Whether you’re looking to outsource some of your daily tasks, get support for your sales activities, or just keep yourself more accountable, hiring a virtual assistant can be a great way to take your professional and personal life to the next level.
If you’ve never worked with a virtual assistant before, it’s important to know what qualities to look for when making this large hiring decision. While there are many qualities and skill sets that make up a great virtual assistant, here are a few that I’ve found to be some of the most important.
Attention to Detail
Being able to produce accurate work in a timely manner is arguably one of the most important qualities to look for in your next virtual assistant. If you find yourself constantly having to correct errors or redo tasks assigned to your assistant, there’s not much value in having one in the first place.
A great way to evaluate this before you hire is to look at the emails and written correspondence you receive from potential virtual assistants – do they email and communicate in a way that you would want yourself or your company represented?
Reliability and Responsiveness
Another crucial quality to look for in a potential virtual assistant is his or hers reliability. Afterall, you’re trusting this individual with a huge part of your business processes – you’ll want to ensure that you can rely on both the quality and timeliness of their work.
Setting expectations for your new virtual assistant also helps a great deal here. Setting clear and reasonable deadlines, as well as dictating how and when you would like to be updated on the status of a project or task is important for building a solid working relationship with your virtual assistant.
A Problem Solver
Your new virtual assistant’s ability to consistently take on and lead varied tasks from start to finish will determine the overall value you get out of your partnership. Keep in mind that virtual assistants aren’t always going to have all the answers, but you should try to find someone who has a track record of being a resourceful problem solver.
Oftentimes you can get a sense if someone has this quality from their resume and past projects. Does he or she have a history of progressively receiving increased responsibilities and more complex projects over time? If so, chances are they’re a demonstrated problem solver capable of working autonomously.