Doing a background check for a virtual assistant is a lot different than doing a background check of a potential employee. Paying for a full credit check, criminal records check, etc. is nearly unheard of in the virtual assistance space, especially if they\u2019re not going to be a full-time employee in your business. If you try to get too in-depth with asking a virtual assistant for personal information, the virtual assistant might get scared off. There are lots of job scams out there that pose as \u201casking for a background check\u201d but are trying to get personal information out of the virtual assistant and eventually rip them off. So when you decide to do your background check, make it thorough and brief, yet friendly. Virtual Assistant Background Checks There\u2019s no international database of virtual assistants so conducting a background check works differently for independent contractors. First, take a look at where you found the virtual assistant. If the virtual assistant came from a freelancer platform, such as Upwork or Freelancer, your work is cut in half. Go through their profile and read their testimonials. If they don\u2019t have any testimonials, they should have some work in their portfolio. Be wary of virtual assistants who have nothing on their profiles. Even virtual assistants who have no prior work experience on that platform can flesh out their profiles with work outside of the platform. If they didn\u2019t make an effort to put something on their profile, this could reflect poor work ethic. If they can\u2019t sell themselves or bother to make their portfolio look hire-worthy, they likely won\u2019t bother giving your business quality work. The downside to being on a freelancer platform is that you can\u2019t reach out to previous clients of the virtual assistant and ask them questions. You may be able to find them online through a Google search, but there\u2019s no guarantee that you\u2019ll get the right person. You might have found the virtual assistant at an agency. In that case, you\u2019d be conducting more of a background check on the agency. Look at their public reviews. It\u2019s common to find some negative reviews but make sure that the reviews aren\u2019t consistently negative. For example, if one person complains about the virtual assistant being slow to respond, but everyone else has written glowing reviews of fast communication, you can ignore that review. No agency is perfect, and some clients are difficult to keep happy. There are also independent virtual assistants who might have a social media following or a website. Check out their testimonials and reach out to the people who gave those testimonials. Sometimes you might not get a response, especially since business owners are busy people, but it\u2019s worth asking. When an independent virtual assistant is thorough enough to have their website, a social media following, and testimonials linking to real clients, they are probably the real deal. Few people go through that much effort if they\u2019re not serious about being a full-time virtual assistant. Working Through Red Flags Red flags are standard when working with virtual assistants. You want to make sure that negatives are few and far in between, though it shouldn\u2019t be a dealbreaker if you do find a red flag. Clients complain. Miscommunications happen. Everyone has a nightmare story. If you like the virtual assistant, regardless of the red flags, it\u2019s worth having a conversation with the virtual assistant. Ask them about the red flags and give them a chance to explain themselves. If the explanation makes sense and you\u2019re willing to overlook the red flags, great. Sometimes there is no reasonable explanation, and the virtual assistant may not be a good fit for your business. That being said, don\u2019t conduct background checks solely to look for the negatives in a person. Take note of the positives and consistency in their reviews. If there is a major red flag in a virtual assistant, for example, someone wrote that he or she shared sensitive information or stole content for themselves, you should steer clear of the virtual assistant, especially if his or her story doesn\u2019t add up. Though if the red flag is something like \u201cthe virtual assistant doesn\u2019t communicate well,\u201d and the virtual assistant explained that a client expected responses at 11 pm, it\u2019s understandable. Give them a chance to explain and then go with your gut feeling on whether you\u2019d still like to work with that virtual assistant. Ready to interview your virtual assistant? Please don\u2019t forget to download our list of questions to ask a virtual assistant, below.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2367,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[51,35,38,20],"tags":[22,39,23],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\n