Turner Invests Tuesday Tips – Managing a Virtual Team

Managing a virtual team can be a daunting task for some entrepreneurs and business owners. However, the benefits a team of Virtual Assistants (VAs) bring to your business can be enormous, so it is worth taking the time to work out how best to hire and how best to manage your VAs.

For tips on how to hire your VA, see our previous article here.

And for our top 3 tips on managing VAs, read on:

“Always treat your employees exactly as you want them to treat your best customers” – Stephen R Covey

Tip 1:                Know their values
Knowing your teams values, whether virtual or physical, is a must in order to manage your team effectively. If your VAs highest value is their family, and that is why they became a VA to work from home and spend more time with their family, then you know bonuses of additional time off or financial bonuses to help support their family will motivate them. If your VAs highest value is money, then you know they will appreciate financial bonuses, if it is learning & development then they will appreciate the opportunity to grow in their role and attend courses.

Take the time as soon as you hire your VA or team member to find out their top 3 values so you can motivate and reward them to become the best & most loyal team member for your business. 

Tip 2:                Trust    
Trusting your new VA can be hard. A lot of business owners fear that due to the distance and not being able to see them work physically in an office, they may not work the hours required for their role. This can easily be managed using software such as Harvest or Timeproof alongside a task management software such as Asana.

Trust in any relationship is earned, and trust in a working relationship is no different. Give your VA more basic tasks first in order to test them before gradually moving to sensitive or tasks with more responsibility (such as online banking).

Tip 3:                Feedback         
Feedback works both ways in managing your team. You should be feeding back to your VAs exactly how they are performing in their role. To do this effectively you need to have relevant KPIs set-up from the start that can be tracked and monitored. 

Asking your VAs how they feel they are doing in their job and for their own feedback on their role and tasks are important regular questions to ask (at least quarterly). This can lead to improved performance, improved business processes and highlight any blockages that are stopping progress and any training and development needs they have.
 
In summary, treat your virtual team just as you would like to be treated. Get to know the, trust in their ability to get the job done, check in with their progress and results and get their feedback to see how you can improve as a manager to improve them as a vital member of your team. 

To find out more on how to hire your perfect virtual team, see theviva.club

We hope you have found these tips useful and are able to use them to improve your business and investments. Don’t miss out on future tips - subscribe to Turner Invest newsletter on turnerinvest.co.ukand follow us on social media.

​Thanks, 
Turner Invest
Empowering People to Live the Life of Their Dreams
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