How to Hire a Virtual Assistant in the Philippines: A 2025 Guide
Are you thinking about lightening your workload and growing your business? Hiring a Virtual Assistant from the Philippines might be the right solution.
Filipino VAs have brought success to thousands of businesses worldwide. Their competence, commitment, and hard work helped many business owners thrive in their competitive markets, even from halfway across the globe. In a way, they’re one of the best things to happen for small businesses.
Considering hiring VAs to help you expand your capabilities puts you one step closer to your goals. It can be confusing where to start if you’ve never hired a VA or outsourced before. Luckily, Outsource My Business is here to help.
In this guide, we’ll explore the benefits VAs bring, how to hire a Virtual Assistant in the Philippines, things you can do to retain them, and lastly, the hiring mistakes you should avoid.
Why Hire a Virtual Assistant from the Philippines?
Businesses hire Virtual Assistants from the Philippines for various reasons. Here are some of the benefits they can provide to your operations:
1. Cost-effectiveness
One of the most common benefits of outsourcing to a Virtual Assistant is its practicality in terms of cost. This benefit allows small businesses to hire remote professionals and bring them into your team without the usual heavy cost of recruitment, payroll, and benefits.
Although you may find that VA salaries are cheaper on your end, they have the conversion advantage. The average living wage in the Philippines is PHP 25,000 or AUD 680. And when you offer a mid-range VA an AUD 1200 salary per month, you’re more likely to attract better candidates because it’s higher than the offers from local companies.
Many professionals in the Philippines become VAs because they can earn more money while doing the same amount of work as those with typical onsite responsibilities.
2. Access to a highly skilled workforce
Typical Filipino VAs are college graduates and proficient in English. They’re also well-established in their careers and have years of industry experience before they switch to outsourcing their services to international business owners.
Finding ideal VAs is never going to be a struggle in the Philippines. Whether you’re looking for professionals who can provide administrative support, customer service, digital marketing, finance, or even graphic design, you can always find someone who fits your culture and requirements.
3. Cultural compatibility
Compatibility is one of the essential factors to business success. When hiring a Virtual Assistant from the Philippines, ensure you find someone who shares your values and communication styles. Having cultural compatibility creates a seamless environment with strong communication.
The Western culture strongly influences the Philippines due to its history, and most speak English regularly. These reasons allow Filipino VAs to:
- quickly understand the business norms and expectations,
- integrate themselves easily into your operations,
- ensure smooth communication and collaboration,
- minimise potential misunderstandings, and
- foster a more harmonious work environment.
4. Dedication and motivation
One thing unique about Filipino professionals is they have a strong work ethic and dedication to their jobs.
It’s a part of their culture to commit and stay motivated to delivering quality work.
They’re also a hospitable bunch who will ensure that tasks are completed according to your business standards and can make meaningful contributions to your goals.
5. Flexibility in time zones
The thing with hiring VAs from the Philippines is you can find many willing to work odd hours that align with your business operations (regardless of the time difference). Filipino VAs are ready to adapt to unique time zone circumstances to ensure work gets done efficiently and maintain smooth operations across all constraints.
Note that the time zone in the Philippines is UTC/GMT +8 hours, which puts the Philippines 13 hours ahead of the East Coast of the United States and 3 hours behind Sydney, Australia.
6. Enhanced productivity and efficiency
Expect an increase in productivity and efficiency once you’ve hired a Virtual Assistant for your team.
Their ability to manage tasks and utilise their skills effectively allows business owners to accomplish essential (yet time-consuming) responsibilities while focusing on their strategic growth initiatives.
So, it’s hitting two birds with one stone.
Take the opportunity to optimise your time and resources by delegating your routing tasks to a trusty VA. They will help amplify your overall business efficiency and output without you shelling out a chunk of your budget for new hires.
How to Hire a Virtual Assistant in the Philippines
Step 1: Define Your Needs
Which tasks are holding you down from reaching your full potential?
