VA Series 4/5: 3-Step Guide to Onboard and Pay your First VA
In this blog, we are going to go through the actionable steps to make your first VA hire. But specifically all the details no one talks about like the offer process, payroll, and taxes.
I am going to break it down step by step so you can copy it to have the same success we did.
In the last blog, we covered how to interview people to make sure they aren’t a weirdo.
Now we found 1-2 people we like and want to hire them. But what happens next?
If you have not seen that video, i’ll link it somewhere on the screen and also below.
And guys make sure to stay until the end where I talk about some best practices I have never shared but wish I had known when I was starting my interview process.
We need to make it smooth for the person to start so they are excited about the job and they know what they are doing on day 1 so they can make an impact.
Okay, so the way this video is going to be broken down is.
First, we are going to cover what to do when you think you found the person you want to hire - what steps you need to take between the day you decide to hire this person and their first day on the job.
Then we are going to cover what contracts we have our team members sign and how the offer is presented.
Then we are going to cover the details of how we pay them and what we do to make sure we are good for tax purposes.
So you find the person you like…
Now what?
What we usually do is send them an email letting them know we have made the decision and want to set up a call with them.
On the call - we like to let them know they were selected!
It’s important to bring some energy to this - you want them to know you are excited and it was not an easy decision
If they accept - which they usually do we start by going over some logistics
We will provide a full checklist of all the onboarding items below this video if you want to check out but some of the most important things we want to cover in this conversation are:
Hours/Start date - this includes confirming the time zone they will work - either their hours or the US hours - sometimes referred to as the graveyard shift in the Phillippines.
A reminder of why they are hired and what tasks they are expected to do - we like to present this on a notion page for everyone on the team when we make the offer.
Discuss paid time off and sick days.
When we end that call - we will send over a contract and let them know we need it signed and sent back by the end of the day.
We will usually send this in Panda doc or Docusign
You want this doc signed before day 1 so that on day 1 you can just jump right into tasks and work instead of getting operational items taken care of.
What We Make Sure to Include in the Contract
I promise this isn’t a long pitch but if you guys are interested in getting step-by-step help with VAs, access to all our tools, contracts, and even the lists of our favorite VAs willing to work - we will have content on how we are helping people with that.
It’s not expensive but it is something we put together and people are having great results with it.
In our contracts, we make sure to include a few important things:
The hours/pay and goals. - Goals or bonuses won’t exist for all roles, but for the ones where they do, It’s super important to have them inside the contract.
This is so you can point back to them if things aren’t achieved that were discussed
Activities, hours, and expectations - this is just what time they will be online and what they will be doing every day
Privacy - things like not sharing private company information, access to assets, or sharing trade secrets.
This is a biggie not because we expect to have to enforce it but because it sets a tone that this won’t be tolerated by anyone.
One thing I need to mention - you want something like this in your contract but in my 7-year experience with virtual assistants - I have never had an issue and never heard of any friends having issues with this.
How to Pay VAs
This one is simple actually.
We pay most of our VAs with 2 tools but we try to just consolidate them into 1 so it’s more efficient
They are global and pay fairly quickly.
One thing I recommend is making sure you have everyone paid on the same schedule no matter when they start.
I used to have people paid at the end of their first week and then start 2 weeks from there and I found I was paying people every week which was just inefficient.
We pay everyone on the team on a bi-weekly basis. usually on the 14th and the 28th.
That’s it guys!
Check out the video on my YouTube channel! 👇
