At HireSmartVirtualEmployees.com, we are an advocate for a global workforce. As you know we hire from the Philippines and have amazing results. However, finding and training are 2 pieces of the puzzle – you have to be able to delegate and manage. Using a Virtual Employee (whether US-based or Global) requires a plan and some skills.
We want to share with you our success formula for getting the most out of your workforce.
#1 – It starts with the KPIs (Key Performance Indicators)
I can’t tell you the number of business owners that have zero idea about the KPIs in their business. They manage on emotions and “I think they are providing the results…” This is the hardest type of manager to please because they don’t know what they are looking for – nevertheless if their staff has accomplished it.
When you first hire a staff member, you should have specific goals and objectives. There should be a target that you want them to achieve. You should advise the virtual employee that they should expect to be a x% of goal for the first month, x% month 2, etc. Whatever you measure is what they will focus on. You should establish 3-5 KPIs at the most.
Once you have established KPIs, managing your virtual employee becomes much easier as their reporting tells you the story on performance.
#2 – Have regular meetings. I recommend having weekly communication about the upcoming week. This can be via Skype, Gotomeeting.com, phone call, or even email. The meeting agenda should be fairly short. You should have regular meetings with all the staff as well as one on ones. Here is an example of a meeting agenda we think is quite helpful:
- Opening/ Greeting
- What went well since the last communication?
- What needs to be improved?
- What needs to be the focus going forward?
- Additional resources/training needed?
- Close
#3 – Enhance communication by using cloud based tools. You want to make sure that the whole team is working optimally by not having to search for documents, resources, information etc.
We have all had the experience where we were looking for a file and information only to realize that the document that we needed was outdated. Workers waste a ton of time when information isn’t organized and easy to find.
Use these tools to better organize your data:
Google Drive – Google has free docs, sheets, & slides as well as a drive to store them in. Once the sheet is updated, everyone’s is on the latest & greatest version. Need an older revision? No problem – you can easily see changes.
Dropbox Pro – While google drive is good, sometimes you need more. We love that we can easily share all kinds of information in our dropbox account. Including call recordings that save automatically to a specific folder.
#4 – Crosstrain Your Staff. We highly recommend that you spend some time sharing with your internal and external staff those critical tasks that need to be done. That way if someone is out – your job can still get done. We like to use a video library that shows the task as well as narrates what and why we are doing it. This also allows others in the workforce to expand their skill set.
#5 – Have a calendar of tasks and “filler” work that can always be done when time allows. You will be surprised at how efficient your global workforce can be. Because they lack the distraction of the office chatter and water cooler talk – they can produce a lot of work. Be prepared to have the routine items in their work calendar as well as some non-urgent projects that they can work on if you can’t direct them. Things like researching competition, pulling data lists, social media posting, client outreach campaigns are some examples.
The main thing to realize when you are working with a global workforce is be organized, be clear in your expectations, and enjoy the savings on staff. If you haven’t looked at the cost savings of a global workforce, read how we saved over $26,000/ year by transitioning to a global workforce.
Considered using a Virtual Employee but didn’t know how to get started? Let’s chat. Email me to schedule a quick call to see if you would be a good candidate.