Figure out the tasks you need to outsource to a Virtual Assistant early on so you can hire the right people to help you. If you need help with the admin side of your business, outsourcing the workload to a General Virtual Assistant might be the best option. But if you require help in areas like digital marketing, design, and finance, hiring a specialist might be a better choice.
Defining your needs helps you create a better job description to attract the right candidates to your ads. This step also clears misunderstandings and lays out all their responsibilities and roles from the get-go.
Step 2: Find the Right Platform or Agency
You always have the option to hire Filipino VAs yourself. You can use hiring platforms like OnlineJobs.ph or LinkedIn to set up your job ad. You can also check their profiles and reach out to them if you want to take the next step.
But would you want to add another task to your plate?
Think about the hours of screening resumes, sending responses, interviewing candidates, and following up on them.
Hiring VAs through an agency like Outsource My Business makes this process easier for small businesses. All you have to do is talk about your requirements and attend the final interviews, and we’ll handle the recruitment, screening, testing (if you require this step), initial interviews, and even onboarding.
Step 3: Recruitment Process
When screening, you narrow down candidates by checking who meets your initial criteria. If you work with an outsourcing agency, they will take over this process, including reviewing resumes, portfolios, and initial assessments.
Once you have a shortlist, you will need to conduct an interview. But suppose you have someone to do the initial interviews for you. In that case, all you need to do is attend the final interview, where you can delve more into the applicant’s experience, work ethic, and alignment with your business culture and values.
But if you are a direct hire, you must screen and interview applicants to ensure you hire Filipino VAs who meet your requirements. Onboarding and training will also be on your shoulders to ensure you’re on the same page with your VA regarding job expectations and skills.
Step 4: Develop Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs)
SOPs are crucial for establishing a consistent and efficient workflow within your business. This guide also helps transfer knowledge to your VA so they can easily adjust to your business operations, objectives, and goals with minimal errors and misunderstandings.
Also, these procedures help improve productivity and provide your VA with a clear framework for managing their responsibilities.
As for training, SOPs provide a structured approach to understanding and executing business operations, which makes training and onboarding new team members easier.
Step 5: Utilising efficient digital tools
Since your Filipino VA will be working remotely, you’ll need to set up various digital tools to help them with their responsibilities. The most important one is the communication channel. Many businesses opt for Microsoft Teams, Google Chat, Slack, Zoom, and email.
Use task management platforms like Trello, Monday.com, Asana, Jira, and ClipUp. Please note that if you already have a Microsoft 365 license or a Google Suite subscription, you can use their project management features instead.
Consider tools that more specialised VAs use, such as Adobe, Quickbooks, SEMRush, MailChimp, etc.
Step 6: Tailoring orientation to your business processes
A tailor-fit onboarding experience is critical in helping your Filipino VA familiarise your organisation’s workflow, communication style, and culture. Remember that you make them feel welcome in a new work environment, and a personalised orientation can help them quickly adapt, become more productive, and understand their role within the broader business context.
Step 7: Providing ongoing support and feedback
To foster a positive working relationship with your new VA, you must provide ongoing support and feedback for continuous improvement.
Here are some starters you can do:
- Set up communication channels
- Deliver feedback that supports professional growth
- Offer resources for skill enhancement
- Conduct regular catch-ups
The support systems above create an environment where your VA feels supported, valued and motivated. When your VA is happy and content with their work, they can contribute effectively to your business goals and help you be one step closer to success.
VA Hiring Mistakes to Avoid
Assigning your VA too many responsibilities
Assigning too many responsibilities to your VA (sometimes an entire department’s worth of work) can quickly overwhelm them. No matter how great they are at task and time management, you can’t expect to receive quality and consistent output for everything all the time.
It’s just not feasible.
That’s why before you hire a Virtual Assistant in the Philippines, consider the tasks you will outsource to them first. This step will help you make your hiring process effortless, and you can hire the right VA from the start.
