I am often being asked about Virtual Assistant Benefits. And mostly about what benefits we offer when we hire virtual assistants. It’s understandable why virtual assistants would be curious about their benefits, but I mostly hear this question from other entrepreneurs who want to know what they can do to motivate their teams and foster their loyalty.
I had the same thoughts when I started HireTrainVA. From the very start, I wanted to create a company that people could be proud to be a part of, where everyone shares the same core values and works as a team.
When we informed the team of our benefits, their faces lit up. It means a lot to them to know that they are taken care of.
If you want to use our benefits as inspiration, here they are:
Paid Time Off (PTO)
If my team stays with our company for 6 months, they can have 4 days of PTO, where they receive their full salary for these days. We ask the team to coordinate the PTO at least one week in advance and make sure there is someone else on the team to take care of their responsibilities in the meantime.
After 3 months of employment, my team can have 4 days of sick time, during which they receive their full daily salary.
This is what got everyone excited! Starting January 1, 2022, if my team stays with the company for a whole year, at the end of December 2022 they will get a full month’s salary, in addition to the salary they receive at the end of the month.
This is the time to spend with loved ones, and everyone deserves a little bit of pampering
However, the incentives come with expectations as well. We have high standards to keep our people on the team. We expect our team members to:
- Demonstrate performance beyond baseline metrics.
- Show up every day and be 100% committed to the team.
- Communicate absence well before the day off, no surprises.
- Have a backup plan for the tasks when the VA is out of office.
- Always train and improve, and ask for more tasks to prove they’re the right fit for higher positions.
- Have a professional setting while working, no background noise, and have quality equipment.
- Make recommendations for improvements within their work role.
- Communicate early and often. Communicate, communicate, communicate!
- Go the extra mile. If they’re only meeting minimums they’re probably not a good fit for our team.
- Consistently show up and execute, multiple absences that aren’t coordinated at least a week prior aren’t a good fit.
There must be a balance between the incentives and expectations, and make sure your team is well aware of what they have to focus on. It’s not enough to only mention the rules once and expect your people to remember them. We are reinforcing the expectations at a lot of our meetings, and we also reward or let people go based on how their performance relates to our company rules and core values.
