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How to welcome VAs into your culture to maximize impact

Team welcoming a virtual assistant via a virtual meeting

Justin Waldrop

August 8, 2022

Culture drives team engagement, which fosters productivity. That applies just as much to virtual assistants (VAs) as to your full-time staff. Including VAs in your company culture will help them to work effectively with the rest of your team and provide valuable insights to inform their projects. In short, it will help them do better work, directly impacting your bottom line.

Deloitte underscores that organizations with a positive company culture outperform those that without it. Deloitte’s research points out that all workers have a human need for meaning and purpose. When this need is met at work, your team exhibits higher performance levels and greater discretionary effort.

Pay attention, folx: team productivity will decline if you cannot integrate VAs and other contract workers into your culture.

Engage VAs throughout their lifecycle 

To begin, your organization has to engage all team members, including VAs, in the success of your mission

That process should include:

  • Sharing corporate values and mission with your VAs
  • Treating VAs like they are part of the team
  • Seeking and incorporating VA input, when relevant
  • Providing transparent feedback
  • Communicating frequently


Embrace diversity

Diversity brings different viewpoints to improve your business strategy. We’re proud of the diverse perspectives represented in our VA community. When selecting your VA, look for candidates who will add something new to your organization’s culture. You don’t want everyone to think the same way. Put the “D” and “I” into your DEI strategy!

Build a thriving remote culture for your team

Research shows that teams who feel connected to the culture at work are happier, more engaged, and more productive. 

From the beginning, involve members of your team in onboarding your VA. Some ways to do this include:

  • Leverage digital collaboration tools. Giving VAs access to messaging tools like Slack is a good way to enable connections. 
  • Help your VA build relationships with your team by inviting them to sit in on team and organization-wide meetings. 
  • Invite VAs to your virtual team and social events as well. If there are none, create some.

Be mindful that building a thriving remote culture is always a work in progress. This means you are open to ideas and feedback.

Recognize a job well done

You’d be surprised how much recognizing team members for their accomplishments energizes them, and VAs are no different in this regard.  Be sure to extend your recognition efforts to your VAs when handing out thank-yous to your team. They love hearing your feedback!

Including VAs in your company culture to drive success

To ensure VAs are well-positioned to best support your business, build and nurture a thriving remote culture for your team that includes your VAs. Make sure to engage VAs by including them in as many ways as possible. Be inclusive rather than exclusive to create a diverse team that will better integrate VAs into your organization and enable you to benefit from their unique insights.

To sum up, remember these four simple tips to include VAs in your company culture:

  1. Onboard VAs like everyone else in your company
  2. Invite them to virtual company events
  3. Recognize achievements and successes
  4. Include them in the conversation

For more advice on nurturing high-performing remote teams, , check out our blog on how to retain your best talent in a remote environment. 

Justin Waldrop

Justin is the Brand & Communications Manager at Virtual Gurus.

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