Overlooking cultural differences
When working with a Virtual Assistant from the Philippines, you can expect some differences in working culture.
Overlooking these differences can cause discord in your professional relationship and affect the working environment. But this cross-cultural communication goes both ways, so make sure you and your VA are on the same page regarding expectations, work processes, and communication styles.
Both sides should be aware of cultural nuances and open to different perspectives to foster a respectful and inclusive work environment. This approach builds a strong and cohesive relationship with your VA, promoting collaboration and productivity.
Not setting expectations beforehand
An essential component of a successful working relationship is setting clear expectations and work habits. Clear communication and expectations can minimise misunderstandings and create harmonious work dynamics.
Setting expectations involves:
- Creating clear objectives (deadlines, KPIs, quotas, etc.)
- Understanding each other’s preferred work styles
- Setting communication preferences
Failing to set up processes
Establishing workflows is a critical responsibility you should accomplish before hiring a Virtual Assistant. Once you onboard a Virtual Assistant from the Philippines, you want to ensure they can get started with their responsibilities immediately and maximise their work from day one.
So, you must take care of bottlenecks and redundant tasks that you can eliminate/optimise before they officially join the team. This way, they can seamlessly integrate into your business process and do their work efficiently without experiencing unnecessary hurdles.
Another thing to consider before onboarding your VA is the tools and technologies they will use for their work. These tools can range from editing software to communication tools and document-management platforms.
How to Retain Your Filipino VA Talent
1. Provide opportunities for growth
VAs want to grow along with their employers. They don’t want to be stuck with the same responsibilities for years with no growth opportunities. If that happens, they start to look for those opportunities somewhere else.
You can provide growth opportunities through promotions or office-sponsored training and learnings or even set yearly growth plans for your VAs so they can improve their skills while simultaneously growing your operations along the way.
2. Regular check-ins and performance evaluations
Frequent check-ins and performance evaluations help you maintain communication and monitor your VA’s progress and performance. This approach also allows you to address concerns and provide guidance and support.
It’s easy to get lost in the day-to-day busyness of life. Make sure to schedule check-ins and evaluations consistently so you can regularly talk to your VAs about their strengths, struggles, and areas for improvement whenever necessary.
3. Strategies for maintaining motivation and engagement
Maintaining motivation and engagement is critical in continuing team productivity and efficiency. In a way, it is the formula for long-term success.
Some ways you can do that is to recognise hard work and reward them for their dedication and accomplishments. This approach encourages your VAs to look for growth opportunities and show that their efforts are getting recognised and they feel more connected and valued as part of the team.
When you support your VA’s personal and professional development, they feel motivated to contribute more effectively and remain committed to your goals.
4. Provide benefits and perks
Aside from salary, additional benefits and perks are not required for Virtual Assistants in the Philippines as they’re considered remote contractors. But including a few benefits and perks in their salary package is a welcoming add-on that will encourage them to stay in your team. These can be health insurance, government benefits, bonuses, allowances, etc.
Be Well on Your Way to Hiring the Right Virtual Assistant in the Philippines
So, you’re thinking of hiring a Filipino VA?
Well, it looks like you’re on the right track. First, you need the right guide and tools for this new venture. We hope this guide on how to hire a Virtual Assistant in the Philippines provides all you need to know to get the right remote staff for your team.
The key to hiring a VA is to define your requirements from the get-go, so even if you’re hiring directly or have an outsourcing agency like OMB to scout VAs for you, you can find the right one to support your business. Because there are many types of VAs to hire, it will help filter down your search and even attract the best ones.
Outsourcing to a Virtual Assistant in the Philippines is a game-changer for small businesses. Imagine the benefits they could access without the overhead costs of local hiring. With the right partner to connect you with the right VAs, you can set your business on a path to sustainable growth.
Want some help in hiring Virtual Assistants in the Philippines? Reach out to us today, and let’s discuss how we could help you be a few steps closer to your goals with a reliable outsourcing provider by your side.
