Virtual assistants are a dime a dozen nowadays as more and more office-based workers are now joining the remote workforce. With varying levels of skill and experience, each can leverage, it is now a challenge for entrepreneurs like yourself to determine who is a perfect fit for your virtual office administration support needs.
IN THIS BLOG
- ➤
How does Office Administration Support work virtually? - ➤
How do I know if I need a Virtual Assistant or an Admin Assistant? - ➤
What type of tasks can I delegate to my virtual administrative assistant? - ➤
Transcribing Documents - ➤
Proofreading Copies - ➤
Online Research - ➤
Manage Meetings and Small Projects - ➤
Organize Files and Documents - ➤
Answering Business Queries - ➤
Handling Complaints - ➤
Create Templates for Reporting or Business Case - ➤
Some HR tasks - ➤
What Qualities and Skills should I look for in a Virtual Administrative Assistant? - ➤
Calm and Composed - ➤
Independent and Resourceful - ➤
Excellent Communicator
How does Office Administration Support work virtually?
Working asynchronously is key to delivering the expected results virtually.
Virtual office administration supports heavily relies on clear and constant communication to achieve or exceed work goals. If you’re not aligned with work expectations, your virtual admin assistant cannot execute the plans you made for your business.
Furthermore, you should take advantage of project management tools like Asana, Trello, monday.com, Jira, and other similar web-based applications to track daily activities, their progress, and daily challenges.
Also, if managing the business’ budget and expenses is one of the tasks your admin assistant will do for you, you can use spreadsheets and other basic accounting software.
How do I know if I need a Virtual Assistant or an Admin Assistant?
A virtual assistant is an umbrella term for remote workers whose primary job is to support an executive or a startup founder. Usually, startup founders did everything from the ground up themselves, and would naturally want someone to cover for one or more functions they will vacate. Thus, in the beginning, a virtual assistant a.k.a executive assistant is hired to support the professional and personal tasks for business owners and leaders to obtain more time.
Unlike an executive virtual assistant, a virtual office admin assistant or simply, an admin assistant, supports the needs of the business – covering systems, processes, and projects rather than the needs of one executive.
What type of tasks can I delegate to my virtual administrative assistant?
The truth is you can delegate any task that does not include changing policies or tasks that involve financial negotiations on behalf of the company or your business’ name to your admin assistant.
The following tasks below are examples of tasks that they can do for you so you can be free to make top-dollar decisions:
Transcribing Documents
Maintaining accurate records like minutes of the meetings, operating procedures, and sometimes financial documents are crucial. However, these tasks usually take time and would need one’s focus and attention to complete.
Proofreading Copies
You always need a fresh pair of eyes to review emails, social media posts, and your tons of drafts and doodles. In this way, you can be sure that the tone, style, and manner of delivery in all written communication is aligned with your values and mission.
Online Research
When you have an idea for your business, write it down and let your admin assistant do the rest to scour the web and give you insights later. You can ask them to check out your competitors, compare product prices, and gather other useful information to help you start working on that idea.
Reading, gathering, collating, and fact-checking data using content from the web is time-consuming but definitely an important step in the ideation phase of any project you want to start.
Manage Meetings and Small Projects
Your virtual admin assistant can prepare the agenda for the meeting, the slides for the presentation, take notes, and send the minutes after the meeting is adjourned. You can also expect them to follow up on action items discussed during the meeting.
Organize Files and Documents
You can delegate streamlining your process on filing electronic documents and other pertinent files in your shared drive. Expected output from these tasks include document retrieval systems that make sense.
In addition to this, you can ask your virtual admin assistant to take care of updating your manuals, sales copies, email blasts, newsletter, some editorial and web content.
Answering Business Queries
Customer business queries are sent via call, email, or social media so your virtual admin assistant can reply and make follow-up calls.
Handling Complaints
Handling difficult situations by de-escalation is a skill that is not easily taught. That’s why handling complaints is a task given to remote workers with impeccable soft skills and interpersonal skills.
Create Templates for Reporting or Business Case
Business cases and reports will eat up a lot of your time and your virtual admin assistant can create templates that will help you plug in data anytime.
Some HR tasks
Human resources is a vast practice and arm of an organisation. However, there are many HR tasks that virtual admin assistants can do like posting job ads for vacancies, paper screening, scheduling interviews, collecting and filing pre-employment requirements, making follow-ups over the phone for applicants, tracking attendance and vacation leaves if any, and many more.
In addition to the HR tasks mentioned, sometimes virtual admin assistants are also responsible for greeting and welcoming the new members of a team.
