Virtual assistant monitoring FAQ. Does virtual assistant monitoring software help?

This article has been prepared by WorkTime virtual assistant monitoring software.

1. Why hire a virtual assistant?

Virtual assistants are gaining popularity in the market. They are independent contractors who provide administrative services to mainly business owners. Why do you need a virtual assistant?

• Cost reduction. Hiring a virtual assistant is an alternative to a full-time employee. In general, you need to pay per task/project. Moreover, independent contractors do not require extra expenses for insurance or training.
• Operation optimization. Delegate administrative, support, or technical tasks to remote specialists.
• Better productivity. Virtual assistants boost productivity because you do not need to struggle with routine tasks.
• Increased engagement. Delegating tasks improves focus and reduces distraction caused by time-consuming tasks.
• Flexibility. You have access to a larger talent pool and can choose specialists regardless of location and time zone.

2. What is the common weakness of a virtual assistant?

Ensuring high productivity is the most common weakness of hiring a virtual assistant (the same as outsourcing a remote worker). It often results in a lack of trust between an employer and employee. Implementing virtual assistant monitoring software can help effectively overcome this challenge. A time zone difference is another challenge when collaborating with virtual assistants. Still, effective management and task delegation can transform it into a big advantage. For instance, hiring teams in different time zones provides round-the-clock productivity. Effective communication is the key to high performance. Still, cooperation with a remote assistant is often related to miscommunication because of language barriers, cultural differences, and distance. Sharing financial information/sensitive information and providing passwords can be risky. That’s why addressing privacy issues to prevent security threats is a must while working with virtual assistants. Finally, a lack of competence in specific business processes can affect the quality of VA services. Training, assigning a team lead, and developing guidelines with examples can help solve this issue. Still, it will require extra expenses.

3. What is good about virtual assistants?

First of all, it is a flexible and cost-effective alternative to a full-time employee. What are the other benefits of hiring virtual assistants?

• Competitive salary. A virtual assistant’s average hourly rate is lower compared to a full-time employee.
• Cost reduction. Save money on hiring & onboarding costs and reduce operating expenses.
• Better productivity. Your in-office employees won’t be overloaded with time-consuming tasks. Higher team productivity and engagement are guaranteed!

• VAs can handle a variety of tasks. You can delegate tasks related to administrative support, strategic prospecting, data management, and customer support.

4. Where to hire virtual assistants?

Online freelance platforms, service marketplaces, social media & networking, industry-specific forums, and virtual assistant agencies are the main tools for searching for VAs. What are the main steps to take before hiring a virtual assistant?

1. Determine your needs;
2. Evaluate your budget;
3. Create a job description/posting;
4. Choose the platform;
5. Screen the candidates;
6. Discuss the terms and clarify the expectations;
7. Prepare a contract or agreement.

These steps will help you choose the best-fitting virtual assistant to meet your requirements and handle your tasks.

5. How do I screen a virtual assistant?

Screening a virtual assistant is important to ensure effective cooperation. There is a need to consider several factors, including relevant experience, hard and soft skills, and references. A test assignment is also a great way to assess a candidate. Evaluating a work approach is one more way to ensure high productivity. WorkTime virtual assistant monitoring software will assist in checking the employee’s attendance and productivity, regardless of location.

6. How do I manage a virtual assistant?

Effective management is required to guarantee smooth operations for all processes. Here are some tips on how you can improve cooperation with virtual assistants:

• Set clear goals and provide detailed instructions. This way, VA will understand your standards and requirements better;
• Provide training and resources. It is necessary to improve awareness of your business processes;
• Maintain transparency. WorkTime non-invasive virtual assistant monitoring software will fit perfectly to assess workers’ productivity without invasive functions like screenshot recording;
• Provide regular feedback. This is necessary to improve the quality of work and enhance communication;
• Evaluate virtual assistant performance.

