Hire a Skilled, Reliable Virtual Assistant from the Philippines at Super Affordable Rates

The Philippines have always been a popular destination for clients seeking talented Virtual Assistants. This country has one of the biggest outsourcing industries in the world, mostly due to the fact that English is the country’s second official language, plus their VAs are highly educated, skilled, and affordable. 

In this article, we’ll tell you why this nation’s remote workers are so highly esteemed and why you should consider hiring one.

Why Hire a Filipino Virtual Assistant

Filipino Virtual Assistants are in an incredibly high demand and have been for years. There are two main reasons Filipino VAs are so highly sought-after:

1. The cost of living in the Philippines is relatively low, so Filipinos are willing to work for lower rates than VAs from North America and Europe
2. English is one of the two official languages in the Philippines, meaning there’s no language barrier to worry about

Filipino VAs are more adept at remote work than other nationalities because the freelancing industry has such a strong foothold in the nation. You are more than likely to stumble across VAs who have prior experience in the exact areas you need. 

Additionally, the Philippines has one of the highest literacy rates in the world and its Virtual Assistants are mostly college-educated professionals with versatile skillsets.

Virtual Assistants from the Philippines are accustomed to working with clients from across the globe, making them a culturally adaptable workforce able to integrate well with any employer. Additionally, Filipinos are regularly exposed to American culture, removing not only the language but also the cultural barrier.

Virtual Assistant Agencies in the Philippines

While you can always choose to hire a VA without a mediator, it’s worth checking out Virtual Assistant agencies, especially when it comes to a country such as the Philippines, with its longstanding remote work culture.

Hiring a Virtual Assistant on your own gives you full control over the entire process and allows you to negotiate the rates. The obvious drawback is that you’d have to invest time and effort into finding a VA with the right competencies, which can take a while, especially since you’ll likely be swamped with dozens, if not hundreds, of applications after posting the job ad.

VA agencies give you peace of mind since they’ll handle candidate screening and assign you the best VA for the job, but most of them require you to pre-commit to a set number of hours each month, plus you’ll likely have to pay in advance.

These are some of the top-ranking VA agencies based in the Philippines:

• Task Bullet
• Virtual Staff Finder
• Virtual Done Well
• OnlineJobs
• Outsourced

Task Bullet

Task Bullet is based in both Manila and California, so it has experience in matching clients with the most suitable VAs and understanding the needs of both parties.

Task Bullet’s VAs are adept at handling both ongoing and ad-hoc tasks. Once you sign up and pay for the initial hours, the agency will assign you a dedicated personal assistant who will contribute to your business in a myriad of ways, from data entry and accounting to social media marketing. Based on your preferences, the VA can regularly send you reports, check-ins, or transcripts.

Some of the benefits of choosing Task Bullet include:

• There are no membership fees
• There is a 100% money-back guarantee
• VAs have experience in particular niches, such as real estate

Task Bullet offers you three pricing plans:

Virtual Staff Finder has been a part of the outsourcing community for over 10 years. Its employees know how to help you write an effective job description and select a Virtual Assistant who suits your company’s needs. They will choose the top three candidates for you to interview and guide you through every step of the recruitment process.Virtual Staff Finder

This recruiting agency has broken the recruiting procedure into five manageable stages:

1. Sign up
2. Source
3. Test
4. Interview
5. Hire

Here are some of the benefits of hiring a VA through Virtual Staff Finder:

• One-off fee for helping you recruit a VA, after which you pay the assistant directly
• Discounted rate for returning clients
• Availability of part-time and full-time VAs alike
• Experienced WordPress developers

The main advantage of Virtual Staff Finder is the fact that you get to negotiate the rates with the VA you end up choosing and you can agree on as little or as many hours per week/month as you need.

Virtual Done Well

Virtual Done Well has several branches—in the U.S., the Philippines, and Australia. The VAs this company employs offer marketing, research, and web development services on top of personal and administrative tasks. The agency even offers optional training on how best to work with their Virtual Assistants.

To hire a VA through this agency, all you have to do is fill out a form on its website, after which an employee will get in touch with you to help you define your business needs and pick a suitable assistant. Bear in mind the company requires you to agree to a minimum of 80 hours a month, so it’s not the best option for individual entrepreneurs or smaller startups.