What Qualities and Skills should I look for in a Virtual Administrative Assistant?
Candidates:
Filter by Role:
*Booking interviews depend on candidates' availability and interest.
All-inclusive Rate: USD $7.96/hr
Chris
Candidate ID: 303113
ADVANCED
-
Recruiter Customer Service, Recruiting, Sourcing, Outsourcing...
INTERMEDIATE
-
Project Management, Project Supervision...
Median Rate
$7.96
$8.74
if $1 = PHP52
$10.24
if $1 = PHP40
Currency Fluctuation Range
*includes service fee. Please note that hourly rates are linked to the exchange rate, and fluctuate slightly from month to month.
**Please note that hourly rates are linked to the exchange rate and fluctuate slightly from month to month.
Employment Preferences
(inclusive of service fee)
*Plus GST for Australian Businesses
Part Time: $USD 7.96 per hour or $USD 690.13 per month
Full Time: $USD 7.96 per hour or $USD 1380.26 per month
Remote Staff Recruiter Comments
- Chris has 12 years of total working experience and 6 years of it was mainly dedicated on doing recruitment
- He has working exposure with different industries like contact center, and staffing companies
- He has worked with hiring for requirements based in the Philippines and in US
- He is skilled in doing variety of recruitment task which include
- Analyzing job requisitions
- Doing talent pipelining
- Sourcing for candidates
- Doing pre screening and resume screening
- Conducting initial interview
- Endorsing candidates to hiring managers
- Creating sourcing strategies and planning
- Generating recruitment reports
Strongest Behaviors
- Driven to protect the company against risk by thoroughly leveraging their background and strictly following “the book.”
- Cautious; follows a well-established and proven plan to avoid making mistakes. Does the background research necessary to have proof to support decisions before action is taken.
- Detail-oriented and accommodating; most comfortable working as part of a well-defined team for which they produce high-quality output and decisions.
- A very conscientious and disciplined person; particularly careful, thorough, and accurate in their work. This individual is exacting and strives to produce results that precisely meet the established goals. Works best where there are clear standards, expectations, reporting relationships and measurements for the work. Chris Alec will depend upon professional training, their own experience, or management leadership, to provide those standards and the structure needed for their work.
Employment History
Associate Consultant
Industry:
Human Resources Management / Consulting
Employment Period:
May 2023 to January 2024 (7 Months)
Duties and Responsibilities:
- Creates sourcing strategies and talent insights for all covered industries of stakeholders
- Create reports with Hiring Trends data to specific requests of stakeholders
- Conducts research to market based on projects assigned
Senior Recruiter
Industry:
Human Resources Management / Consulting
Employment Period:
May 2020 to February 2023 (32 Months)
Duties and Responsibilities:
- Sources resumes of qualified candidates for specific IT job orders, using job boards, applicant tracking systems, company websites, etc.
- Conducts phone interviews to pre-screen candidates, verifying their qualifications, availability and compensation requirements; documents these interviews.
- Sets up interviews between candidates and hiring managers.
HR Associate (Contractural)
Industry:
Human Resources Management / Consulting
Employment Period:
January 2023 to May 2023 (3 Months)
Duties and Responsibilities:
- In house recruitment for candidates for various remote jobs : Call Center Agent, Virtual Assistants, Underwriters, Collection Representative, etc.
- Setup and accept interview requests for candidates.
- Conducts video interview to pre-screen candidates and qualifications.
- Provided recommendations to qualified candidates to be interviewed by clients
Technical Support Representative
Industry:
Call Center / IT-Enabled Services / BPO
Employment Period:
October 2014 to November 2016 (25 Months)
Duties and Responsibilities:
- Handles Technical troubleshooting for L1 and L2 Samsung android phones concerns
Sr. Operations Associate
Industry:
Call Center / IT-Enabled Services / BPO
Employment Period:
January 2017 to May 2020 (40 Months)
Duties and Responsibilities:
- Progress and monitor claims assigned Work on recoveries and settlements
Recruitment Specialist
Industry:
Human Resources Management / Consulting
Employment Period:
January 2024 to Present
Duties and Responsibilities:
- Screened and scheduled interview local PH talents with experience in Graphic, Video and Web designing for US Clients
- Conducted initial interview via Online video conferencing
- Endorsed candidates for client screening
- Conducted job offer and hand offs to HR for successfully hired candidates
Education History
Field of Study:
Medical Science
Major:
BS Medical Technology
Graduation Date:
March 28, 2014
Located In:
Philippines
License and Certification: :
N/A
Skills
ADVANCED ★★★
-
Recruiter Customer Service, Recruiting, Sourcing, Outsourcing, Customer Service,
INTERMEDIATE ★★
-
Project ManagementProject Supervision
Work at Home Capabilities:
- Internet Bandwidth: Greater than 100mbps
- Working Environment: Private Room
- Speed Test Result: https://www.speedtest.net/result/15910159395
- Internet Type: Fiber
- Hardware Type: Desktop
- Brand Name: Intel
- Processor: Intel I7 8700k
- Operating System: Windows 10
All-inclusive Rate: USD $8.90/hr
Maria
Candidate ID: 252309
ADVANCED
-
Real Estate, Property Management, Sales, Administrative Support...
