Remote VAs stands for remote Virtual Assistants. They are independent contractors who work remotely writing content and managing social media accounts. They schedule meetings, make telephone calls, email newsletters, and copywrite.
Managers hire remote VAs and assign them the above-mentioned tasks. In the course of assigning tasks to remote VAs, you could get poor outcomes when the remote VAs are not carrying out their tasks as expected by you.
As a manager, outsourcing to remote VAs is not working for you as a result of one or more of the under-highlighted five reasons. However, there are ways to solve your outsourcing challenges
1. Lack of standard training materials and processes
Standard Training materials are documents that contain guidelines on how an employee is to carry out assigned tasks.
The possible negative effects of not having standard training materials and processes for your remote VAs are:
Without standardized training and processes, remote VAs may interpret instructions differently and execute tasks in a non-uniform manner, resulting in inconsistent work quality.
Due to inadequate proper training and processes, remote VAs may misunderstand instructions, leading to miscommunication and mistakes in completing tasks.
As a result of inconsistent work quality delays may lead to dissatisfaction among clients, potentially causing a loss of business.
What to do:
By having Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) and training materials, your remote VAs have a sense of direction on what to do and what not to do.
Having standard training materials and processes in your organization, helps in imparting knowledge, ensuring consistency, and enhancing the productivity of the remote VAs.
2. Inability to pay morale booster remuneration
Morale booster remuneration is a wage/salary which self motivates an employee, and not just a living wage.
Remote VAs who feel undervalued and underpaid may become so disengaged, leading to missed deadlines, mistakes, and a decrease in overall quality of work.
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Without adequate compensation for their hard work, VAs are likely to seek out other opportunities that offer better pay and benefits. This can result in a loss of experienced and skilled workers, and a disruption to the workflow of businesses that rely on remote VAs.
What to do:
Investing in morale booster remuneration for remote VAs is essential to maintaining motivation, productivity, and retention of skilled workers.
3. Job specifications and timelines not set
Job specifications and timelines measure the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) which detail the vision of your organization and how your hired remote VAs fit into achieving this vision.
Your remote VAs will carry out tasks without thinking of meeting deadlines since you did not give them a sense of direction.
What to do:
You should communicate often with your remote VAs, specifically defining their roles and responsibilities right from day one of their employment.
Ensuring you create schedules and timelines, or make them create one. Having a good monitoring and evaluation process will ensure your remote VAs meet their KPIs.
4. Not hiring the best hands in the industry
The best hands in an organization are individuals who have exceptional skills, and years of experience and know their onions.
An online news media in Lagos, Nigeria in 2017 became less popular among Nigerian online news readers subsequently after hiring so many rookies instead of experienced hands all in the name of cutting costs.
Your organization will have poor output if you wrongly outsource.
What to do:
You should develop clear job descriptions (JDs) and ensure the recruitment team sticks to them when hiring remote VAs.
Conducting job assessments to test the skills of the remote VAs will be an eye opener to know their strengths and weaknesses. In this case, you already know who will be a great fit for your organization.
5. Assigning high-level managerial tasks to the wrong person
High-level managerial tasks are job specifications that require much expertise to carry them out.
Assigning high-level managerial tasks to the wrong person will create lots of crevices in your organization. Your organization will take months to overcome the challenges created when you outsource what a senior manager should do to a fresh university graduate.
Your organization will not only suffer financial losses but have negative perceptions among your clients. You will in turn lose a high number of your trusted clients.
Miscommunication among your team members, the urge to save cost, and pressure to meet deadlines are factors leading to outsourcing the wrong remote VAs.
What to do:
Identifying the best person for high-level managerial tasks via effective communication will save your organization thousands of dollars
You should evaluate the remote VAs' skills, knowledge, and years of experience on the task you assign them.
Providing the necessary training and development opportunities will ensure that round pegs are put in round hole.
Oladele Hakeem Olaniyan who lives in Nigeria writes this article exclusively for Naijaloveinfo.
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