How to Prep for a VA: Onboard the Right Way From Day One

17 - VA Series - 04 - Onboarding ✅

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Lauren: I never email my VA. It all goes through slack. I don't want it to be confusing. I don't want it to be in multiple places. So I only communicate with him through slack. So just make sure that whichever communication channel that you choose that you're being consistent with it and that you're also requesting your VA to be consistent with it as well.

Hi everyone, welcome back to the Process to Profit podcast. Today we're continuing our series on How to hire, train, find a VA, all of those things. Cause everybody always wants to know, all right, you're saying I need a VA, but how do I actually get one? So that's what this series is all about addressing.

Last week we talked about the legal aspects of hiring your VA, what you needed, a contract, what the tax implications are, all of those things. And then before that, we talked about how to decide if you need a VA in your business and then how to find one. How do you hire them? How do you. interview them, what does an application look like, all of those things.

So if you haven't listened to those episodes first, go back and listen to those and then come back and listen to this one. I also have a free workbook if you haven't already downloaded it from the last episode. That's at laurenglenn. com slash resources. It is your VA or virtual assistant roadmap, and it has all kinds of checklists and templates and all the things you need to be ready to hire a VA in your business.

And we're going to reference it all throughout this episode. So I want to make sure that you already have that downloaded so that you can follow along from home.

Today we're going to be talking about how you actually onboard a VA in your business and we talked about how you actually hire them But now we're going to be talking about day one What does that actually look like or maybe even before day one depending on how prepared you are?

So the first thing to do is to look back at your job description and figure out which Systems and tools your VA needs access to.

You want to make sure that you have all the necessary account access set up, which we're going to talk about in a minute, but you want to make sure that it's all ready to go before your first day for your VA so that they can hit the ground running. And if you look in your free workbook, you'll see that included in there is an onboarding checklist for your VA's first day.

All right. So before your VA's first day, The first thing you want to do is make a list of all of the tools that they're going to need access to, tools and systems. And you can go back to your job description actually in your application and see which ones that you originally said that you wanted them to access.

That makes it really easy to figure out what that list should be of tools and systems that they need access to. And then go through and figure out do they need their own account or can they use yours to actually log in and do whatever activity it is that they need to do. You want to make sure that if they do have their own account, that you're setting it up with the right permission levels, that they can't go in and like delete your whole business somehow, that they are set up with only the access that they need and nothing more.

Remember in our last episode, we talked about data protection and privacy. And so it's going to be really important to make sure that your VA only has access to the information they need to protect you and your business.

One tool that I really like for working with my VA is LastPass and it's actually a password manager and I actually started using it way before I had a VA because I had so many passwords. I was having trouble keeping track of them and I like it because I can use it on my computer and then also on my phone and it will autofill passwords for me, but it's also helpful now that I have a VA.

Because I can give them access to different accounts without actually giving them the password. I can share a login with their email and they get an email and they have to install LastPass and then they can use that login on a website without ever seeing what the password actually is.

Now you can choose to share the actual password with them if you want, but I like not sharing the password because a lot of my passwords have a similar structure and so it might be easy to figure out passwords to other things. So the less I can share, the better. So LastPass is a good option for that.

1Password also does the same thing. And I think there are a couple of other tools that do the same thing. I will say, LastPass can be a little bit buggy when you're trying to share passwords. Sometimes it won't auto populate. So you have to kind of try a few times and refresh the page. Um, so I don't know if 1Password is better than that.

But I've been using LastPass for so long that I just cannot share it. Even fathom now trying to switch to something else because I would have to change all of my passwords over. So I use LastPass for that and my VA now does as well.

You also have to figure out how you're going to handle two factor authentication. A lot of accounts are now requiring that. So something like Facebook, if you're giving them your Facebook account to log into because they're posting as you or sharing things or looking for things or whatever they're doing, then Facebook probably has two factor authentication.

They'll probably flag it if they're from out of the country or in a weird part of the country that you've never visited. So you want to make sure that the first time that they log in, That you are available in case there is two factor authentication and you have to provide them with a code or something like that.

In your workbook you will actually find a system access inventory list that will give you ideas of all of the systems you could potentially give them access to. Remember, you only want to give them access to systems that they need, and within those systems you only want to give them access to features that they need.

You don't want them to be able to go into your Google Drive and see every single document in there, but you can give them limited access to only the things that they need in order to do their job. And it's a finding a balancing act, right? To make sure that they have the access that they need, but they're not given too much access.

So just make sure that you are maintaining that data integrity and that data privacy within your business and not oversharing with them and following any local laws or regulations.

