There’s no denying that the quality of our hires greatly affects our businesses. Recruiting the best-suited staff for your company contributes a lot to your company’s results. But when we get the wrong people into the wrong roles, we can experience some problems – sometimes even major ones.
Recruitment is often seen as a hit-or-miss activity. Sometimes we get it right and sometimes we don’t. But if recruiting the best talent is crucial to our business, leaving the outcome to chance isn’t enough.
One thing we’ve learned at Outsourcing Angel is how the quality of the questions you ask during interviews greatly affect whether our new hires will work successfully with us and our clients or not. Watch our latest video as founder, Linh Podetti, shares our hiring process to determine the best fit for your business.
Here are 5 important things we ask all new applicants:
1. Marital Status
We ask the marital status of all new applicants because all of our virtual assistants work from home, so we need to fully understand what their home circumstances are like. This is not a question that is asked to discriminate; but rather, to find out what kind of support our virtual assistants will have at home, what their responsibilities and commitments are, and so on. When we are able to fully understand what our virtual employees’ lives look like, we will be able to make the right recommendations to the right client.
2. Working Hours
While our virtual assistants are predominantly from the Philippines, we also hire VAs from other parts of the world. Similarly, the majority of our clients are based in Australia, but we do have many clients who are in the US, in Canada, Germany, New Zealand, and more. More than that, what we want to offer our virtual employees is the ability to have control and flexibility in their lives. Asking for their preferred working hours allows us to match virtual employees to clients’ requirements much easier.
It is important for us to be able to figure out how much commitment a potential virtual assistant is able to give – if they are willing to work full-time or part-time, do they prefer to work in the mornings or late at night. The beauty of working online is that you can have some control over your hours – just as you can ask for a VA to work over a specific time, a VA can also indicate what are their best hours – where they are the most productive and have the least distractions.
3. Skill Sets
Though it seems most obvious that we ask what skill sets an applicant has, the way we do it at Outsourcing Angel is that the applicant fills in an online Wufoo form that has all the different skills listed as an options menu. Requiring applicants to fill up a Wufoo form, rather than just accepting resumes, has allowed us to easily search and categorise applicants.
Our database currently has more than 5,000 different applicants. Looking through 5,000 documents, all with their different formatting, layout, and details is simply not feasible. But, with a Wufoo form that saves the data in searchable format, we can easily and quickly find the right candidate for you. That is why, in our discovery call with you, we try to find out in full detail what your requirements are, what tasks you would like to delegate out, and what skills you require from your VA. We want to match the person who has the exact skills you are looking for with you!
4. Expected Salary
We are a company with a social purpose, we are dedicated to creating jobs – especially in the Philippines where there may be limited advantages and opportunities for certain communities. That is why we ask all applicants what their expected salary is. We want to treat everyone fairly and so, would like to know what they are comfortable with, what do they feel is a fair wage. Often, new applicants can use their last drawn salary to gauge what their current expectations are, and we want to be in a position where we are able to ensure that all our virtual assistants are able to look after themselves, and their families.
5. Computer Capabilities
All our VAs work from home and are expected to have their own access to a computer system and internet connectivity. In addition, they may have access to sensitive and confidential client data, so they need to be aware of how to protect themselves and their client’s data well. We need to know where they will be working, what computer they will be using, what connection levels they have access to, and also, what their backup plan is in case of an emergency. These are all important questions that we clarify so as to get a better understanding of all applicants who will join the Outsourcing Angel family.
At Outsourcing Angel, we have experience and dedication on our side. We know how to find the best candidate for you and are willing to go the extra mile to ensure that you are happy.
Book a discovery call with our Outsourcing Consultant today and let us help you find the best virtual assistant! We know the importance of finding someone who is a right fit for you and your business, and we won’t stop until you find the virtual assistant who is most valuable to you!