INTERMEDIATE
-
Customer Service, Bookkeeping...
Median Rate
$8.90
$9.85
if $1 = PHP52
$11.68
if $1 = PHP40
Currency Fluctuation Range
*includes service fee. Please note that hourly rates are linked to the exchange rate, and fluctuate slightly from month to month.
**Please note that hourly rates are linked to the exchange rate and fluctuate slightly from month to month.
Employment Preferences
(inclusive of service fee)
*Plus GST for Australian Businesses
Full Time: $USD 8.90 per hour or $USD 1542.73 per month
Remote Staff Recruiter Comments
Technical & Industry Experience:
- Gem has been working remotely since 2017 and is well-acquainted with the demands of virtual collaboration.
- Her real estate admin background includes tasks such as preparing lease agreements, handling renewals and rent increases, coordinating with tenants and landlords, and managing compliance documentation.
- She is adept at using platforms such as PropertyMe, PropertyTree, and other complementary tools like InspectRealEstate, Inspect Express, and PriceFinder.
- Although she has limited experience handling rent allocations within real estate contexts, she is confident with basic bookkeeping due to her academic background in accountancy and her prior experience using Xero.
- She is available to start immediately.
Strongest Behaviors
- Private, serious, introspective, and reserved. Takes time to connect to and trust new people.
- Focused; can concentrate on the task at hand for long periods. Quickly notices and understands technical matters more than social ones. Consistent and patiently thoughtful.
- Works at a steady, unwavering pace; most comfortable with familiar processes, environments, and co-workers. Doesn’t easily change.
- Unhurried and deliberate, stable and will do things using the established process; finds it difficult to change these systems. Dependable, consistent and needs familiar environments and coworkers to be most productive.
- Cooperative, easy-going, and agreeable in getting along with others. A focused, uncritical listener who won’t “rock the boat.”
Maria Gema is thoughtful, disciplined, and particularly attentive to, careful of, and accurate with the details involved in the job. Identifies problems, and enjoys solving them, particularly within their area of expertise. Works at a steady, even pace, leveraging their background for the betterment of the team, company, or customer.
A modest and unassuming person, they work autonomously in their area of expertise. When working outside of that area, their drive is to seek specialized knowledge by finding definitive answers from written resources, authoritative management, or established subject-matter experts. Is most effective and productive when they work within or close to their specialty and experience, and prefers to stick to the proven way. If it becomes necessary for to initiate or adopt change, she will need to see cold, hard, evidence to prove that the new way is proven, complete, and yields high-quality results. In addition, they’ll carefully plan the implementation to minimize problems and maximize results.
Employment History
VA Office Admin Assistant
Industry:
Property / Real Estate
Employment Period:
May 2022 to February 2025 (33 Months)
Duties and Responsibilities:
- Preparing signup packs and lease renewals for lease properties
- Provided clerical support to company employees by copying and filing documents.
- Created and updated digital files to maintain current accurate and compliant documents.
- Email arrears reminders to tenantsProcessing invoices
Real Estate Admin Virtual Assistant
Industry:
Property / Real Estate
Employment Period:
January 2019 to November 2024 (70 Months)
Duties and Responsibilities:
- Provided administrative support to real estate agents and property managers, managing multiple transactions simultaneously.
- Created and updated property listings, ensuring accuracy across.
- Assisted with contract preparation and document management, ensuring compliance with state regulations.
- Managed CRM systems and led client communication.
- Coordinated appointment scheduling and follow-ups, reducing administrative time by 15%.
VA - Lead Generation
Industry:
Entertainment / Media
Employment Period:
October 2018 to July 2019 (9 Months)
Duties and Responsibilities:
- Opened new accounts and documented personal, demographic and payment information in system.
- Educated customers on product and service benefits, explaining features and answering questions.
- Pitched products and services to potential customers, securing new deals and sales opportunities.
- Collaborated with marketing teams to develop and execute promotional strategies.