Another thing that you wanna make sure that you have in place before your VA's first day is training and documentation. Now, way back in our first episode, we talked about documenting processes and creating SOPs, but beyond that, you wanna make sure that any additional training that they need, like how to use a system or how, what your workflows are.

That those are also documented so that they understand what they're supposed to be doing and what the expectations are for them and their role.

As a reminder, an SOP is a Standard Operating Procedure document. It includes the steps that it takes to complete a Standard Operating Procedure, um, or a process within your business, and it includes any sort of details or context that is necessary for completing the task that the SOP is describing. It could be just text, it could be text at a different time, In a video, it could be screenshots, whatever you need to make the procedure clear enough for someone else to follow should be how detailed the SOP is.

And it's really important that the SOP is clear and documented so that your VA is following the process the way you want it done and not just, you know, kind of left on their own trying to figure it out because that's also not fair to them to try to just say, Oh, go do this thing and then not tell them exactly how it is that they should be doing it.

You can also walk your VA through certain processes live. If they need a little extra support, a little more explanation, or you just don't want to sit down and record everything, you could get on zoom with them or, you know, do a Slack hangout with them and walk them through specific pieces or specific processes just to make sure that they have a good understanding and that they have an opportunity to ask questions and clarify exactly what it is that you're looking for.

When I was hiring my lead generation VA, Bary, he had done LinkedIn outreach before, but he had never used the sales navigator part of LinkedIn. So I created an SOP for him about what he should be filtering on, what kind of searches he should be doing. But then when he started doing it, he was having a little bit of trouble.

So I hopped on a Slack hangout with him and walked him through exactly how it worked. If I had developed a better SOP, maybe I wouldn't have had to do that. But I didn't mind sort of being there so you could ask questions and kind of walking them through it for the first time, just to see how the system actually worked.

So you need to be sort of flexible and adaptable depending on your processes and how your VA works and you know, what it is that you expect them to do.

And fortunately for you in your free workbook, it includes an SOP template that you can use to create your own SOPs for your VA and your business.

Before your VA starts, you also want to consider how you're going to be communicating going forward. So for me and my VAs, I really like using Slack because I'm already using it for my customers. So it's really easy for me to add my VAs to Slack. You may prefer email. You may prefer, you know, circle. If you're already using circle, you may prefer WhatsApp, whatever works for you in your VA.

Just make sure that it is understood by everyone and that everyone gets it. I never email my VA. It all goes through slack. I don't want it to be confusing. I don't want it to be in multiple places. So I only communicate with him through slack. So just make sure that whichever communication channel that you choose that you're being consistent with it and that you're also requesting your VA to be consistent with it as well.

Another thing you want to set up potentially is some sort of project management tool. If your VA is doing much more involved projects, things that involve other people or other processes, or they're a part of a larger process, then setting up a project management tool can be a really great way to keep track of all of the different tasks that are a part of the larger process.

So for example, with my first VA, I would go in and write the blog post, and then I would, um, write it in. Google Docs, and then I would put it into our project in ClickUp So that my VA would then have access to the text of the blog post, they could go and create it in WordPress, they could create any graphics that had to be created, they could go into MailerLite and create my email newsletter for my email subscribers.

And then they could pass it back to me to do all of sort of the finishing touches for it, you know, making sure that it looks right on the website, making sure that the email that she wrote matches, you know, my tone and what I want to say and how I want to communicate with my readers.

By putting it all in a project management tool, it was really easy for me to keep on track, make sure that she was meeting the deadlines that I was setting, and that I could really easily see sort of what was waiting for me and what was waiting for her. So a project management tool can be a great option when you're hiring a VA.

To keep everybody on the same page with Bary, with my lead generation VA, I don't use a project management tool because he just works all in one spreadsheet. He doesn't go into any other tools. He's not part of any other systems or anything. He just works in one spreadsheet. So we don't need to be communicating inside of a project management tool separately outside of the spreadsheet.

So it just depends on your VA, on the work that you're doing with them and that they're doing for you and how your business is set up as to whether or not adding them to your project management tool makes sense. I do have a project management tool. I just don't have Bary in there.

And then another thing you need to figure out is if you're going to ask your VA to use a tool to track time. I've never done this. I hired people that I trusted, so I didn't feel like I needed a tool to track their work. But if you feel like you want to track their time or want to have them track their time, then you can look at some different tools.

Toggl is one of them. Um, I think ClickUp even now has time tracking within their tools, so you don't even need a separate tool for it. So if you want them to track their time, then I would have that discussion with them and then figure out which tool it is that you want them to use.

And then in your workbook, you actually have a communication and workflow plan template so that you can map out what this looks like in your business and how you want to interact with your VA, communicate with them, what the workflow looks like, all of that.

So now that we've got all the admin stuff out of the way, let's talk about how you actually prepare for day one of having your VA in your business. You want to make sure that you are creating a welcoming environment that you are Available for your VA that you're setting up a kickoff meeting for their first day.

Even if you're not going to be working synchronously going forwards, it's always good to start their first day with a one on one meeting so that you can, you know, get to know them a little bit more. I would say introduce yourself, but if you've interviewed them, then you don't need to introduce yourself, but get to know each other a little bit better and talk to them face to face.

Cause it's a lot easier to sort of explain things face to face than it is over email or Slack or whatever tool you're using.

Okay, now that you have everything organized for their first day, you have them on board and start on their first day. Now let's talk about their first week. So, depending on how much they're working for you, this may not make sense. If they're only doing 10 hours a month, then you probably don't need a first week plan.

You can just give them a few tasks to work on and that will be kind of all of their time. But if they're more, involved in your business, if they're doing more in depth work or if you're doing more hours with them, then you want to make sure that you're planning beyond just their first day and that you're already planning their first week, maybe their first two weeks, and being really clear on setting those initial goals and initial tasks, things you want them to focus on, maybe even having more regular check ins.

Again, depending on how much work they're doing for you, again, if they're only working 10 hours a month, then you probably don't want to be doing daily check ins because you're paying them for this time. You're paying them to check in. So you want to make sure that the amount of check ins you're having makes sense with the amount of hours and work that they're doing for you.

I don't actually ever check in with Bary. He just does the spreadsheet. If he has questions, he'll send me a Slack message. Um, we don't really need check ins for the work that we're doing together. It just depends on what the work is that they're doing for you, how much, you know, how many hours they're doing for you and what makes sense for the expectations. So if they're working more for you, you want to set those initial tasks and goals for them to focus on, maybe do some more regular check ins. You may want to then start gradually increasing their responsibility as they move on, you know, in that first few weeks, maybe start with something small and simple and then add on to it as they get more comfortable with it.

depending on the person and how much they are able to take on. And then as they're sort of starting and getting set up, you want to make sure that you are encouraging them to ask you questions and that you're giving them feedback on what it is that they're doing. Whether it's good or constructive, you want to make sure that they understand either they're meeting your expectations And here's why, or here's what we could improve.

And that you're also asking them for feedback. You know, am I giving you the right information? Do you need a different process from me to be successful? You know, do you want more or fewer check ins? Is this communication tool working for you? Make sure that you are asking for feedback from them as well as giving them feedback and also helping them to understand that you want them to ask you questions if they don't understand things.

Make sure that you are keeping those lines of communication up. Open between you and your va

And in your workbook you will have a first week task plan activity so that you can plan out what those first few things are that you want your VA to work on. And if you are only having them for 10 hours a month or five hours a month, and it will just be your first chunk of work that you want them to focus on.

And then after that initial period, you want to make sure that you are continuing your support of them, continuing your evaluation of them, and vice versa, asking for that feedback as well. You want to make sure that you're doing some sort of regular check in and review of their performance. Now, I don't mean like a formal performance review, but you're giving them feedback, you're, you know, asking for feedback from them, you're making sure that they understand that they can come to you if they have questions or if they're not sure, you're telling them about the results.

They're creating so that they can improve themselves as well and that you're all on the same page You also want to consider, you know encouraging that continuous learning and continuous improvement. And we're going to talk more in the next episode about how you work with your VA going forward. So now you've passed that initial startup phase or that initial onboarding phase.

What does it look like to work with your VA more longterm? So we're going to talk more about that in a future episode. The next episode is going to be about Effective delegation. Now that we have a VA, how are we effectively delegating our work? How are we really letting go of the tight grip that we as entrepreneurs all have on our business?

So next week, we're going to be talking all about how to be effective with your delegation, both with the VA and with anyone else that you work with. In your business. So make sure you are subscribed so that you get alerted when that next episode drops. Again, if you haven't listened to those earlier episodes, make sure you go back and recap that.

So you have the foundation for when you're starting with your VA. And if you've got value from this episode, I would really appreciate a review and a rating so that other people can find this podcast. It helps them to improve, improve their processes in their business. Uh, I would love to hear from you.

Did you enjoy this episode? How did it go? Have you onboarded a VA before? What did I miss in the VA onboarding process? Come talk to me on threads. I'm at Lauren G consulting over there. That's where I am most active and let me know how it's going for you. Thank you so much for listening. As I always like to say, remember your systems are the backbone of your business.

I will talk to you all again soon. Bye. I've just embraced the awkward waving at this point. It's just happening. It's just the way it is.

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