This is probably the most common question I am asked.
First of all, there’s no ONE place. I normally hire from Online Jobs, which is based in the Philippines, but the truth is, if you google “Where to Hire a VA in the Philippines”, so many choices will pop up, and for the most part, one is as good as the other. That’s because unless you want to use an agency (which I don’t recommend), these sites are simply data bases of people looking for work. They haven’t been screened much, except maybe to verify identity, and range of skill level in any given specialty is vast.
What’s far more important is HOW you hire, not WHERE you hire.
We follow a very structured process:
✔️ Job posting with very specific detail about who we are looking for, who we are, and the skills required.
✔️ Very specific instructions about what to do next
✔️ This process alone will disqualify the majority of the applicants, who don’t read the directions
✔️ Those who have not been disqualified will receive a link to an external job application on a Google Form
✔️ Their responses on the Google Form will automatically disqualify many of the applicants.
✔️ Remaining applicants will be invited to complete a very brief test task
✔️ Based on this test task, only a few candidates wll remain
✔️ These candidates will complete an “interview” on a Google Form
✔️ The candidates remaining will be invited to a Skype interview
✔️ If more than one candidate does well during the interviews, they are invited to a trial week.
✔️ The person who best performs is offered a position.
This seems like a lot, but this entire system is templated, and mostly automated, until the applicant gets to the interview process.
I share this system in my program, Front Row CEO. All templates, forms, scripts and checklists are included, to make for a truly “plug and play” experience.
So, as you see, it’s not really about WHERE you hire as much as HOW you hire.
We’ve found very good VAs at Online Jobs so that’s where we usually post.
If you are looking for a freelancer, I love Upwork and Fiverr, because you each person is rated on their previous work by previous clients. You can see how many jobs they’ve completed, their success rate, and their overall rating. Clients also leave written reviews. In this post, I shared some of my favorite freelancers from those sites.
Earlier I mentioned that when hiring a VA in the Philippines, I discourage hiring from an agency...why is this?
Because typically, you will NOT be matched with one person. You will submit work through a portal, and they hand it off to whomever is available. This makes it difficult, if not impossible, to establish rapor with a VA, which is, in my opinion, the best part of working with a virtual assistant. Also, continuity and consistency inevitably suffer when so many different hands are working in your business.
If you prefer to hire only in the USA/UK, there are wonderful independent virtual assistants! Typically the difference comes down to a big difference in rates (and time zones), which I discuss here.
Some of my favorite USA based VAs are, Gr8Collaboration VA, RocketGirl Solutions, Most Stellar Virtual and Assistants.
Have you hired a virtual assistant or freelancer before? What has been your experience? I’d love to know. Post in the comments below.
