What virtual assistant skills should you look for when hiring?
We are aware that the term “virtual assistant” can cover a variety of different tasks and industries. In the digital age you can do a lot of work remotely from admin, to creatives, to accounting.
Here, we’ll discuss the more common skills and even general skills we believe VAs across the board should possess.
Essential Administrative Skills
Time Management
This first skill is all about the importance of prioritizing tasks and managing schedules effectively.
Your VA should be able to not only multitask, but also discern the level of urgency and importance of each task.
They should know themselves well and be able to accurately gauge how long it takes them to complete something.
Being a master of their own time also helps them manage other people’s time. This skill helps them with tasks like calendar management and organizing meetings internally or with clients and business partners.
Data Entry and Management
A lot of VAs handle all kinds of information be it company, customer, or client data. As such they need to be very detail-oriented.
This helps them maintain the accuracy, reliability, and integrity of business operations.
While many consider data entry to be an “entry level” task, it still requires excellence.
A good VA will create checks for themselves to make sure they input, transfer, or update data correctly.
Technical Skills for Modern Virtual Assistants
Adaptability to New Technologies
There are two types of virtual assistant skills: hard skills or technical skills, and soft skills or character skills.
Knowing how to use various technologies are hard skills. Being flexible and adaptable to the fast-paced rollout of new and emerging tools are essential soft skills.
One popular area is AI which is growing in popularity. Instead of trying to compete with it, VAs should learn how to use AI to enhance their services and productivity.
For instance, automation has saved countless hours by taking the most time consuming tasks and completing them in seconds. This means VAs can focus on adding their unique value to projects.
AI in the creative space has been more than a little controversial. However, some resourceful people have used AI to help with brainstorming and inspiration.
Software Proficiency
Virtual assistants need to be familiar with a lot of the common tools associated with remote work.
Project management and collaboration software like Asana is on top of that list. Mastery of this software will make working with clients, managers, and team members so much easier. It also helps with efficiency, pace-keeping, and accountability.
VAs should also be familiar with CRM (customer relationship management) tools like Hubspot. These tools help them not only gather and track customer data reliably but also improve customer service and lead nurturing.
Communication and Interpersonal Skills
Effective Communication
Communication is more than putting words to paper. Virtual assistants also need to know how to practice active listening. They should ask poignant questions that not only help them do their jobs, but help the whole team.
They should also possess the skill of initiative and inference. Initiative is observing the needs of a situation and taking action without someone telling them. Inference is the ability to derive conclusions using logic and reasoning.
These skills can help them craft clear and effective messages and responses across platforms.
Client Relationship Management
Building and maintaining strong client relationships remotely.
Here are some client relationship management tips for building and maintaining strong connections remotely:
- Set clear expectations and work boundaries from the get-go.
- Keep clients in the loop and communicate effectively.
- Build trust by delivering on what you promise and exceeding expectations.
- Take initiative to fix problems they didn’t even know they had and point them out. This showcases your competence and care.
- Encourage feedback.
Specialized Virtual Assistant Skills for Niche Tasks
Social Media Management
Every smart business knows the value of a social media presence. As such, they will often look for VAs with the skills to manage these pages to enhance brand visibility and engagement.
These skills include copywriting, graphic design, and backgrounds in marketing or advertising.
They apply these skills to
- Engage with communities and their customer base and in growing their target audience
- Engage with other businesses, foster partnerships, and build networks
Project Management
Some VAs can take on leadership roles like executive virtual assistants and remote team managers.
Project managers are responsible for overseeing projects from initiation to completion. This means they do progress checks and sometimes look over completed work for quality assurance. They keep people communicating and on schedule. They keep the team on track to hit certain milestones and ensure timely delivery of services.
Cultural Sensitivity and International Outreach
Before hiring, we recommend doing cultural research and learning how to be culturally sensitive. A remote team is full of people of diverse cultural norms, backgrounds, and communication styles. Understanding and adapting to this reality is important to remote team success.
This also helps you set a company and team culture that’s kind, loving, honoring, and respectful of everyone.
Leadership and Decision-Making
Remote Leadership
VAs taking leading roles should be decisive, resourceful and flexible. This is especially true when physical presence is not possible.
Leading a remote team is challenging. One has to be able to apply the skills of leadership and use technologies to manage at a distance.
