{"id":4597,"date":"2020-07-14T18:08:05","date_gmt":"2020-07-15T00:08:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.dallasmaids.com\/?p=4597"},"modified":"2024-07-04T16:04:43","modified_gmt":"2024-07-04T16:04:43","slug":"the-ultimate-guide-on-how-to-hire-a-virtual-workers-for-your-cleaning-business","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dallasmaids.com\/the-ultimate-guide-on-how-to-hire-a-virtual-workers-for-your-cleaning-business\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Hire Virtual Workers for Your Cleaning Business"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Dallas<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Hello and welcome back to Dallas Maids! Hiring virtual workers overseas provides your cleaning company a competitive advantage. Here are a few do’s and don’ts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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How To Find Virtual Workers<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Hiring virtual, overseas talent provides your cleaning company a competitive advantage in terms of 1) lower labor cost and 2) higher caliber of talent. It\u2019s an opportunity to leverage the difference in cost of living between two countries to hire talent at a discount. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For example, you can easily hire a virtual assistant (VA) from Venezuela at $3.50\/hr. Considering minimum wage as of this writing is around 4\u00a2\/hr (or $6.70\/month<\/a> usd), your VA will be banking at $3.50\/hr! What does this mean (other than having an awfully happy VA)? It means you can hire the top-caliber talent because you are offering better pay compared to local employers. It\u2019s a win\/win!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Retaining higher-quality talent at a lower rate; I am surprised more cleaning companies (or any small business) do not take advantage of this! Customer service representatives, data entry, website developers, YouTube video editors, content writers, are just a few positions I have hired for at Dallas Maids<\/a> and my other businesses. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Learning how to hire the right VA can be a challenge. Some countries offer more reliable, skilled talent than others. Workers often misrepresent their skill sets and other information. Here I will share with you my tips and tricks on hiring top talent accrued from a decade of hiring virtual workers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Where to Hire Virtual Workers Online<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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There are a plethora of online sites connecting businesses with virtual talent. Some cater to a specific industry while others are aimed at a general audience. The platform I prefer for my house cleaning companies and have been using since 2012 is Upwork.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have researched other platforms over the years, though Upwork has proven to provide the deepest talent pool while providing intuitive tools to manage your talent. Their monitoring system gauges the worker\u2019s activity while providing screenshots to ensure they are not just chatting away with friends on social media. You may be able to save money by hiring directly, however I found paying a little more for the tools offered by Upwork is well worth it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Where in the World to Woo Workers<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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The work ethic and moral compass of talent vary from country to country and from culture to culture. The Philippines is prized for its trustworthy and hardworking workforce while India is notoriously known for dishonesty and substandard results.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to trustworthiness and work ethic, you may also want to factor in location, especially if frequent communication is necessary. Therefore, countries with similar time zones \u2013 and thus similar work hours – may be preferable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Good<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

One position each of my cleaning services has is a customer service representative who also helps manage the professional cleaners in field and provides assistance to my office staff. Since my companies are located within Central Standard Time zone and employ mostly Spanish-speaking staff, the Spanish-speaking countries of Latin America are perfect. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

My maid service in Memphis<\/a> has a good-hearted and loyal lady from El Salvador. With Dallas Maids, we have an intelligent and very capable lady from Mexico. And my other house cleaning service in Dallas<\/a> (Yes, I have two) is managed by an exceptional lady from Costa Rica. Despite being born and raised in Costa Rica, she has a 100% American accent. So, when it comes to virtual staff in charge of taking calls and helping my staff, Central America and South America are perfect.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to these customer service managers, my other current virtual workers are a website\/WordPress guru in Jamaica, a content writer from Venezuela, and a quality assurance supervisor based in the Philippines. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Talking about the Philippines, this is a culture that produces honest, hard-working talent so keep them in mind when seeking good people. The video editor I hired for our YouTube channel, Clean Freaks: Cleaning Tips and Household Tricks<\/a>, was from the Philippines. The only caveat with working with Filipinos is they require clear, easy-to-understand instructions. Preparing an operation manual for every task you need completed will substantially increase their productivity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve had successful hires from Eastern Europe; one a writer and the other an excel programming pro. Also, from what I hear, Eastern Europe is a rich source of IT talent that costs a fraction of what you\u2019d find here, in the United States.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Bad\u2026 and the Ugly<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

India\u2026 yeah, just avoid India along with their neighbors Bangladesh and Nepal. I\u2019ve had zero success there. Applicants lie about their work experience, their portfolio, their skill set, and even their gender\u2026 why would you lie about that? I am sure there is good talent there, somewhere. However, the sheer number of duds make it hard to find the little gems in that chaotic haystack.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, I have had success with India\u2019s neighbor, Pakistan. Needing a massive amount of grunt work done with data entry, I hired a Pakistani agency via Upwork. They were able to successfully complete the task and for super cheap. Maybe hiring an agency (who already vetted the workers) instead of an individual contractor is more effective for a labor market like India.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another country to be wary of is China. I\u2019ve only hired from there twice so that may not be a sufficient pool size to provide an accurate opinion. Both times resulted in overpromising and under-performing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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How to Hire Virtual Workers <\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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You have your Upwork account and know where in the world to hire. With the multitudes of hungry VAs eagerly wanting your job, how do you pick the right worker? It depends whether you are looking for long term talent (like my customer service masters) or a one-time project (like my YouTube video editor). Let\u2019s start with long term because hiring a competent, capable long-term VA is worth their virtual weight in bitcoin<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Long-Term Hires<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Upwork provides employers an opportunity to review the workers they have hired. Upwork also gives workers a chance to review the employers that had hired them. Scrolling through the workers, you can click on their profile to see the wonderful reviews touting their talent and urging anyone to hire these masters of whatever they do. Some may have a few reviews; others may have hundreds. Either way, if you are hiring long-term talent you DO NOT want talent with reviews. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sounds counter-intuitive, though I found my best long-term performers were people that had just joined Upwork and hadn’t had a chance to garner many, if any, reviews. While those veterans that had been decorated with countless glowing, 5-star reviews were often mediocre performers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Reviews Do Not Reflect Competency<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

People are Nice. As a business owner you know the importance of good reviews. If you have an underperforming virtual worker, you tend not ruin their chances for future employment by handicapping them with a bad review or opting not to give a review at all. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, if you see a worker who touts a skill that would be hirable for a long-term assignment (like customer service) yet they have a zillion reviews, take that as a red flag. A lot of reviews mean they had a lot of chance to be hired for a permanent position yet have been passed over and over again. Instead, look for applicants with very little or even better, no reviews\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Competent Talent is Snatched Up<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Good, long-term talent is gobbled up quickly. They do not have a chance to accrue a lot of reviews. The star performers I have hired were brand spanking new to Upwork. The mediocre always had a lot of great reviews but\u2026 a lot of reviews, a lot of employers being too nice, and a lot of wasted time for you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Knowing reviews are not a good indicator of talent and that good people are picked quickly, here is how to search for your ideal, long-term worker on Upwork.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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  1. To search for workers, at the top left is a field with \u201cFind Freelancers & Agencies\u201d in the text box. Let\u2019s say you are seeking a customer service representative, just type in \u201ccustomer service\u201d. A list of virtual workers populates your screen.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. On the top right, there is an option for \u201cU.S. only\u201d. Make sure this is turned \u201cOff\u201d.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  3. On the left side of Upwork you may filter applicants based on certain criteria. Here are the filters I would input to find a long-term prospect:\n