Emma is an online entrepreneur. She currently is busy researching for some winning beauty products that she can sell internationally. Because product research takes a lot of her time lately, she decides to hire some of the best virtual personal assistants that she can find for e-commerce.
The work is long-term and the tasks are monotonous. Being the empathic person that she is, she knew her VA would become eventually sick and tired of the work. Therefore, she wants to keep them productive without burning them out. She believes this will help prevent turnovers in the long run.
Provide rewards for great performance.
Even if her best virtual personal assistants are remotely working, she makes it a point to give her VAs the care they need. On top of salaries and bonuses, she also makes sure to provide medical and dental benefits for them. She does not only do this because they are an investment but also because she wants to make them feel appreciated. As soon as the workload became manageable for everyone, she also enforced more vacation days for everyone to help them recharge.
Never give your virtual assistant too much work.
One way to help her assess the optimal workload everyday is to check her VAs’ performance. She checked on the volume of work done per day and correlated this with the number of errors incurred for every ten outputs turned in. To do this, she first “segregated” the work days with the best outputs done and the work days with the lowest quality of work. From there, she checked the volume of work for both.
Based on her “research”, Emma found out that her VAs perform better with an output (completed product listing) of 20 or lower per day. Knowing this figure, she initially tried to set a quota for each VA. However, because of varying numbers of product listings that the team has to work on every day, she just made it a point to prioritize the most important listings first and allocated these to her best virtual personal assistants.
“Too much work” is a subjective thing and Emma knows this. Another quick way to let her know the perfect workload for her best virtual personal assistants is to ask. After a week, she asked her VAs what each person’s workable number of listings would be in order to benefit all members of the team. Her VAs answered 15. She tried to match this with the needed outputs per day and eventually compromised with 18 listings per VA per day. The team accepted this proposal. Everybody was happy with the expected number. After a few weeks, Emma checked some product listings, and they were superb!
Provide opportunities for growth.
Provide means to help them hone their skills more. It may be a tool or a short course about skill set that’s relevant to them. In Emma’s case, she asked one of her best virtual personal assistants which skill set she was interested in learning more about at that time. Her VA was interested in taking up photo editing classes.
Emma sensed that this was a good investment for both of them. While her VA showed enthusiasm at the idea of taking classes, Emma’s business could also profit from it at the same time because she could then use her VA to help edit photos for the product listings. With these things in mind, she gave her VA some time off to finish the course. Upon returning, her virtual assistant was excited to work and wanted to try out the things that she learned as soon as possible.
Best Virtual Personal Assistants’ Top Tip: Motivate them the best that you can.
Emma does this by mixing up the routines once in a while. She knows that when you stick to one type of work, say for about a month, you’ll eventually get bored no matter how easy the job is. On some days, she even sets up leaderboards to further increase productivity. She does this on really busy days to help the team manage the workload, even if more work keeps pouring in on those days.
Get rid of the things that dampen motivation.
If you’re not sure what lowers your best virtual personal assistants’ morale, observe. You may even conduct a simple anonymous survey to help them speak up. Two of the most common things that will surely kill motivation are ineffective communication and lack of organization within the company.
Encourage them to participate in the activities.
At the same time, be excited to take part in the activities as well. Your energy levels can be infectious even if you’re not aware of it. On days when her schedule permits, Emma helps out with the product listings. She even asks her VAs to comment on her work. This earns her more respect from her VAs. As simple as this gesture may be, this further motivated her VAs to also become more productive. It’s because they know their client truly cares for them.
Some Takeaways
When it comes to work, money is not the sole motivator. Increasing your VA’s salary may not be the only solution to help them keep going despite the busy schedule. Emma knows this, so she does her best to see her VAs as more than employees. She realizes that their backgrounds may be different from hers. She believes that if you treat others nicely, they will definitely feel that they are important and are cared for. Eventually, this will not only help prevent burnout but will also pave the way for great friendships and working relationships.