As virtual assistants are increasingly playing a pivotal role in modern businesses, so is the need to employ online business managers to oversee the VA admin team.
An excellent online business manager will communicate effectively and support the virtual assistant team while ensuring that key performance indicators are in place to meet busienss goals.
Online business managers are responsible for issues with the virtual assistance administration support team, their training needs, and all sickness/holiday problems.
But it all comes down to how you manage your outsourcing team.
Why Is It Important To Manage VAs?
It is the business owner’s job to implement a management structure that works for the company. Employing an online business manager is essential if you want to get the best out of your virtual assistants.
Virtual assistant jobs form a crucial part of many businesses as they try to become more cost-efficient, but the more VAs you hire, the more likely you need to employ an online business manager.
Small business owners don’t have time to check if a virtual assistant is doing their job correctly, so they hire online business managers to take on this responsibility.
An online business manager will be responsible for all those who do virtual assistant jobs for your company, ensuring their performance is high, their training needs are met, and all sickness/holiday issues are dealt with.
The manager is also responsible for identifying additional training requirements, such as organising online courses, which help create a continuing education and promotion pathway for the best virtual assistants.
The remote employee must complete all their tasks on time, and time management software will help the manager identify any issues before they impact the business.
How Do You Manage Teams Of Virtual Assistants?
1 – Start With Key Performance Indicators
The business owner employs an online business manager to take full responsibility for virtual assistants. Therefore, key performance indicators (KPIs) are vital to monitoring the worker’s performance.
There are generally some mundane tasks on a virtual assistant’s task list. For example, they input data, answer emails and phone calls, and make travel arrangements for business events. However, concentration levels must remain high so setting clearly defined goals is necessary.
Setting these KPIs helps the manager assess how the worker is performing their job, allows them to put a strategy in place, and helps them to offer additional support when needed.
The manager can discuss any problems with their staff, having made a fair judgement on their weaknesses and strengths from the KPI results.
Written evidence of a worker’s performance is vital for quarterly job elevation meetings. In addition, having the relevant information will assist the manager in trying to focus on a plan of action to help and support their virtual assistants moving forward.
2 – Monitor Time Spent On Tasks
The business owner can’t monitor everything, so this is why a manager is responsible for monitoring how much time is taken on each task.
Excellent project management skills are a must in all businesses.
As we know, not all tasks take the same amount of time, and there may be occasions where unforeseen problems occur during a task. It is up to the manager to find a suitable solution.
Many business owners invest in time management software to allow their online business managers to monitor the performance of their virtual assistants during specific tasks.
The most popular time and task-tracking tools cost a monthly subscription, but some are free. It is the manager’s responsibility to do internet research on which software is best suited to your business needs.
Whichever software you decide upon, it could be Clockify, Hubstaff, TimeDoctor, Harvest, TimeTrack or Connectteam; it will help to assess when the virtual assistant team completes tasks on time.
3 – Pay Attention To Task Quality
Part of every manager’s job is to keep a close eye on the quality of the service your virtual assistants are producing. The last thing any business wants to have is sub-standard products or services.
One of the fundamental requirements of an online business manager is to communicate to their staff the level of performance required from them at all times.
If your virtual assistants know where the performance benchmark is, then they will be motivated to reach those standards.
The online business manager must implement a performance-related system regarding all virtual assistance work carried out by your team.
Workers perform better when given performance-related incentives to reach their set targets.
A crucial part of the manager’s role is identifying when a worker fails to perform to the required standards and is not achieving their goals.
In this instance, the manager must deal with it quickly if the worker needs support and strategies to help them get up to the excellent standards required.
4 – Plan For Training Requirements
All excellent businesses have training pathways set out so those doing virtual assistant work can further their career within their company without having to join another company to meet their ambitions.
Each business owner will have different ideas for running their business to ensure they reach their targets and remain ahead of the competition.
With this in mind, even an experienced virtual assistant will need company training to help them adjust to how a specific business likes to run.
Having the proper training set out by the executive assistant or business manager from the get-go helps to keep the thing running smoothly without any issues.
If the virtual assistant is precise in what they need to do to perform to a high standard, they are likely to enjoy their job more and be more committed to the role.
Managers could provide proper training online, or an outsourced training company could offer it.
It is up to the VA manager to decide which practice is most suitable.
5 – Find Upskill Opportunities
Virtual assistant jobs are varied, and opportunities can present themselves if managers provide the proper training and guidance.
An excellent manager can identify a virtual assistant who shows enough promise to be promoted to a higher level within the business and what training is needed.
A worker who performs basic admin tasks may be passionate about working on the company’s social media platforms and managing their social media posts. It is up to the manager to provide the necessary training they require.
Knowing when a virtual assistant is suitable and ready to be upskilled comes on the back of the manager having witnessed the performance of the worker who shows commitment to the cause and ambition to further their career.
It shows good business management to try and keep hold of the most promising virtual assistants. Doing so will save you time, money and effort in the long term, but the training opportunities must be inviting enough for your staff to want to say with the company,
6 – Manage Time Off
Excellent businesses run like clockwork, and the online business manager’s organisational skills help the company run smoothly.
Being organised is an essential part of a manager’s role. Knowing how to run your team when people are on holiday or sick leave is vital.
For example, when a member of the virtual admin team is on holiday, another staff member must take on responsibility for data entry.
Excellent management also requires the person in charge to know who is best suited to cover the data entry duties of the team member on holiday.
Allowing workers to take holidays when they have a new business project about to start is not good management practice. All this does is put unwanted stress on the rest of your team, leading to discontent.
Managers will need to know to use calendar software packages like Google Calendar and Outlook to assist them in creating staff rotas.
7 – Plan For Team Expansions
An excellent online business manager will be able to see when team expansions are required and take the necessary steps to plan.
The business owner may have implied that they want to increase their social media presence and try to enhance the company’s marketing efforts. It is up to the manager to display good project management skills and start upskilling the existing remote assistants.
Excellent managers will always try to be one step ahead regarding the number of people they need on their virtual assistant team. Sounding out people who have come highly recommended is always a good idea.
The beauty of virtual assistant jobs is that they can be made as flexible as you want to suit your company’s needs.
Let Us Manage Your VAs
As you have learnt from this article, hiring online business managers for all your virtual assistant needs will ensure your company achieves all its goals while also running smoothly
Virtual assistance needs good management, and taking care of your remote workers is not as easy as many professional Australian businesses imagine.
As a business owner, you may not have the time to go through the hiring and management process. Give us a call and let us source and hire the right virtual assistant manager for you.