Virtual Assistant/Remote Employee Hiring Process/Training

Hiring VAs/remote employees is a little different than local employees, so here's how to approach the process. Most of our VA hires will be Pakistan-based, so everything is written in that perspective, and Bilal will conduct in-person interviews.

If this is a rehire, see 'Specific Job Descriptions' below for job descriptions & position-specific questions for existing positions. Review these and update with any new needs, job tasks, etc. before moving forward, and use the job-specific wikis to supplement this one.

Specific Job Descriptions, Questions, & Processes

Marketing Assistant

Setting up the Job Posting

Clearly state job description
Always include a caveat that we're a small business and their job will not be limited only to this. There will be random tasks they're asked to help out with.
Include the upsides to the job: "Great for someone who enjoys working from home"
Include the downsides to the job: "The right person can deal with last minute challenges from a client with a smile."
Create a list of personal qualities & skills we're looking for that will be critical to the position.
Include a qualifier like, "Please include your resume as a PDF file. Please include a quick description of why you think you'd be a good fit for the job and why you're interested in the job, as well as 2-3 professional references."
- People who can't follow these directions are probably disqualified.
Include a request for available dates/times for interviews:
- "When are you available for an interview or phone screen? Please list 2-3 dates and times or ranges of times."
VA Jobs: Post the job on rozee.pk
English Proficiency : If the candidate is not a native English speaker, we'll need them to take an English proficiency test: https://www.transparent.com/learn-english/proficiency-test.html
- We require minimum overall scores of 80% to continue. If any one category (i.e. grammar) is lower than about 70%, the candidate should be either 1. disqualified if the number is especially low, or 2. required to take courses if their score was only a little bit low.
Ask to complete 16personalities.com and email it over, as well as the typing test at https://www.keyhero.com/free-typing-test/. Record this on the applicant's Doc.

Interview Process

Phone Interview

Set up a 10 minute phone interview with the applicant. Use the following qualifying questions. Internal notes are in italics. Print these questions & notes here.

Are you available full time? Red flag if they plan to keep a side job.
Will you be willing to visit our home/office place for training purposes for 1st month and then occasionally on a need basis? Red flag if they say 'No'.
There may be times where we have overtime opportunities on the the weekend and/or during the week. Are you available for overtime? Red flag if they plan to keep a side job.
What are your salary/income requirements?
Do you own a computer? A functional computer is required, so they'll need to confirm they have one that is good, or purchase one.
Do you have a dedicated, distraction free workspace at home? If not, can you implement one? We require dedicated workspaces, so we'll need to help the candidate develop one if they don't.
Could you tell us a bit about yourself?
What are the reasons you chose your career & what interests you about this job?

Take notes & use your gut. Will you invest an hour of your time to meet with this person for an interview? If yes, then move to the next step with this applicant.

In-Person/Video Chat Interview

Once you have a set of applicants, schedule a time with each for an interview. Plan around ~30 minutes for this, and if you're interviewing multiple applicants in the same day, make a schedule and space them out more.
Set up a Google Doc with information on each applicant. Include names, contact info, link to a resume, and continually update with notes on their quality of communication, response time, and any other relevant info.
2 business days before the interview, send the following message.
- Note: If the candidate is in another city, please plan a video chat instead & update the template to note video chat scheduling instead of in-person scheduling.

Recipients: Applicant, CC Alex

Title: Interview Reminder + One Quick Question

{GREETING}

I wanted to send a quick follow up to confirm our interview on {DAY / DATE / TIME} at {{LOCATION}}. The interview will take ~30 minutes. If you can please respond to confirm that you’re coming, that would be appreciated.

Thanks!

{SIGNATURE}

In-Person Test Questions

It's extremely helpful to have a set of test questions for the interviewee to answer as soon as they get to the office. No matter how basic a role, put together a set of test questions if we don't already have a set. Here is a list of what we have:

In-Person Interview Questions

The following questions should be asked in person. These are somewhat fluid questions and you don't need to ask all of them. Make sure and take notes. Note the applicant's behavior, body language, etc. These questions are intended to determine if this person will fit into our company's culture of self-sufficiency & hard work.

