I’ve learned a lot about hiring Online Filipino Specialists (or, “VAs” as you might call them) over the years.
You might even say I’m good at it.
Then there are the changes we’ve made at OnlineJobs.ph to make weeding out the bad and finding the good even easier.
Here are my top 6 tips for hiring a great OFS:
1. Hire someone to do something you know how to do.
This is my number one because this is the biggest contributor to success when hiring an OFS.
When you hire someone to do something you don’t know how to do, you’re just adding more stuff to your plate. You now have to manage someone doing a project you don’t know how it works. You don’t really know what outcomes look like, how long they take, or what is involved in getting the results you want. Your expectations might be way off.
This is on top of all the work you’re already doing. You just increased your work load rather than decreasing it (which was your goal!).
Once you’ve written that job post for an OFS to do something you know how to do, here are my 2 extra tips to make that post even better.
1a – require them to put a specific subject line when applying
1b – require them to use a certain number of Apply Points
This is how you screen out the bad apples. Those who didn’t use the right subject line and the right number of Apply Points are the ones who didn’t bother to read the job post. You don’t want those people.
2. Interview via email
Once you’ve completed your initial screening, the next step is to conduct an email interview. Ask them a bunch of questions. Use this to assess their English skills, get more background information, and have them prove their skills.
This is how you get to know them and build trust early on. You’ll learn more from asking a lot of questions through email than you will from just reading their profile and doing a video interview.
3. Pay attention to details
As you start asking questions, you’ll start noticing things about your applicants that would raise some red flags.
Like, their experience and the skills they listed on their Onlinejobs.ph profile don’t match. Or their English just sounds too perfect and unnatural.
This is the part where I ask them whether or not they used AI for their responses. I don’t like it when people use AI. I don’t mind using AI to improve work quality. I can tell when they do most of the time. Good work can be made better with a bit of AI assistance (sometimes).
But if the applicant doesn’t have any skills and they use AI, this is where you can catch them.
4. Skip the video interview
Most people don’t like doing video interviews. It takes too much time to prepare for. It takes too much time to do.
Filipinos also don’t like doing it because it can be nerve-wracking. There’s a good chance you can lose a great candidate simply because they didn’t do well in the interview or they were just too scared to show up.
If the job you’re hiring for doesn’t need them to be on the phone, skip the video interview.
If the job requires it, try having them send a video recording instead. It achieves the same purpose, but it avoids the hassle of scheduling and problems with internet connection. Filipino applicants are more comfortable with this because they can set up properly and take as many retakes as they need.
Lastly, you can take your time watching the videos.
5. Use DISC
Some jobs are better suited to certain personalities. When the personality and the job don’t match, the worker ends up miserable, and the business suffers because they’re not doing their best work.
So make DISC a requirement when hiring. When you have the right personality for the job, the OFS is happier, and you’re one step closer to getting a rockstar.
6. Give them a test task
I give a test task to confirm the skills they listed in their jobseeker profile and portfolio. It’s a great way to verify what they said and to assess how much training they need.
In most cases, I make it a paid task.
Filipinos are so afraid of being scammed that when asked to do a test task, they assume it’s a scam employer trying to get free work out of them. This has happened so often that good candidates wouldn’t apply if you asked them to do a test task.
So these are my top 6 tips, which I explain in greater detail at OneVAAway.com.
Have you tried all of them? Have you tried something different?
Reply to this email and let me know (yes, it comes to me).
John