Any remote staffing agency you talk to is going to tell you that its people have been vetted and that everything is secure and compliant, and most of them probably mean it. A few weeks in, your new assistant is going to need to get into something like the billing system, and somebody on your side is going to wonder whether they should. Nobody is quite sure who decided this person had the technical skills, or who trained them on the way you do things, or what they can see now that they have a login, or who they call when something doesn’t feel right. An agency ought to be able to answer all of that, and in most interviews nobody gets around to asking.
What you’re really doing when you hire is matching one administrative role to one person’s skill set, and then deciding how much access that person gets and who is going to keep an eye on it. When an agency says “we’ve vetted the candidate for compliance or security reasons,” that isn’t enough on its own. It has to turn into specific duties and deliverables, things you can actually look at.
Define the remote role before you hire Begin by identifying where the biggest stressors are on your current team. Write down the tasks you need help with, the software those tasks live in, and the decisions a new team member is going to end up making. Front office support might mean taking calls, booking meetings, updating contacts and sending messages. Each of those jobs touches different data. Somebody who manages calendars needs the shared calendar and not much else, because there is no reason for that person to be able to change payment information, and a customer service rep might need enough access to answer the common questions without being able to give anybody a refund.
If a virtual assistant is supporting a group of office-based staff, there should be a clear handoff between the remote staff and the office staff. If some of your executives are only part-time remote, figure out who will be available in the office to troubleshoot problems when they’re away.
Then write up a short job description. It should say what hours you expect, how you’ll stay in contact, which tools the person will use, who they report to, and which tasks need sign-off first. A staffing agency can place against that, and it tends to stop your own team from quietly widening the job once the person has started.
MyVA Support , for example, recruits remote workers in Latin America and then handles the onboarding, management and day-to-day support once they’re placed. The administrative roles it lists cover scheduling, customer service, coordination and back-office work across quite a few industries, and if you’re not sure how to describe what you need, that list is a reasonable place to start.
Ask how staffing agencies recruit and vet talent What does their resume or LinkedIn say about their background? Whatever the process turns out to be, it ought to test for the skills this particular job calls for and tell you whether a candidate’s background actually lines up with the work. How does the company screen for competence, communication and reliability? What is the normal procedure? How does it vary from role to role? Are there steps you can see before an interview? Are you doing background checks? Reference checks? Credentialing? Identity verification? Ask which checks are being done and what those checks will tell you. Not all agencies will have the same background check requirements.
The MyVA Support FAQ includes candidate assessments, onboarding relating to business process and ongoing training and support. Ask which of these screening and onboarding steps are relevant to your hiring need.
Ask a scheduling candidate to solve a calendar problem with fictional information. Ask an admin candidate to sort a sample inbox into different priority buckets. Did the candidate follow instructions? Did they let you know when something was outside their expertise? Did they know to seek authorization when appropriate?
Communication is key. You don’t just want to know if a candidate can work with the software, you want to know if a bilingual candidate can speak the language required to interact with a client or customer. The assessment should be realistic but not share any real-life client or patient information during the recruiting process.
Review security before remote staff start work Finding a qualified assistant is one job, and deciding what that assistant is allowed to get into is a different job, even though people tend to treat them as one. You still need to set the boundaries of what they’re allowed to work with on the technology even if you bring on a stellar professional. Schedule time with your IT director and your service provider to agree on the acceptable level of access. Everybody gets their own login, with permissions that match what they actually do, and nobody hands over the manager’s credentials because it happens to be quicker.
Another key component of your plan is multifactor authentication. CISA recommends that organizations implement MFA wherever possible, especially for highly sensitive information and admin rights, using stronger MFA methods. You also need to decide who sets up MFA, who manages the recovery process and what happens if someone misplaces their device.
Don’t forget about the laptop. Who buys it? Who applies the updates? Can files be saved on the machine itself, and if so, what controls go with that? What happens if it’s lost or broken? Set up these responsibilities ahead of time; don’t assume the agency supplies these items.
Decide which channels work conversations happen on, how screens and phone calls are kept away from whoever else is in the room, and whether printing anything is allowed at all. Establish who will handle alerts for possible data breaches and who has authority to block access in the meantime.
Review the agency contract and compliance responsibilities Just because you work with remote staff doesn’t mean you’re absolved from responsibility to your clients, employees, patients or government agencies.
Figure out which party has employer or contractor responsibilities for the arrangement. Just calling someone a virtual assistant doesn’t magically take care of employment status, payroll responsibilities, or legal liability. Check with the appropriate consultant before signing a contract.
If you’re a healthcare provider covered by HIPAA, work out early whether this arrangement makes the agency a business associate, and what agreements and safeguards have to be in place before anyone touches protected health information. HHS explains that business associates perform certain functions or services involving protected health information for a covered entity and are distinct from its workforce members. It is up to you to determine how your business relationship fits the definition, so check with your privacy officer or counsel.
Then align these requirements with real-world day-to-day activities. What records does the assistant need access to in order to manage appointments? Which messages have to go to a clinician rather than being handled by the assistant? How does the assistant report a potential breach of privacy? You certainly don’t want a VA involved in making medical decisions.
Controls vary depending on the business. Confidentiality and access limitations may apply to client records if you are a law firm. A service firm might need to restrict addresses, payment data and billing records instead. Work with the person who has ownership over these controls to translate them into job tasks and system settings.
When a vendor mentions a certification, ask what it’s called exactly, what it covers, who holds it, and whether the paperwork is current. The individual training certificate of a worker and a third-party audit of a company’s cybersecurity program are two very different things.
Make onboarding specific enough to use Good onboarding is what tells a new remote worker which situations have a procedure to follow and which ones get escalated, and a software demo isn’t going to cover it.
Give the new worker step-by-step instructions for the first tasks they will perform. For each one, explain the starting point, the actions required, where to record the results, and when to ask for help. If the role is appointment support, for instance, you might start the assistant off booking only approved services in approved time slots, and anything touching on care, a billing exception or a request for a different provider goes straight to whichever staff member you’ve named for that. This gives the assistant a means to help the caller without exceeding the boundaries of the assigned duties.
Build the onboarding in phases with the agency. Do a few tasks together, go over what went wrong, and give the VA more as they get comfortable. Decide who is allowed to approve a bigger role, because otherwise the number of systems the person can get into tends to grow with nobody quite agreeing to it.
MyVA Support handles onboarding, training, performance management and IT setup. For the role you’re filling, sort out which of those MyVA Support takes care of, which parts stay with you, and which processes you’ll have to supply yourself.
Look for remote staffing support after placement Small problems turn into habits when nobody is watching, so it’s worth knowing who supervises the remote worker, how that person stays in touch with them, and how a problem makes its way back to the agency.
For somebody managing your calendar, the measures that matter probably come down to how quickly they respond, whether the entries are accurate, and whether they flag a problem early or let it sit. If they’re answering client phone calls, you may care more about whether they do all their follow-up work, and whether they take good notes.
Make a habit of meeting with your point of contact at the agency. If they’re overloaded, don’t just tell them to “hurry up.” Work with the agency to discuss whether there’s room to reduce the volume of work, or whether additional staff is required.
Ask what happens when the worker is out sick or on vacation. Does the agency cover the gap itself, or does it send somebody temporary? If you ask the agency to send someone else to work with you, what information will the agency need in order to get them started? The contract should say, and it’s better to read it than to assume there will always be somebody available.
Settle the exit process while everyone is available Offboarding deserves the same attention as onboarding, and the time to plan it is before the work starts. Who closes the accounts? Who gets company property back, if there is any? Who collects unfinished work when the person leaves? Company data should stay on systems your company has approved, and no essential instructions should exist only in a contractor’s personal notes or a manager’s chat log, because those walk out the door with the person. Decide what has to be kept and what happens to leftover working files, following company policy and the contract.
When you’re comparing remote staffing providers, there are four documents worth asking each one for:
A skills evaluation that’s relevant to the position you’re filling. An access policy that says who authorizes access and who sorts it out when it goes wrong. An onboarding guide that spells out what the agency is responsible for and what you are. A management plan that names the contact for performance, attendance and escalation. Go over the documentation and the contact person for each of these items. Once you have them, you can compare proposals on something other than the hourly rate.
If you’re talking to MyVA Support , bring a list of example tasks, the software those tasks run on, and what you expect from the arrangement. Ask for a breakdown of the screening, training, management and IT services that apply to the position. Then a claim about security or vetting is something you can actually check.