Print this form to conduct the interview questions

Note: More great info on assessing 'prioritization' questions, as well as additional questions here: https://resources.workable.com/prioritization-interview-questions)

Conducting the Interview

At the interview, greet them, offer a water, and then have them run through the independent test questions using before the verbal interview.
A note on lateness: If an applicant arrives late to the interview, and especially if they do not proactively apologize and state why, this is a massive red flag. Applicants that don't show up at least 5 minutes early indicate either a lack of preparation or that they just don't care enough about the position. Use your judgement on whether or not to move forward with the interview at all (you may be wasting your time).
If they did not send the 16personalities.com test, English proficiency test, and/or the typing speed test, have them take the tests. Save/note the results and whether or not it was sent in previously.
Have them take the written test and save the results.
Conduct the interview questions.
Did the interview go well? Ask them if they can provide references. (Noted on form)
Ask them about their at-home workspace. Send them our notes on building a productive workspace at home, find out how they have things set up, and get a shot of their workspace to see if you can provide more helpful tips: https://app.tettra.co/teams/bramlett/pages/workspace

Rating the Candidate

We want to ask a set of questions:

Are there any yellow flags?
Are there any red flags?*
Are there any factors which would technically disqualify this candidate? (Too far from office, no car, etc)*
What about them do we think would be good assets for the team?
What about them do we think could cause issues for the team, but are not necessarily red flags?**
If there are yellow flags or personality flaws: can we work with them, and what would it take to do so? Is it worth it to spend that extra time/effort?
More subjectively: do you like this person? Aside from their assets & possible flaws, do you think you would enjoy working with this person? Someone may be effective in their position, but not a right fit for the team or for the culture.

*If yes to these, then the candidate is disqualified.

** We can work with some personality flaws, everyone has them, we just need to identify if they're the kind we can work with.

Obviously people can't be accurately quantified by a single number, but if you had to, and you removed the number 7, what number would they score? Never rate a candidate a 7. We only want to work with the top people, and it's too easy to place people in the 'average' category.

References

Checking references is critical and is a last step. If you're excited about hiring this person, make sure we get references. Send the following email:

Recipients: Candidate, CC Alex

Title: References for {JOB POSITION}

{GREETING}

It was great meeting you! Could you send over contact info for 3 professional references (3 coworkers would be great.) We understand the sensitivity of asking current coworkers for references, so references from past jobs are absolutely fine. We don't want to cause any advance concerns with your current employer, so if you'd prefer not to provide info for current coworkers, then we're totally fine with that.

Thanks!

{SIGNATURE}

Call the references for more info. Our intention with checking references is primarily to verify that the candidate is truthful in the information about their past work. We want to keep questions few, minimal, and to the point. Ask along the lines of the following:

Did you work with this person and what was their role?
Was this job primarily {END TO START DATE}?
What was it like to work with them?

If anything noted by the reference doesn't line up with the description of the work the candidate gave, or the reference noted anything negative about the candidate, please make a note of this.

Contract Trial Period

Finally, if the candidate is solid, we'll want to do a contract trial period. Set up a plan with the applicant. Make certain they understand that the contract period is temporary, and acceptance to the position long term is still dependent on their performance. If, after 30 days, they're doing well, then we will keep them on in the position long term.

Work out a start date, & lay out a plan to have the hire spend the 1st month working from the office. After the 1st month if they're doing well, they can begin working from home, and only work from the office on an as-needed basis.

If the applicant is strong and you would like to move forward with hiring them on for the trial period, send them an offer letter (sample below), lock in a start date, and then move on to the onboarding process.

Recipients: Applicant, CC Alex

Title: Job Offer

{{APPLICANT NAME}},

We'd like to formally offer you a 1-month contract with the company to serve as a trial period. After 30 days if everyone is happy, then the position will continue long term. Here are all of the details:

{{PAY RATE. INCLUDE PROJECTED INCREASES IF ANY}}
{{OVERTIME INFO IF NEEDED}}
1 month contract. After trial period is over, then the job will continue.
{{PLAN FOR WORKING FROM OFFICE}}
After trial period, you may begin working from home full time.
{{PAID TIME OFF INFO}}
{{PAID HOLIDAYS INFO}}
{{ANY OTHER IMPORTANT INFORMATION}}

Are you able to begin sometime either the week of {{X/XX}} or the week of {{X/XX}}? {{I know you'll need to put in your 2 weeks with your current employer, so we're flexible on the exact start date; just let us know. }}

Please let us know if you have any questions! Excited to bring you onto the team! {{SIGNATURE}}

English Course

If we've hired on a candidate and the new hire scored lower than a ~90% on the English test, we want to take this opportunity to help develop their skills. Being fluent in English is obviously a super valuable skill, and will definitely open up new opportunities for them in the company.

Once a new hire starts on, ask them to spend 1-2 hours per week on {{COURSE}} and share their progress weekly. The ideal is to get them to about 80% within 2 months of starting, and 90% within 3 months.

Training Stuff

1. Paste & Match Styles:

"Paste and Match Styles" is something that can save you a lot of time when you're working on spreadsheets, updating things, etc. I've used a hotkey for it for a couple of years, and I don't know how much time I've saved as a result.

If you're on a Mac, here are the instructions:

https://www.howtogeek.com/790287/how-to-always-paste-and-match-style-with-commandv-on-mac/

It looks like the instructions aren't as straightforward on PC, but there are a few options here: