Case studies are important and practical because they show you exactly what happened when you follow a process or procedure to produce a certain result.
And if that process is done right, the result is repeatable.
This is no more important than when it comes to hiring (and firing) a virtual assistant, someone that can be a boon to your life and/or business or an albatross around your neck.
So we decided to pull some content out of our course, How to Prepare, Hire, and Thrive with a virtual assistant, that gives a specific timeline and numbers related to hiring someone for our team.
This case study was when we needed to replace our developer at Pro Website Creators, Dave’s business that he’s been growing over the years.
So let’s delve into that timeline, which was pretty short, and actually VERY efficient!
Timeline and Statistics
Week 1: Thursday: Terminated the previous person
Week 1: Thursday: Posted WordPress developer job on onlinejobs.ph
Week 1: Friday: Responses began coming in; began sending replies (see the process below)
Week 1: Monday: Interviews started
Week 2: Friday: Final Interview
Week 2: Saturday: Decision made, email invite email sent to the chosen applicant
Week 2: Sunday: Invitation accepted by the applicant
Week 2: Sunday: Offer letter and appropriate policies sent
Week 2: Monday: Offer letter signed - HIRED!
Week 2: Monday: First onboarding meeting held
Week 2: Monday: Position filled email sent to those interviewed face-to-face, with a special email sent to 2nd candidate to wait if possible.
Here are some of the details that went into each step.
Week 1: Thursday: Terminated the previous person
This was the day we decided to “free” the previous person that held the position. Their access was removed from several areas and then they were notified. Of course, they knew it was going to come (that’s another article), so it wasn’t a surprise for them at all.
Week 1: Thursday: Posted WordPress developer job on onlinejobs.ph
Because we’d done this several times before, both for ourselves and for other clients, we already had a job requirements profile that we had saved. It only took a few minutes to update it to reflect some new items and better describe what we needed.
We normally choose onlinejobs.ph for posting but other services will likely work; it’s just where we’ve had good success.
Week 1: Friday: Responses began coming in; began sending replies
Just a few hours after posting the requirements, the responses began arriving in our email inbox, with an email set up to handle this, as we teach in our course.
Our responses were basically automatic back to them, and if they passed our test, they were asked to schedule an interview with us.
Overall, 59 Applicants replied via email with interest. But only 44% of those replied in the way we asked, which is almost guaranteed that they actually read the position requirements as posted.
All of those that replied in the way we asked, they were then asked if they actually agreed with the main items in our requirements that we wanted to emphasize. This cut the list down to 13 that agreed.
Those 13 were sent a “test” that they had to perform.
And finally, of those 13, eight ended up successfully doing the test and were invited to schedule a Zoom meeting interview.
Of course, it was fairly obvious that some of them we wouldn’t hire, but we don’t always rely on the obvious, and wanted to give all of the candidates a chance to surprise us.
Week 1: Monday: Interviews started with other responses coming in.
We did the first of eight interviews via Zoom.
Week 2: Friday: Final Interview
On this day we had our final interview and closed the process down. We were still receiving a few responses, but not many.
At this point in the process, we had four good candidates and two REALLY great candidates!
The hard part was deciding on which of the two!
Now that was a great problem to have!
Week 2: Saturday: Decision made, email invite email sent to the chosen applicant
One day after our final interview, we decided on the candidate and sent him an email inviting him to come on board with the requirements we felt would be good for both him and us.
Week 2: Sunday: Invitation accepted by the applicant
The next day he accepted our invitation. Fantastic!
Week 2: Sunday: Offer letter and appropriate policies sent
Immediately when we saw that he accepted, we send the official offer letter and several policies that he would need to review before printing, scanning, and signing the offer letter.
Week 2: Monday: Offer letter signed - HIRED!
After reviewing the offer letter and policies, the offer letter was sent back signed.
Week 2: Monday: First onboarding meeting held
Since he was immediately available, we held our first in-person meeting and reviewed everything as we teach in the course.
Week 2: Monday: Position filled email sent to those interviewed face-to-face, with a special email sent to 2nd candidate to wait if possible.
Because the person was an awesome fit for us, using our prepared templates, we sent position filled emails to those we talked to on the Zoom meetings, and also we asked the 2nd candidate to wait to ensure things would flow smoothly with our #1 choice.
Summary
The great thing about the above process that we teach is that the vast majority of our time is spent talking with viable candidates and not with emails and talking to unqualified people.
Also, it’s very repeatable and easy to do once you have all of the tools, email templates, policies, and requirements in place, which we have developed through our years of experience.
So why not leverage all of what we’ve done to get great, qualified, and affordable virtual assistants that will help you reclaim your freedom?
Don’t wait - join our course and community today!