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There are instances when business owners feel the urge to outsource or hire a specialist. However, chances that the specialist resides in the same town or country can sometimes be low. Under such circumstances, services like TeamViewer Remote Management come in handy. It makes it possible for you to connect to someone who is far away from you.
Here is how you can hire a virtual team:
Know What You Want
To begin with, you should know what you are looking for. Freelancing is very common these days. From university students to professional individuals, people are opting for freelancing. This has given rise to a lot of websites and platforms through which you can reach the freelancers. Or vice versa. Due to this ease, you can find yourself lost in these various websites. The chances of hiring an incompetent virtual team member also increase because of this. So you have to be very clear what you are looking for in the person you wish to hire or freelance for you. Once that is done, you should opt for the best websites or platforms to select the perfect candidate for yourself. You should have a sound knowledge regarding the most trusted websites for this. Ask around or do your own research. Some of the best websites that can offer you the most competent virtual team members include Upwork and freelancer.com. However, you should not restrict your options to these two websites alone. Search for others as well.
Job Description
You will have to draft a very comprehensive job description so that only the right candidates apply for the position. There is a lot that job description can decide. If you make a general JD, you will see that almost every other person who is in any way related to the position will apply. You do not want that for yourself. Because it will only add to your workload. You cannot afford to skim through a gazillion resumes. You won’t have enough time to do so. It will waste your time and delay the process of hiring the right candidate. It will also add to your confusion. As a general guideline, your job description should include the following:
- Background information about your company and what you do.
- Level of education and the years of experience that you are looking for. You can also mention if you are looking for certain skills in the candidate.
- List of all the duties and responsibilities that the person selected will have to fulfill. DO NOT hide anything while making this list.
- List of any apps, software or tools that you think that they will be using while working as a virtual team member to you.
If you address the above-mentioned areas, you will make a quite comprehensive yet descriptive JD.
The Screener Trick
Virtual assistance or team member is just like any other employee that you will work with. The distance, however, makes him a bit different from other employees. Because the distance is a considerable factor, you will have to carry out a mini test. This will be to see if the person is right to become a virtual team member. In this test, you have to look for two qualities in a virtual assistant:
- Attention to detail.
- Ability to follow direction
Both of these are essential as you won’t be able to guide the virtual team member in person. All you have to do is add a screener question to your job ad. You do not even have to read the resume to look for these two qualities. Coming back to the screener question. That can be a mini instruction that you might give to the candidates applying. For example, add ‘resume for the position of a marketing manager’ as the subject of the email. If candidates do that, you would know they can follow direction. They would also be among those who give attention to details.
Test Drive
Take a test drive. This will be done after you have shortlisted the candidates that you would like to consider. You cannot hire a candidate with whom you are going to have a long-term relationship without a practical test. So, after narrowing your list, ask each candidate to work on a sample project. It is better to assign the same project to every candidate so that you can make a fair comparison. Make sure that this test is also in line with what they will be doing after they get hired. This will give you a very clear idea about their capabilities even before hiring them. However, make sure that you pay your candidates for these test projects. Because they will give it their time and effort. So, it is not fair to ask people to do things for free.
Interview
Based on the test results, you have selected the possible candidates that can work with you. Now, schedule online interviews but make them short and sweet. Do not drag them to the extent that the candidate gets annoyed. The little time will be enough for you to judge if the personality of the person will match with yours or not.
Make Sure the Assistant Sticks Around
After you hire the right candidate, you will have to make sure that he sticks around as well. For that, you will have to invest in his growth. Apart from that, you will also have to respect their personal life. If possible, schedule meet-ups with your virtual team member occasionally.
That is if he is traveling to the country that you operate from. And if that’s not possible, no worries. You will already be seeing them via Blizz Collaboration platforms or the like. Hope you do not have a hard time hiring a virtual team for your business.