- Set up appointments with interested customers according to schedule availability.
VA - Customer Service
Industry:
Apparel
Employment Period:
April 2017 to June 2019 (26 Months)
Duties and Responsibilities:
- Outgoing calls and emails to current customers and asked openminded questions to determine needs.
- Developed lasting relationships with customers, which helped to bring in additional business opportunities.
- Developed and maintained user documentation to establish product understanding.
Customer Service/Travel Agent
Industry:
Travel / Tourism
Employment Period:
August 2014 to May 2017 (33 Months)
Duties and Responsibilities:
- Responsible for the sales order process-taking orders, discussing customers requirements and providing knowledgeable advice regarding their flight itenrary.
- Responsible for ensuring that customer enquiries are resolved at first point of contact.
- Promoting company’s products and services to customers.
- Handling objections professionally Issuing refunds or compensation to customers.
Education History
Field of Study:
Finance/Accountancy/Banking
Major:
Accountancy
Graduation Date:
March 31, 2001
Located In:
Philippines
License and Certification: :
N/A
Skills
ADVANCED ★★★
-
Real Estate, Property Management, Sales, Administrative Support, Administrative Skills,
INTERMEDIATE ★★
-
Customer ServiceBookkeeping
Work at Home Capabilities:
- Internet Bandwidth: Between 5mbps to 100mbps
- Working Environment: Private Room
- Speed Test Result: N/A
- Internet Type: Fiber
- Hardware Type: Laptop
- Brand Name: N/A
- Processor: N/A
- Operating System: Windows 11
*includes service fee. Please note that hourly rates are linked to the exchange rate, and fluctuate slightly from month to month.
**Please note that hourly rates are linked to the exchange rate and fluctuate slightly from month to month.
First, outline the scope of the work you want your admin assistant to work on daily, weekly, and monthly. Next, outline the problems you want them to solve as well as the goals and the output expected from them. Then, you can list a description of your ideal admin assistant. Finally, create a budget for this role.
Here are the skills required and prior exposure or experience needed for some common virtual admin assistant across industries:
| Must-Have Skills | Nice-to-Have Skills | Experience Using Tools (Non-Negotiable) |
|---|---|---|
|
|
|
Aside from the known general skills outlined above, there are tell-tale signs of a good virtual assistant that you will observe during your interview.
Here are the characteristics of a good virtual admin assistant:
Calm and Composed
The best virtual admin assistant has the ability to manage multiple tasks and stays calm under pressure. They should be able to react quickly and positively and won’t crack when the deadlines are tight and the situations are difficult.
Some questions you might ask during the interview:
“Walk me through a time that you had to talk when you’re upset.”
“Describe your thought process when you feel overwhelmed?”
“What do you do when the task makes you feel you want to quit?”
“How do you know which tasks to prioritise?”
Independent and Resourceful
Ideally, in a remote work setup, you’re looking for someone who is a good team player but also comfortable working alone. If this is the first time you’re hiring a virtual admin assistant, you’d want to find someone who can “think outside of the box” or better yet, “make you a box” when thinking of ways to execute your plans.
Especially if you and your virtual admin assistant are to work asynchronously, it would be nice to wake up to options of proposed solutions rather than problems and complaints.
Some questions you might ask during the interview:
“How do you usually solve a problem?”
“What are the steps you take in finding a solution to [work] problems?”
“What part(s) of this [job] do you think are challenging?”
“If you were to improve our [process/system] how would you start?”
Excellent Communicator
The minimum qualifications for verbal and written communication skills is above average, considering the familiarity or use of some colloquialisms or business jargon.
Some situational questions to present and ask:
“How do you communicate bad news?”
“What is an example email reply to someone with a bad trait?”
“How do you communicate a problem?”
Some situational tasks to present:
Create a mock scenario where you’re the customer and the interviewee is your potential admin assistant selling one of your products or services.
Above all, the most important trait that separates the good from the bad admin assistant is the passion for doing things with the same level of care that you invested in your business when you started it. But like what David Allen said in his book Getting Things Done: “You can do anything, but not everything” – there is a time to delegate these tasks.
As you scale your business it will be difficult to balance your work and personal life. And finding a suitable replacement to do the redundant tasks, we bet you’ll miss doing yourself, will prove to be another challenge.
That’s where Remote Staff can step in for you. We have been fostering business relationships by matching highly skilled, self-motivated virtual assistants to take care of your business and your customers.
Give us a call and discover the possibilities of working with top-notch talent, tapping on unlimited know-how, and growing with professionals who keep on learning.
