Building a robust virtual team is an excellent strategy for enhancing your workforce with skilled team members. The advantages of incorporating virtual assistants into your operations are numerous, ranging from cost-efficiency to increased productivity and access to a global talent pool.
However, the real key to unlocking these benefits is effective virtual team management — but before you can manage virtual teams successfully, you need to first find and build the team with the right virtual assistants.
In today's blog, we explore some of the top resources to not only find but also successfully manage your virtual team. We're here to equip you with the tools and insights necessary to make the most out of your virtual workforce, ensuring both efficiency and high performance.
When you're ready to start building your virtual team, searching for the perfect candidates is crucial.
Where you source your virtual workers is a crucial decision. So, while there are plenty of places to find "a" VA, in this guide of "best" resources, we honestly can't suggest any other platform than VPM Solutions for property management virtual assistants and building and managing remote teams.
VPM Solutions is your go-to platform for finding the best virtual assistants specialized in property management and real estate. With a free company account, you can easily post jobs, vet candidates, and start conversations.
What sets VPM Solutions apart is its commitment to the specific needs of property managers. Our platform facilitates easy job postings and candidate selection and seamless team management, including time sheet reviews and payments.
Plus, all of these features come at no extra cost. Property management companies do not pay recruiting fees of any kind to find and manage remote workers through our system.
Notably, if you've onboarded team members to your company from other platforms, you can still manage them through VPM Solutions. Our system allows you to consolidate all your virtual team management needs in one place.
Choosing virtual assistants through VPM Solutions provides a unique and invaluable advantage: exclusive access to our VPM Academy.
This specialized training platform is designed to offer continuous education specifically tailored for property management roles. We even have free training for property managers!
Your virtual assistants can participate in various courses, webinars, and workshops that keep them abreast of the latest trends, technologies, and best practices within the property management industry. This ongoing training ensures that your virtual team remains highly skilled, efficient, and prepared to tackle the unique challenges of your field.
The VPM Academy is an added layer of quality assurance, ensuring that your virtual assistants are qualified and continuously improving and adapting to meet your business needs.
You've successfully built your team; what next? Excellent virtual team management is essential to ensure your newly formed team is productive and well-coordinated.
Here are some of the top resources companies need to manage virtual teamwork and members!
Google Calendars can be an invaluable tool for keeping your team's schedule in sync, ensuring everyone is on the same page regarding daily tasks and long-term projects. Its importance becomes even more pronounced when your virtual assistants are tasked with managing intricate aspects of your operations, such as setting up appointments with tenants, coordinating with property owners, and liaising with vendors.
The platform allows for real-time updates, shared calendars, and customizable reminders, making it easier to avoid scheduling conflicts and last-minute changes. Using Google Calendars enables seamless communication between team members, regardless of their geographical locations.
The various task management applications available today can be overwhelming, but selecting the right platform is crucial for effective virtual team management.
Popular choices like Monday.com, Teamwork, Asana, and Wrike offer a suite of features tailored to meet diverse needs. These platforms allow for precise task allocation, real-time progress tracking, and seamless collaboration among team members.
Whether it's breaking down complex projects into manageable tasks or setting deadlines and priorities, these applications provide the framework for organized, productive work for remote and hybrid teams, making it easier for your in-house employees and virtual contractors to work together.
Many of these platforms also come with built-in analytics tools that enable you to gauge team performance, identify bottlenecks, and make data-driven decisions.
Effective communication is absolutely crucial when it comes to managing a virtual team successfully. Utilizing video conferencing tools like Zoom or Microsoft Teams allows you to maintain regular contact with your team, fostering a sense of cohesion and shared purpose.
These platforms enable you to hold routine video meetings where you can check in on ongoing projects, assess the status of completed and pending tasks, review key performance indicators (KPIs), and discuss any challenges or roadblocks.
More importantly, video interactions (with cameras on) create an opportunity for face-to-face engagement, which is essential for building strong interpersonal relationships within the team. The visual aspect of these meetings helps foster trust, clears up misunderstandings, and adds a personal touch to remote work.
For those moments when a full-blown video meeting is unnecessary, instant messaging platforms like Slack or Microsoft Teams are invaluable tools in your virtual team management arsenal. These platforms facilitate quick and efficient communication for simpler tasks, quick clarifications, or even just to catch up on the team's general mood.
Whether you're seeking a rapid response to a pressing issue or need to disseminate information quickly among team members, instant messaging can be the most efficient route. It helps maintain a continuous flow of communication, enabling real-time collaboration without the hassle of setting up a meeting. These platforms often also integrate with other productivity tools, streamlining your operations and making it easier to keep all team interactions in one accessible place.
Now, you might be wondering how to pay a virtual assistant who doesn't work in the U.S. While many project management platforms track tasks, they often fall short when managing payments.
This is another area where VPM Solutions excels. While there are third-party international contractor payment solutions out there, our built-in payment system, in partnership with Stripe, simplifies the process of paying your virtual team members. Property managers review and approve timesheets and make sure a payment method is connected to the company account, then we handle the rest.
There's no need to worry about currency conversion or delayed payments; everything is handled seamlessly.
We've discussed many resources here, but another excellent resource is our free guide. In "The Ultimate Guide to Managing Property Management Virtual Assistants," you get a comprehensive overview of virtual team management best practices specifically for property managers and property management VAs.
You can request it here (or finish this blog and request it through the button at the end)!
While the benefits of virtual teams in property management are plentiful, the key to maximizing those benefits lies in effective management. With VPM Solutions, you not only find the best talent but also manage them efficiently, all under one roof.
To kickstart your journey in virtual team management, create your Free Company Profile with VPM Solutions today. We provide the ideal workspace to find and manage virtual assistants for various roles such as marketing, maintenance coordination, leasing, transactions, and bookkeeping.
Then, if you haven't already, request your free copy of "The Ultimate Guide to Managing Property Management Virtual Assistants!"