instructional video is a better ruse when driving home the point. The advantage of using a method like this is that it is a renewable method of training and can be applied to any form of instruction. Create video tutorials of how your assistant can approach the task. This will help him better than written instructions. The only disadvantage of written instructions is that it can always be misunderstood. This, in turn, may affect the quality of work. Videos on the other hand point specifically to your expectations and hence leave no scope for errors. However, to create a foolproof training plan it is recommended to adopt a mixed approach. This will also end up being a backup plan for when the virtual assistant India gets stuck.
- Test Their Understanding: To gauge if your assistant has grasped the instructions have them do a task first. This task need not be a large one but must be set to a deadline to ensure that the instruction is followed. Once you receive the assignment, you should check if the result has been to your liking. Once you feel that everything is alright, you can ask them to proceed with the rest of the work.
These steps are to help you get started with your online assistant. Not only will this improve the quality of work, but also improve communication.