My Guide for Hiring VA's in the Philippines

Hiring Virtual Assistants/Staff in the Philippines‍

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So you are looking to hire in the Philippines? I could not recommend it more. We live in an age where remote work is standardized, and technology connects us magically. Most roles completed by US talent quite frankly can be done with overseas labor over the internet.

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While there are many countries to hire from, I like the Philippines the most for most kinds of labor due to their English skills, work ethic, kindness, and their cultural acceptance of working virtually.

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What I mean by cultural acceptance is that being a virtual assistant in the Philippines is extremely common, and there is not a negative stigma around it. Many people are studying to become better assistants in the Philippines.

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Where to find your VA’s

https://www.onlinejobs.ph/

This is the ultimate site for hiring VA's. It is a job board just for the Philippines, and that is important because you'll get VA's charging proper market rate. When you go to places like Upwork, VA's charge based on the role and less based on the market. You can make an account for about $60 a month, and you should only need a month. Find them on the platform, and then move things over to email. I personally have the premium 1 year membership because I'm always hiring.

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In the job description, I like to include as one of the requirements to send your resume as well as your favorite joke. What this does is not only lighten the mood, but most importantly lets you know if the VA who applied to the job actually read the job description or sent you their portfolio en mass.

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I personally use a software called Interviewer.ai and I forward the applicants over to that software. This lets them record a short video interview and autoscores their application, cutting down recruitment time substantially.

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Slack is a huge help for communication:

We create joint channels with our top customers, and build roles and responsibilities within those channels. What this does is allows the VA’s to answer questions and receive tasks without managers needing to assign it. You have dedicated VAs in each channel for specific tasks. Examples: Client needs something designed-design VA picks up tasks automatically, inquiry about a current order- ops VA answers inquiry, client wants to start a new project- project management VA starts new project in the system.

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Use tools like Loom

Even with great English skills, communication can be tough. I give most tasks through Loom or the built in features in slack. Loom allows you to share your screen and record your face/audio. This allows you to communicate clearly on what the task is and how to do it. The plus side of this as well, is if you are showing a VA how to do something, you can take that loom video and make it an SOP for future use. I also switched to a software called Bubbles usebubbles.com which is better and free

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Why I almost always hire full time:

With how discounted it is to hire a virtual assistant, I always recommend hiring full time versus part time. The reason for this is focus and dedication. If a virtual assistant is being hired part time, they are going to need another income source to live. This means their focus and tasks may be split amongst two, three or even 4+ different companies.

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If this is the case, they are not really a member of your team, you are more of a client to them. From my experience, this lowers productivity, and can lead to low turnover as they may not need your business. I promise you if you hire them full time, they will be more dedicated, they will be more productive, and almost most importantly they will make less mistakes.

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Imagine if you had to remember all the processes and rules for multiple companies. It would be beyond complicated and you are bound to confuse them. There are many times I will hire full-time with them only working 5 or so hours of the 8-hour shift, but that extra focus is worth it. If they do have extra time, try to see how they can help in other areas of the business or focus on educating themselves with courses.

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The exception is when you truly need temp work, in this case I would recommend making a listing for temp workers and making it transparent from the beginning that you want to hire as needed on a project basis. An example can be when your main designer is overloaded and you need to bring another designer in for 10 hours this week to assist.

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Benefits:

We give benefits to our team in PH. We give 13th month pay from the start, and the other things like like PTO, Paid Holidays, and Health Insurance (they call it a health card) once they "normalize", which means they hit 6 months at the company. We only do this for full time employees.

13th month pay:

What is it:

Actually it is a legal requirement for PH companies to pay. It is a bonus end of year that equates to a full month's pay.

Why is it a smart move:

13th month pay is a great way to increase your employee retention and lower turnover, as employees do not want to quit when they know they will be getting a large bonus in a few months. It also shows you appreciate them and their culture, as most US based companies do not pay 13th month bonuses.

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PTO:

We give 1 day PTO per month.

How to send your VA’s things:

Want to get a VA a new monitor or other items, Lazada is their version of Amazon, and is a great way to ship them items affordably. I would almost always recommend giving something like a second monitor as a bonus because it is something that can boost productivity massively.

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Holidays:

We built our own hybrid holiday calendar, which is the more important holidays from both Philippines and the US. We find this works better than just PH or just US holidays. Feel free to steal:

Apple products:

Another great bonus item is a macbook. I recommend the new macbook air as they are a massive bang for the buck, and if your VA currently has a bad laptop, I promise this purchase will pay for itself in increased productivity.

You can order easily on: https://www.apple.com/ph/mac/

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Health Insurance:

Health insurance can be a little tricky. I personally just have my assistants pay for the insurance privately and they add it to their invoice quarterly. It costs between $40-60 a month based on age and health status.

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Daily check ins/check outs:

We use a check in check out task system at Imprint Genius. When team members switch between tasks, they log the change in this sheet we built. It auto tracks the timing and how long the project takes. They then post this sheet in a slack channel when clocking out. So at a glance me or their manager can see what they worked on during the day, and how long each project took.

Here is the template for it:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1EFTo7VTsSbCwwVZGl_d5euZMhODZ5SyXMR8iR_s--14/edit?usp=sharing

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Here is a list of key sites:

If you like this guide, please use the links I provided, that way I get a referral credit and you probably get a discount

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How to pay your VAs:

Wise.com

Wise is the best platform right now for sending money overseas easily and affordably. According to my team in PH the rates are the best and the money comes super quick. The fees tend to be just a few dollars per payment, and the money gets delivered normally in under 1 hour.

Use link for $600 in fee-free transfers: https://wise.com/invite/u/isaach224

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How to track your VA’s/manage hours

Hubstaff:

Hubstaff is great because it not only tracks employees hours, but also takes screenshots at intervals of the VAs screen and records their activity rates. This can reduce a lot of stress that can come with hiring remote work, and is a great way to keep team members accountable

https://app.hubstaff.com/referral/BBGhLWBzwQu-5K2zHvnIeA

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Appsumo

Appsumo is amazing for finding softwares for your business. You buy them for a one time fee and get them for life. Many of them are SaaS apps that are paid monthly. As an example, I got Interviewer.ai here for like $60 for life, instead of nearly that per month. Here's my referral link for you to get $10 off your first app: http://fbuy.me/v/isaac_1162

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Manage SOPs

Waybook.com (got it through Appsumo) is what we used to use.

Now we ported everything over to Notion. Here is what our main dashboard looks like for reference:

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Hope this helps and lmk if you have any questions!