Frequently Asked Questions

The Virtual Hub operates on a pre-recruit, pre-train, pre-employment model. At its most basic level, it means we are not a recruitment agency. We actively recruit, train and manage our own employees long before we ever introduce them to our clients.

We take all of the risk of: 

• Narrowing down the recruitment stack 
• Issuing employment contracts, salaries, and benefits before clients
• Intensive training across several areas of digital marketing implementation
• Operations onboarding into our culture code
• Ongoing training, development, and support (See below)
• Adhering to the Philippines’ strict Labor Code that protects employees from unfair dismissal or other unsavoury business practices
• Allowing clients 30-days-notice to cancel despite having to legally keep the employee on our payroll.

As our people are all employees of our company and, essentially, represent our brand inside our client accounts, we manage all of the HR, KPI development and tracking, salary determination and review process and rewards and recognition programs – like any employer/employee relationship. We have a very clean and clear, metrics based, salary determination model so every employee fully understands 

• what they will earn initially
• what the future trajectory looks like (and how to supercharge it) 
• and, more importantly, WHY they fall into the category that they do 

Both clients and employees are under strict, legally binding contracts with us where legal action can be taken against both the employee and/or the client, in their own jurisdictions, in the event of any solicitation, manipulation or non-competes.

To give you an idea of what sets the Hub apart from other traditional VA companies, the Hub allows you to select the VA you will be working with and not just assign a VA to your account. In addition, Not only will you have a VA working on your account but, you will also have one of our Results Coach and your Client Success Manager. Together you will be assigned a ' POD' - As a team, our job is to ensure that you get success achieving your goals with us. 

Your Pod will also have access to our Learning and Development Team, where we can create a Personalised Training Plan for the VA in accordance with your requirements, and last but not least, we also have the People Operations. Every team member here has a Hearts Partner who takes care of the people's well-being and personal matters so we wouldn't want you to worry about the VA working on your account. Let us take care of you and our VA.

In terms of logistics, our employees have the opportunity to work in our office or at the comfort of their homes depending on the client’s preference. Before we allow them to work home, we make sure that they meet the TVH Standards in terms of equipment and internet connectivity. Should you opt for the assigned VA to Work from Home, you will still have the discretion to have them work in the office if you feel that it’s best that they do. In addition to this our employees are welcome to work in the office should they encounter challenges with their equipment or internet connectivity. Do you have a preference where you would like the assigned VA to work?”

TVH Requirements for WFH (for reference)

Internet Speed requirement: 10mbps

Equipment:

• Macintosh
  1. At least Core i3, 1.6GHz
  2. 4GB RAM
  3. 100GB HDD
  4. At least El Capitan OS
• Windows
  1. At least Core i3, 2.3 GHz
  2. 8GB RAM
  3. 100GB HDD
  4. At least Windows 7 OS

As a member of The Virtual Hub, you get access to our exclusive, members-only client portal. In there, we have a whole host of how-to videos on various topics – including ‘Dealing with Your VA.’ This section includes a process for troubleshooting, as well as how to conduct an effective meeting with your VA so you get results. 

Absolutely everything you need to get success, get ideas, manage your account, manage your VA, get your questions answered and interact with our team is available to you in your personal TVH Client Portal account. Please utilize the systems and processes we have set up to maximize your chances of success in this area.

Finally, your Pod is available to jump in and help you manage any issues with your assigned VA. We have done this with many clients and managed to achieve successful outcomes when we work together on the solutions.

Our VAs are all employed full-time by our Philippine company so they can enjoy all of the benefits of employee status including health care and other government mandated benefits. If a client takes part time to start (20 hours per week is our min) then the other part of that person’s time will be filled immediately with other clients. 

If the VA is not yet available at the time of your request, we can simply add another VA to join your team who the VA can work closely with. If the VA becomes available, you will be the first to know of the opportunity before we consider the VA for our other accounts. 

Your Pod Results Coach will be sending you an attendance notification status via email at least 1 hour before the shift starts. 

Once the VA reports back to work, you have the option to make use of their earned Paid Leave credits here at the Hub. You can also have the VA use our offset function to make up the hours lost by doing some extra hours each day or working on a weekend. This needs to be first approved by you and you have the right to refuse this of course. 

