How to Hire a Virtual Assistant in the Philippines

Hiring a Filipino virtual assistant takes five steps: list the tasks, pick a route, test the person, agree on hours, and put the terms in writing.

1. List the tasks. Write down what the person will do each week and which tools they'll use.
2. Pick a route. You can bring the person on directly, as a contractor who works from the Philippines. There are three places to look: a job marketplace that lists workers in the Philippines, a staffing service, or a referral from another owner. Or you can use a service that finds the person and manages them. For any country, and the contractor paperwork, see hire overseas workers.
3. Test the person. Hold the interview on video, then pay for a short trial task. English is one of the two official languages of the Philippines, with Filipino. That fact comes from the country's constitution. It can't tell you how well one person writes or speaks, so let the interview and the trial show you.
4. Agree on hours. Decide which hours you'll both be online. The table in the next section shows the gap.
5. Put the terms in writing. Cover the tasks, the hours, the pay, and how and when you'll pay. Ask an employment lawyer to read the contract.

This page covers the Philippines only. For India, see hire virtual assistant india.

Manila is 13 hours ahead of US Eastern time, 14 hours ahead of Central, 15 hours ahead of Mountain and 16 hours ahead of Pacific when the US is on standard time. When the US is on daylight time, each gap is one hour less.

Manila is 8 hours ahead of UTC, the world's standard clock time, and it doesn't use daylight time. The US zones do. US clocks go one hour ahead for daylight time, which starts on the second Sunday in March and ends on the first Sunday in November. That's why the gap changes twice a year.

Texas uses two of these zones. The time zone database lists most of Texas under Central time. It lists far western Texas, including El Paso County and Hudspeth County, under Mountain time. The federal rule draws the line between the two zones along the east line of Hudspeth County.

The table covers Eastern, Central, Mountain and Pacific time. The Mountain row follows the database's Denver zone. Its Phoenix zone stays 7 hours behind UTC all year, so the standard time column applies there in every month.

In practice, 9 a.m. Central standard time is 11 p.m. the same day in Manila. When it's 5 p.m. Central standard time, it's 7 a.m. the next day in Manila. Your work day is their night.

You have two ways to handle the gap:

• Shared hours. The assistant works a night shift that overlaps with your day. Ask about this in the interview.
• Hand-off hours. The assistant works their own day. You send tasks at the end of yours and pick them up the next morning.

DeskTeam360, the company that runs this site, has a production team in one office. Its North American account manager gives each task to the team and checks the work. If the work you'd hand to one overseas hire is production work, a call shows whether a team fits.