I’m still using oDesk as my primary source for talented (and inexpensive) worker bees.  At this point I feel like I’ve got a pretty solid group of individuals and am pleased with the services they provide and the quality of their work.

With that said, keep in mind that I adjust my expectations based on the amount I’m paying.   I often joke with friends that I don’t expect a $30 pizza from Little Caesars $5 Hot-N-Ready deal.   At the same time, when I do go to a fancy-smancy pizza joint with my friends and put down $30 for a pie, I expect a pretty freakin’ amazing pizza experience.   The same applies with my virtual assistants and other workers.   Where much is given, much is required!

I’ve still been focusing on many of the same tasks that I’ve been outsourcing for years, but over the past few months I’ve been moving into more unique and quality content curation, which needs to be a bigger part of my outsourcing strategy.  Great content that is organized and presented well is definitely still king!

Here is my current oDesk roster:

Main Virtual Assistant – Philippines, $3 / hour, 10 hours / week:  This VA is AMAZING!  She’s been with me for about 9 months and I couldn’t be happier.   She’s very easy to work with and understands everything I throw at her.  She’s incredibly responsive, responsible, and intelligent.  She’s prompt and detailed with communication and is super organized.   Her primary tasks are:

• Customer support responses via email
• Research
• Data Entry
• Documentation
• Image editing
• Light writing
• Light editing

She’s only part time because she has a full time job.    I’m in the process of expanding her role and her weekly hours.   I’ll have higher expectations and will also gladly give her a raise!

Here is a note I received from her a month ago:

“You’re like the coolest boss ever and I hope you know I really appreciate all the work you’ve been giving me. I love that you’re very considerate and that I can work on a flexible schedule with you. It’s really convenient. I’d love to work for you FOREVER.“

Graphic / Web Designer – Philippines, $4 / hour, as needed: I found this guy when I put out a really simple project on oDesk for a quick $5 graphic design.  I hired 3 people to do the work and his was by far the best.   His communication skills were also excellent so I offered him a position.   I’ve given him a few miscellaneous graphic tasks and a few websites to design and he’s done a fantastic job.   I’d love to give him more work, but I struggle with reviewing and managing graphic / design based projects.

Second Virtual Assistant – Bangladesh, $1.75 / hour, 5 hours / week:  Above I mentioned the graphic project I hired 3 workers to complete…  this guy was one of them.  His graphic skills were pretty poor, so I paid him and thanked him for his work.   He came back instantly asking for more design work, but I told him I didn’t have any for him.  He asked if there was any other type of VA work he could do.  He was out of work in an area where there was a TON of unemployment.  He practically begged me to hire him at a low rate just to give him something to do.  I’d been pulled down this path before with poor results, but I gave into his plea.  His communication is pretty poor and he often needs extra explanation and easy tasks, but I’ve found him to be very responsive and a good worker.   I’ve giving him a ton of data entry, research, etc. projects that don’t require absolute attention to detail but still provide great benefits to me and my business.   Some stuff I’ll have him do the grunt work on and then pass it off to my main VA.  So far, so good!

Article Writer – Philippines, $5 / article:  I posted a job on oDesk for someone to write 10 articles for $50.  I got a TON or response… like 150 applications!  I interviewed 10 people and hired three.  I gave them each 2 articles that were the same topic and 8 which were different.   One writer came out the clear winner so after paying them all I offered the best one an ongoing task which she gladly accepted.   I’m now having her write 500 – 700 word articles for $5.00 each.   They are surprisingly good and only need a tiny bit of polishing to make them sound more like “American English”.

I had a PHP programmer on staff but I hadn’t used him in ages and when I tried to reach him I couldn’t get him so I closed the job.

In addition to the ongoing “positions” above I’ve had a few one-time projects I’ve put on oDesk:

• Converting my ad server from OpenX to DoubleClick For Publishers
• Small programming projects
• WordPress theme design
• WordPress programming

At this point my biggest priority is to keep my main VA happy and give her enough, but not too much work.   Second priority is to curate great content!  So far those things are running like a mostly well-oiled-machine.  That said, I’ve learned from previous experiences with really good people “this too shall pass” and at some point I’ll be forced to find new people.   I just hope I can keep them on-board and keep them super productive!

(UPDATE – Tonight I chatted with my main VA over IM for a few hours.  She’s excited about where things are going and has committed to 2-3 hours a day, 6 days a week.  I told her I love working with her and gave her  a 30% raise!)

After a bit more review I believe she fell victim to something that has always been a concern of mine:  I’m not providing my VA’s with enough consistent work.  Going back and reviewing the past year I found that while there were spikes of 20+ hours a week, most of the time the average was only 5 hours a week.  I can completely understand how frustrating this would be to a contractor that might be expecting more consistent work.

