I know this is long.
I also think it’s worth your time if you’re new to working with VAs.

You need to communicate with your Filipino virtual assistant or OFS.

It’s critical to their well-being and success in working for you. They may not do good work if you don’t communicate with them.

I have around 50 OFS and VAs working for me. They all have a direct line to me. I read all their daily reports. If anyone reaches out to me specifically, I always respond. I try to have interaction with all of them (although I often fail at this).  I do this because I know I get better work done if they feel valued by me.

Here are the tools I use.

Project management app

Our project management tool, Basecamp, is where most communication happens. Anything work-related goes through it. You could use Asana or Trello or…

Using our project management system as our primary communication tool allows us to keep an organized record of how things are going, the challenges, and how we resolve them. We see what everybody is doing while having a bird’s eye view of all the projects.

We usually start project discussions on Basecamp. We’d talk things through until we have clear goals and an idea of how to execute the project. Then Joven or I will start adding people to the project. The people assigned would then break down the project into day-to-day tasks that they need to do.

Because the projects are broken down into tasks, it’s easier for us to see where problems pop up and fix them immediately. We do follow-ups and feedback within the comments. We keep communicating in the comments until the task is done.

On rare occasions, if we can’t complete a project, the task is either set aside in our future projects pile or archived.

We also do daily reports on Basecamp since it can automatically prompt the team with questions. Doing it through the project management system reinforces the message that sending daily reports is part of their jobs. It also makes it easy for me because I can scroll through all the daily reports in one place.

Email

This is how we communicate within and with people outside the team. Feedback and non-work messages are done here. Any messages that don’t fit elsewhere are sent through email.
I’m a big email user. It’s fast, efficient, asynchronous (nobody expects an instant response), and easy for me to have someone else handle large amounts of it.

Instant messaging

I don’t do a lot of instant messaging, but I know my team relies on Slack a lot. Since they’re all working in the same timezone, when there’s information they need to relay to each other ASAP, that’s where they go.

We have channels for different teams. Some channels are exclusive to specific teams, while others are created to allow cross-communication between teams.

Like, if we catch any technical or website issues, everybody can message our dev team.

If there are website updates we want people to know about, our dev team will contact our customer support and social media team.

When we have new hires and they have questions about our work culture and how we do things, they can leave their question in the employees-only channel.

The social media team also uses Facebook Messenger because it’s more convenient for their work. But they make it a habit to check Slack every day.

At least…this is how they tell me how it works.
Since I don’t participate in Slack, I only hear how it works from them.
You don’t have to do everything. Do what works for you.

Screen capture and recordings

I started making screen recordings through Jing (now SnagIt) to make training videos and detailed instructions for my team. But as our team grew, it’s become a valuable communication tool for all of us.

My VA team uses screen recording to show technical problems that are difficult to replicate or to create short tutorials for new employees. The video is uploaded to the cloud, and they send the link to anyone who needs it.

The best thing about this is that it’s easy to reuse and share. Some videos are used so often that they become part of our training library. Those no longer applicable become irrelevant. Hosting is cheap.

SnagIt is a paid service, but I prefer it because it’s easy to use and lets me store everything on my own server. Most of my team prefers Loom because it’s free for the first 50 videos, which are automatically saved on their cloud storage. Some use TinyTake.

Google Workspace

Google Docs, Sheets, and Drive are great collaboration AND communication tools. My team leaves comments for one another on the document. Some do direct edits. These comments let my team highlight specific areas they need to work on, change, or correct, and they get notified when these issues are resolved.

I know some business owners worry about using Google Workspace and how they can keep their work secure. But the great thing about it is you can control who has access to what files and how much access they get (view only, comment, and edit).  You can even set their access to expire so they lose access once they finish their work.

Calls and text messaging

We use this in case of an emergency. If any of our team members are affected by a natural disaster and don’t have internet access, they will likely still have cellular or landline access to make local calls or texts. They’ll text Joven if there’s no other way to get in touch and ask for help.

I occasionally get texts from people on my team. These are usually either time-sensitive work issues (rare) or just chatting about what’s going on in their lives (usually with photos).  This week, I got texts about the long lines for voting. Julia spent 3 hours in line and sent me pictures via text (iMessage).

Voice and video calls

I added this here even though we rarely use this with our team, because I know some of you use voice and video calls to communicate with your team.

Most Filipinos don’t feel comfortable with work video calls, but I know many have accepted this as part of their daily tasks. They’ll participate when they see that it’s an integral part of the culture and how you do things.

I don’t do voice and video calls because I don’t like them. I don’t do phone calls anywhere unless it’s my wife, kids, or parents. I know…I’m weird.

Those are the tools I use to communicate with my VAs. The great thing about these tools is that regardless of whether you’re with your first VA or your 50th, they all work.

Do you have other tools that you use with your VA? Any recommendations? I’d love to hear them.

John