As a final option, some of our clients choose to give their VA 'gift leave' for those days. If you would like to do that then simply send us an email and we can action that for you or let your VA know so they can send you a documented request for you to approve.

Our Virtual Assistants are not business coaches or strategists and while they can often come up with some great ideas it is really you or a strategist/coach who needs to drive the strategy and guide them as to what you want in terms of implementation.

In some instances we can provide you with step by step processes from our library but in other tasks you will need to build your own specific to your business, clients and way of operating.

HERE is an in-depth task list detailing as many individual tasks as we can possibly dream up 

We advise all clients to list down their ‘recurring tasks list’ and their ‘projects list.’ As you set up your task lists for your business, please keep in mind how many  hours you have your Virtual Assistant for every week and make sure that it is backed up by clear and well-defined processes.

Check out the task list for your VA Subscription to know more about the tasks that your assigned VA can support you with. If you see a task on a different VA Level, then please do not hesitate to reach out to us, so we can discuss your options and support needed.

Despite us being known to create Rockstar VAs, they are still human!

While one single VA can deliver a wide breadth of expertise due to our intensive training programs, collaborative helpdesk and support ecosystem, there are a number of areas you will need to seek specific expertise:

• Content Writing - While we are fully equipped to do the heavy lifting of repurposing, posting, scheduling, distributing, and analytics…We don’t create content!
• Web Development- A web developer is what you need to code your site in specialities such as XML, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, PHP, Perl, and Ruby.
• Digital or Business Strategy - Our Virtual Assistants are not business coaches or strategists. While they can often come up with some great ideas, it is really you or a strategist/coach who needs to drive the strategy and guide them as to what you want in terms of implementation.
• Video Editing - Video editing requires a high level of technical skills which is not for everyone. The success or ultimate failure of the production lies in the video editor’s hands.
• Facebook Ad Strategy (Including Power Editor) - While we can create images suitable for Facebook Ads, compile insights, reports and suggest where you can improve or do more, we are not marketing strategists. You as a business owner must come up with the strategy for your people to rally behind.

At The Virtual Hub we give each of our VA’s 12 days of paid leave per year which is funded by us and not by the client. Paid Leave can be used for annual leave, days off, Filipino Public Holidays, sick leave, moving house, family needs or any other reason someone may need to take time off. We do not distinguish between paid leave and sick leave at The Virtual Hub.

Also, we are officially closed for only 5 days of the year:

• Christmas Day (25th December)
• Boxing Day (26th December)
• New Years Day (1st January)
• Holy Thursday
• Good Friday

This leave is already factored into your monthly billing fee.

For leave requests for 1-2 days, the VA is expected to request it from you at least 4 days in advance. If the leave is 3 days or more, the VA needs to give you at least 2 weeks minimum notice before they apply for the leave. Note that the request is subject to your approval of the leave request which will be sent via email, and you can decline the leave request if it does not meet your business needs at the time. 

If you need a temporary increase in hours then you can avail of our overtime option and just book and pay for overtime hours as you need them. This can often be a good way to cope with short-term project needs as long as your VA has the capacity to take on overtime hours. Let us know what’s happening by sending us an email to [email protected], and we will work with you to get the best solution.

If the issue is more of a mentoring and training issue, our team will assess the situation and arrange a mentoring session with your assigned VA. We will then invite you to a session with your pod, so you can all work together to improve things – or you may decide as a group that your VA is in fact not suitable for your needs. In this instance, we will move to work with both you and the VA to get a new solution in place. 

We want you to achieve success, so we highly recommend for you to work with us on these:

• Give your feedback to our team via our Feedback channels whether it’s good or bad.
• Follow and respect our recommended processes in relation to troubleshooting. There are ample resources, tips and advice available in the TVH Client Portal for you.
• Work with us by following and respecting our processes for seeking help and trusting that we want what you want – a successful outcome from working with your VA.

If you decide to move forward with canceling your account with us, all you need to to do is fill out a form. As a standard process, we require 30 Days notice to cancel your account. 

The Hub allows you to settle the payment within 7 days after the due date, otherwise, the services will be halted and will resume as soon as the payment has been received.