Assuming this is the problem, what are my options? Here’s what I came up with:

1. Be even more clear that the assignment is for only 5 – 10 hours a week
2. Guarantee a minimum number of hours per week and find ways to meet that minimum

One of the reasons I outsource work is because I’m so terribly busy as it is.   The thought of always coming up with projects and ideas to keep my assistant busy just begins to feel like more work for me.    I guess a really excellent “self starter” assistant would get to know my business and find ways to be productive… but that’s usually a “pipe dream” in the regular corporate world, so I’m not surprised it is a challenge in the virtual assistant world too.

On a related note:  I’m often concerned that if I have someone that is really skilled, they will get bored with the menial type of tasks.  For example, I see a lot of people with super amazing degrees in programming and design that sign up on oDesk to be virtual assistants.   On the flip side, it also seems that the workers that don’t mind the repetitive stuff are often the ones that don’t have the skills to do a lot of other things.   In a perfect world, I’d have someone that could design, program, do customer support, and data entry… and do all the tasks equally well and enjoy them all the same.   Maybe I’m hiring the wrong people, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen this combination.

So, this gets me to the title of this post.  Assuming I’m hiring a virtual assistant with basic VA skills:  data entry, research, customer support, etc.,  how do I keep them busy for, say, 20 hours a week?   As I was on instant messenger explaining to my friend that I was busy choosing a new assistant he said, “I really should find someone to help me with a bunch of my projects.”

<LIGHTBULB>

Maybe I could “lend” my assistant to my buddy when things are slow.   Obviously different assistants would have different feelings about this, but I started to seriously wonder why this couldn’t be a win-win-win situation?   My assistant gets work, my buddy has temporary access to someone without having to go through the searching and hiring process, and I don’t waste time and money giving someone a bunch of dumb “time filler” tasks.

If I embark on this “virtual assistant lending” program, I figure I could do it one of two ways:

1. Have my friends give me all the details of the project and I’d “manage” it for them.  This releases me from having to put my assistant in contact with my buddy, but is obviously way more hassle for me.
2. Contact my assistant and ask if they mind doing some projects directly for my buddy and working directly with him.

As I go through the process of hiring a new VA I think I’ll explore some of this with them.   Hopefully I can find out if they prefer a set number of hours per week, and if they do, how can I fill that time every week with productive and meaningful tasks?

I guess the big question is this:  Do you think most assistants would mind serving two masters?  Is it bad form for me to even propose this to a potential virtual assistant?

I currently have 4 “virtual assistants” on oDesk (by VA I mean personal assistant, programmer, designer, etc.) and each has very different degrees of skills and the ability to know exactly what I want from them.

I’ve also worked with many different virtual assistants over the years. Each has had very diverse skills, experience, and personalities (much of which I’ve found can be formed by local culture). One of the things I’ve struggled with is finding the perfect balance between a virtual assistant that takes the right amount of initiative… not too much, and not too little.

What do I mean? Well, I’ve found that in some cases, initiative and following explicit instructions can be mutually exclusive. Still not sure what I mean? Maybe a few examples will help from two virtual personal assistants I had last year:

Example 1) Explicit Direction Following – This VA would methodically read all the directions I sent him and would follow each on to a perfect T! If I had a spelling mistake in a form letter, he’d send it out (knowing it was spelled wrong). If I had him doing customer support he would answer every single email exactly how I instructed… which was great if I had provided instructions. In cases that I hadn’t written explicit instructions he would wait for me to tell him exactly how to respond to the question. Even in cased I felt he could easily answer, he wouldn’t take initiative without explicit instructions. It seemed he didn’t want to risk doing anything other than EXACTLY what I explicitly instructed. If there was even a tiny question about how to proceed he’d wait to begin the project until I was able to return answers to all his detailed question. This often meant another 48 hours added to the start of the project because of the different time zones. I found myself saying, “Gosh man! Take some initiative!”

Example 2) Too Much Initiative – My second VA was almost completely opposite. A very similar skill set as the first, but approached instructions in a very different manner. I’d send over a project and before I knew it, the project was under way. She worked quickly to accomplish the tasks set in front of her. She’d even try to anticipate my needs and insert a few of her own ideas into the completion of the project. I really admired her initiative, but she occasionally missed the mark causing more work for me or needing the project to be done again “correctly”. I found myself saying, “Dang it… just follow my instructions!”

Of course you will eventually find that hidden treasure of a VA that possesses the perfect skillset, experience, and balance of following instructions and initiative. I’m lucky that I think I currently have a virtual assistant like this. Here’s just one example of how he’s struck this balance:

One of the biggest tasks for my VA’s is to do customer support for one of my websites. I have about 20 pre-defined questions / answers for him to use in answering questions (yes, we have an FAQ, but we can’t get 100% of our customers to read them no matter how much we try to force them to read it). In the beginning he answered questions exactly as I instructed and any other questions he’s escalate to me. As I answered the escalated questions he’d read and learn and incorporate these into his support. There was one question he escalated to me and I answered. He then started answering the questions himself. Here’s the best part: After about 15 times receiving and answering the same question over and over he took perfect initiative and added the question and answer to our FAQ system and sent me a note asking that I review it. WOW!