7. How do I know if a virtual assistant is working?

First, set deadlines and observe progress. It will help you stay updated on work progress. Second, schedule regular check-ins to discuss progress, review work results, and provide feedback or guidelines. Third, set a performance goal for your virtual assistant and evaluate it during a certain period. Implementing virtual assistant monitoring software is one more effective way to stay confident that your VA is working productively. WorkTime monitoring ensures that your remote assistant is at work and uses the computer productively instead of wasting time on networking, online shopping, etc.

8. How do I trust a virtual assistant?

Building trust requires time. These simple steps will facilitate this process:

• Develop a work agreement or contract to make everything clear concerning your expectations, requirements, and worker’s responsibilities;
• Communicate regularly. Choose communication tools that fit you both. Regular and effective communication is necessary for a better understanding of a task and a higher quality of work;
• Implement transparent monitoring. WorkTime green monitoring will be a perfect fit for that. Non-invasive monitoring improves trust between employers and virtual assistants.

Request a personalized demo to learn more about the benefits of non-invasive monitoring for your business.

9. How to keep track of virtual assistant hours?

Monitoring attendance and active time will ensure that your virtual assistant works during the scheduled hours. With WorkTime virtual assistant monitoring software, you will always be updated on active/idle time and attendance of your employees (including the actual time of their logins/logouts), even when they work remotely.

10. How to monitor your VA?

Implementing employee monitoring software is an effective solution to stay updated on your VA’s performance. Monitor productivity of virtual assistants with WorkTime. With 60+ comprehensive reports, you will get valuable information in numbers and statistics on attendance, productivity, active/idle time, distraction score, and more. For instance, the “What’s now?” report shows the current status of each worker (no matter whether in-office or remote). Check whether your virtual assistants are productive, their arrival time, or the duration since their last activity.

11. When should I fire my virtual assistant?

Several signs can indicate that it is time to fire a virtual assistant:

1. Low quality of work;
2. Frequently missed deadlines;
3. VA does not achieve performance goals;
4. VA does not improve after you issue a warning;
5. VA has low productivity, poor attendance, low engagement, and a high distraction rate.

WorkTime monitoring will help to catch the signs of poor performance, lack of engagement, and burnout in the early stages.

12. How to monitor productivity of virtual assistants?

Virtual assistant monitoring software will assist you in tracking your remote worker’s productivity. WorkTime's non-invasive technology makes it easy to monitor transparently. You can share tracking results to analyze employee productivity and set goals for improvement. In this way, monitoring will significantly improve VA performance.

13. What is the best time tracking tool for virtual assistants?

Non-invasive employee monitoring is an excellent time tracking tool for virtual assistants if you want to maintain positive and trusting relationships with your employees. How can you benefit from green monitoring?

• WorkTime offers safe and reliable monitoring. You get accurate data without using malware-like traits that may conflict with anti-virus;
• Non-invasive monitoring maintains loyalty within your team. Your virtual assistant will feel respected and confident;
• Green monitoring is business-oriented. Your goals are clear, and monitoring does not look like micromanagement;
• Non-invasive monitoring protects VA’s privacy. Effective monitoring does not require tracking personal information or recording screenshots and keystrokes. Monitor productivity, attendance, and active time, and get valuable insights provided in numbers and statistics.

14. Is there free software to monitor virtual assistants?

WorkTime offers a virtual assistant monitoring software free trial for 14 days. Evaluate green monitoring features and see how to boost employee productivity in a non-invasive, effective, safe, and socially responsible way.

WorkTime - virtual assistant monitoring software

WorkTime is the best virtual assistant monitoring software because it maintains a fragile balance between a business owner’s goals and an employee’s need for privacy & respect. We have cases to prove it. See how our clients succeed with WorkTime:

• Instant productivity boost from 40% to 95%;
• Increased active time from 40% to 86%;
• WorkTime keeps millennials motivated and highly productive;
• Improved supervision of remote employees and better attendance.
Try WorkTime now!

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