Whether through a physical encounter or a video recording, training your virtual assistants (VA) is an absolute must. Having a comprehensive onboarding process will help them get acquainted with your company and allow you to maximize their skills as soon as possible.
Unfortunately, many entrepreneurs assume that their newly hired assistants already know what to do—such VA training mistakes inevitably leads to frustration.
Training is essential for your employees in several ways. Apart from giving them a general overview of their responsibilities, letting them know your company’s way of doing things will also allow you to set expectations and build trust.
5 Virtual Assistant Training Tips for Upskilling
In this article, we’ve prepared five useful tips for virtual assistant training to ensure that their adjustment goes smoothly.
1. Identify tasks or upskilling goals and create written playbooks
It’s a given that you’ve hired a competent and experienced VA. Nonetheless, you may require skills from your VA that are specific to your business, and you’ll need to train your VA for those. The first thing you should do is identify what additional skills your VA will need to function efficiently in your organization.
Letting them know the tasks they’re responsible for and how you want things done will ensure that their deliverables reach your standards. With that said, ask yourself the following:
- What are the primary responsibilities of my VA?
- What are the specific tasks involved in this role?
- What are the steps involved in accomplishing each task?
- How will I measure employee performance?
Once you’ve answered these questions, you should start creating a playbook for each task. Having a comprehensive manual on how your assistant should go about specific tasks will help them adapt to your team’s workflow. Afterward, setting upskilling goals will allow you to keep their performance consistent.
2. Maximize video recordings for training
If you don’t have the time to personally onboard your new assistants, consider producing training videos. Having a resource center can be very convenient since it will discuss everything your new employees need to know, even if you aren’t physically present. Having a visual guide they can look back to will be especially useful if your organization uses multiple software.
3. Train for IFTTT situations and prepare a cheat sheet
During their tenure with your company, your virtual assistants will naturally come face-to-face with many tricky scenarios. Whether it’s addressing an angry client, or managing a sensitive project, having protocols in place will be extremely beneficial.
Considering this, preparing an “if that happens, then this needs to happen” (IFTTT) cheat sheet will guide their actions accordingly.
Similar to how businesses have an FAQs section for its customers, your employees should also have a guide for internal affairs. Identifying repetitive situations and creating standard procedures will prevent them from making a bad decision that may jeopardize your company.
4. Teach your VA about your business’ security protocols
Upon entry to your organization, you should immediately discuss your data security procedures. Given that cyberattacks are both rising in number and becoming more costly, it’s not a stretch to say that falling into one can threaten your company’s stability.
If you handle sensitive information, such as credit card numbers, informing your virtual assistants about the security tools you use and the policies they need to follow will keep your company safe.
5. Train for communication and tools
Communication is vital for a company’s success. Employees who proactively discuss matters with their colleagues can find more success with projects and have an easier time satisfying clients. Considering that your new VA is still adjusting to your company, letting them know your preferred messaging channels and teaching them how your team uses these tools will be essential.
If you’re using software like Slack or Google Hangouts, brief them on your preferred platform and your rules to keep the channels orderly. This will make it easier for your VA to bring up any concerns at the right channel the right way. At the same time, letting them know how often your team conducts conference calls will ensure that they are updated with all matters.
Takeaways
Virtual assistants are trained to handle specific tasks, but it’s unfair to think that they’re ready from the get-go. More often than not, many employers fail to acclimate their new hires properly, and the lack of training usually results in an unsuccessful partnership. If you want to maximize your VAs’ performance, your onboarding and upskilling procedures must be thorough.
If you want highly-skilled VAs that can hit the ground running, Outsource Access got you covered. We identify and train the best VAs in the market through our comprehensive recruitment and vetting process. Once a candidate passes screening, they enter into our Bootcamp to be trained in general communications, effective feedback, and technical tasks and tools.
Through this process, we can provide assistants that will be a hand-in-glove fit for your organization. Contact us to learn more about our virtual assistant blueprint process.