Do you want a virtual assistant that does exactly what you instruct and not deviate, or one that will use take initiative and run through a project while anticipating what you want done? If you’re like me, you want the perfect balance.

So, what’s your experience?

I’ve been very impressed with my most recent virtual assistant from oDesk. His English is better than most I’ve used, and he mentioned that he enjoys writing. I asked if he’d write a quick bit about his background and experience / thoughts on using oDesk, so here it is:

“oDesk was recommended by a friend whose office mate happens to be a longtime oDesk provider . I registered at oDesk the day after I was told about it but it would take about four months before working on my very first project.

Prior to becoming an oDesk provider, I was working full-time on a tech support day job; one of the easiest and most laid-back 9-5 jobs one would ever work on, in my opinion. However, being more than fifty miles away from family plus the all the money wasted on unreasonable travel and lodging expenses for five years, I have decided to go home to my family away from the big city and begin a new career. What the new career might be I had absolutely no idea; opportunities for employment back home has become quite scarce and there was the risk of becoming unemployed indefinitely as soon as I leave my then employer.

A week before my intended resignation date, I turned to oDesk again for part-time work opportunities with the hope of filling in some financial gaps that would be left behind upon leaving. With patience and a bit of luck, I managed to land my first oDesk project (and my very first as a freelancer) on my final day as a 9-5 employee. The project handed to me was a fairly easy web directory management stint that would eventually become full-time work, eliminating worries of becoming jobless after resigning from my day job. Nearly a couple of years after winning the bid, I remain associated with the same buyer and project that launched my freelancing career and opened the door to other long-term work within oDesk and at the comfort of home.

You cannot go wrong for choosing oDesk because of their guaranteed-payment system and, because of their reputation as one of the pioneers of the online outsourcing industry, an extensive job market and a huge buyer-provider community. In addition, the method of receiving payment via the Payoneer MasterCard has probably the lowest fees among the payment channels available. The proficiency tests, work history, and feedback feedback feature help establish (or improve) your reputation en route to more projects and higher pay rate.

What, perhaps, gives oDesk the upper hand among the competition is its prized oDesk Team software, a downloadable standalone program that gives providers the payment guarantee for hourly work and easy project monitoring (and peace of mind) for the buyer. The program is available for platforms like Windows to the most popular of Linux distributions.

For those about to start their freelancing stint with oDesk, however, it would be very helpful to have a complete (and, as much as possible, comprehensive) profile, take several proficiency tests suited to your skills (and take these tests seriously), and trivial as it may seem, attach an appropriate photo to your profile. Upon registering, you will also be given a two-week trial access to the oDesk Team software for the chance to familiarize yourself with its important features and explore the overall oDesk working environment. After the trial period, the only time you get to access oDesk Team again is when you get hired for your first oDesk assignment.”

I appreciate the remarks provided by my VA above and really enjoy reading first hand experiences.  I love working from home and am happy that I can help others enjoy the same opportunity.

One thing that came to mind when reading the story above is how frequently I see really poor resumes and information posted by potential providers in their oDesk profiles. I think many would be able to get much better assignments and rates if they spend a little more time polishing up their profiles which make or break a potential job opportunity.  I’d love to see a provider offer a “profile polishing” service to other providers!Â

Here are a few of my thoughts while watching it:

• Transparent work:  I expect that as this happens, employees will have the option to telecommute more.
• From an employer point of view, the additional layers of transparent work will definitely translate to much more efficient labor spending.
• From an employee point of view this could be viewed as micromanagement if not utilized properly.
• The world has been becoming more “flat” and the same is happening to organizations.
• The video mentioned JetBlue utilizing a call center workforce that works from home.  My cousin in the US works for JetBlue from home and loves his job.
• There will be a lot more competition for jobs and quantification of skills.  Fewer and fewer people will be able to get away with being the company slacker.  Conversely, those with the skills and work ethic will thrive in this new “paradigm shift”.
• Crowdsourcing: Interesting they mention this since I’ve been so immersed in this area for the past few weeks.  I’m very curious if oDesk has / is moving into this space (at least by in the way I define it as one-t0-MANY vs. the traditional one-to-one or one-to-a-few).
• Virtual teams:  The video says these groups of contractors may or may not work again in the future.  I think this will work efficiently in some areas, but in others it will still be more effective to develop and build long term trust while getting a feel for your teammates style, strengths, weaknesses, etc.

• Outsourcing isn’t going away any time soon.  We all (employers / employees) need to be ready for it.

What do you think?  Are the predictions and statements in the video accurate?  How do you feel about this so called “Future of Work”?