Virtual Done Well is a great VA agency because it:

• Lets you hire multiple VAs
• Allows you to upgrade, downgrade, or cancel your service at any time
• Donates a share of its profit to local charities

Virtual Done Well doesn’t have multiple pricing plans to choose from, rather a single standard package. The set-up cost is $297 and will be included in the first month’s invoice. Note that all fees and charges are given in Australian Dollars (1 Australian Dollar = 0.74 USD).

OnlineJobs

OnlineJobs is arguably the largest VA agency in the Philippines, with thousands of new workers joining the company each month, meaning you’ll find no shortage of competent assistants to choose from. This Utah-based company acts as a conventional job board where you can either post an ad or search for an experienced VA yourself.

This agency has a more hands-off approach, giving you more flexibility to recruit the exact VA you want without getting involved in the negotiations between yourself and the candidates. If you prefer to have an intermediary to facilitate recruitment and applicant interaction, you can pay for premium access.

Here are some of the reasons to look for a VA on OnlineJobs—you:

• Can choose the contract terms—part-time, full-time, hourly, or salaried
• Have access to over 250,000 VAs
• Get a full refund if you’re unsatisfied with the Virtual Assistant

You can use the site for free, with certain restrictions—you can post up to 3 job ads and wait 2 days for them to be approved.

Consult the following table for details about the Pro and Premium plans:

Outsourced acts as a traditional intermediary between you and the VAs and is geared toward clients who are looking for assistance on larger-scale projects. Outsourced

It’s worth noting that while the remote workers contracted through this agency offer a wide range of services to entrepreneurs and SMEs, they primarily specialize in technical services such as QA testing, IT support, and web development. Outsourced also enables you to build an entire dedicated team consisting of full-time workers.

Here are the biggest reasons you should choose Outsourced:

• Cost-effective—you can save up to 75% compared to hiring locally
• Fast recruitment process
• Legal employment compliance
• High VA retention—over 95%

The hourly rate is based on the skills and experience of each VA—while a Customer Service VA may cost you $8 an hour, you’d pay a Senior Developer $22 for the same amount of time.

The Salary of Filipino Virtual Assistants

The cost of Virtual Assistants can vary significantly depending on their experience and specialization. 

The average salary of VAs depends on their location, the qualifications they have, and the industry they work in. While Filipino remote workers are more affordable than American ones, there are huge differences within the country itself—a Manila-based VA has higher living expenses, so it’s natural they’d charge more than the one stationed in a smaller town.

According to Glassdoor, Virtual Assistants in the Philippines earn ₱54,000 ($1,047) a year. An important detail to keep in mind is the national 13th-month custom—an extra paycheck equal to a month’s salary that employees typically receive in December. While you’ll probably never be asked either by independent VAs or VA agencies to make this payment, it’s good manners that shows you appreciate the work they do and respect their culture.

How To Hire Experienced Virtual Assistants at Any Price Point

There are countless reasons to hire a Virtual Assistant—such as the many services VAs offer—but how can you make sure you’re recruiting a reliable one? 

Here are a few good tips for hiring a VA:

• Define the exact duties you want to delegate to a VA
• Create a detailed job description that specifically outlines the tasks you’re outsourcing
• Don’t choose the VA with the lowest hourly rate
• Look at candidates’ profiles and read past clients’ references
• Test each applicant’s skills thoroughly
• Evaluate as many candidates as possible

It can be chaotic to screen a large number of applicants—you’re busy evaluating hundreds of profiles that all resemble each other and keeping track of which stage each VA is in. Meanwhile, the vital daily activities in your organization are getting delayed. The good news is that there’s no reason to make the recruiting process difficult and complicated when you can set up a fully-automated hiring funnel with Workello.

Everything is pre-configured, allowing you to set up an automated hiring funnel in as little as 3 minutes. The system automates each step of the hiring process—correspondence, scheduling, interviews. It provides you with a single unified dashboard where you can see the candidates’ status and approve or reject them.

Sign up for Workello today and test 5 VAs for free!