Decision Making
A good VA will create standard operating procedures and contingencies and prepare as much as possible.
After all, having a solution to a problem that doesn’t exist is better than having a problem with no existing solution.
However, VAs also need to be resourceful and quick on their feet when unexpected situations pop up.
Personal Traits That Enhance VA Performance
Self-Motivation and Discipline
Most virtual assistants are self-employed, independent contractors, or freelancers. Self-leadership and maintaining a healthy work-drive and work-life balance is one of the most crucial virtual assistant skills.
They shouldn’t need a babysitter or constant supervision. They should be able to work independently, maintain productivity, and deliver on time.
Continuous Learning and Adaptability
Technology is developing rapidly. We just talked about how VAs need to capitalize on the benefits of AI. In the same vein, VAs should be driven—always seeking to improve. They should be constantly growing, upgrading, and adapting their skills to meet the task at hand and the rapidly evolving market needs.
They should be thinking about how to scale as a service business and expanding their skillsets, reach, and depth of their offerings.
Implementing Virtual Assistant Skills in Your Startup
Here are some practical tips on integrating VAs into your business operations:
- Start small and expand as needed.
- Create a robust interview and onboarding process.
- Set up all the necessary collaboration and communication tools as soon as possible.
- Set up frequent progress meetings and check-ins to stay updated on how the project is going.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the latest tools and technologies that virtual assistants should master?
Here are some of the most common ones:
- Google Workspace
- Microsoft 365 suite of apps
- Creative tools: Canva
- CRM: Hubspot, Zoho, Salesforce
- Writing tools: Grammarly or ProWritingAid
- Project management, communication, collaboration: Slack, Trello, Asana
- Video conferencing: Zoom, Microsoft teams
- Storage: Google Drive, Dropbox
- Time tracking: Toggl, RescueTime
- Social media management: Hootsuite, Buffer
How can startups ensure data security when working with virtual assistants?
Having VAs sign legal contracts will deter anyone from attempting to breach confidentiality.
Hiring from well-known marketplaces with strong vetting practices also helps.
What are the best practices for onboarding a virtual assistant into a startup?
- Introduce them to the tools and software they will use for their work and internal communications.
- Introduce them to your company and what your goals and objectives are.
- Introduce them to people that they will be working closely with and build rapport from the get-go. This also gives them a feel for the work culture.
- Give them a rundown of their role and their role in relation to other’s roles.
- Give them access to a contact person or a feedback channel where they can freely ask questions and clarify things.
How can virtual assistants contribute to scaling a startup?
Outsourcing to VAs is cost effective and allows for greater flexibility. Both are essential in scaling your business. For one, it allows you and your team to focus on your core competencies. Secondly, it allows you to expand without breaking the bank due to high overheads associated with traditional employment.
What are common mistakes startups make when managing virtual assistants?
The biggest mistake is not doing adequate research on the subject. If you don’t know what remote management looks like, you can’t make the necessary preparations. You’re not going to have contingencies in place in case something goes wrong. Poor management can also lead to losing out on an excellent VA.
Other mistakes include:
- Not being clear in your job description and list of roles and responsibilities
- Not having a well-thought out list of interview questions
- Not having an onboarding and training process
- No consistent progress checks
What Is Outsource School?
Outsource School helps you to unlock the potential of virtual assistants and accelerate your business growth.
This is the exact system Outsource School’s founders, Nathan Hirsch and Connor Gillivan, used to go from zero to 8 figures and 40+ virtual assistants with an exit in 2019.
Since being founded in 2020, Outsource School has helped 1,000+ business owners hire 2,000+ virtual assistants for their companies.
Schedule a free sales call to learn more
Free resources you might like:
- Outsource School Case Study: How We Scaled to 45+ VAs and 8 Figures in Revenue
- Free VA Calculator | See How Many VAs You Can Afford
- Free Training on 5 Keys to Working With VAs
- Learn Outsourcing 101 | Guides, Downloads, and Checklists
Conclusion
These virtual assistant skills are important to consider when hiring. Your candidates don’t need to possess all the technical or hard skills, especially if it’s not required for the role. On top of the necessary hard skills, look out for soft skills like communication, self-discipline, and leadership. These are harder to teach and take longer to learn.
