Paying for results, not screenshots: managing a VA without spyware

What monitoring tools actually record

The tools differ, but most of them record some mix of the following:

• Screenshots of the VA's screen at set or random intervals.
• Keyboard and mouse activity, turned into an activity score.
• Which apps and websites were open, and for how long.
• Photos or video from the webcam.
• Time on each task, started and stopped by the VA or by the software.

Why activity is the wrong measure

A VA can be busy all day and get nothing useful done. Another can spend twenty minutes reading a complaint and your policy, write one careful reply, and save you a refund. An activity score rates the first one higher.

People also learn what the software rewards. If it counts keystrokes, you get keystrokes. If it takes screenshots, you get a tidy screen. None of that is the outcome you are paying for.

And it costs you time. Somebody has to look at the screenshots, and that somebody is usually you. An hour spent scrolling through pictures of a spreadsheet is an hour not spent checking whether the spreadsheet is right.

Finally, it tells your VA what you expect of them. Good people notice when they are trusted and when they are watched.

What to track instead

Four things tell you more than any screenshot, and none of them needs special software:

• Agreed outputs. For each recurring task, what done looks like and by when: every enquiry answered within an hour in shift, invoices raised the day a job finishes, the diary confirmed each evening. Agree them with your VA rather than handing them down, and write them down.
• Clock in and clock out. The hours worked, recorded by the VA at the start and end of each shift. You are paying for hours, so you should see them.
• A daily update. At the end of each day: what was done, what is waiting, and what needs you. Two minutes to write, two minutes to read.
• A regular review. Weekly for the first month, then a written monthly review against the outputs you agreed.

A daily update worth reading

The daily update only works if it says something. "Worked on emails and admin" tells you nothing. Ask for specifics, in the same three parts every day:

• Done: "Answered 14 enquiries, booked two site visits for Thursday, raised the invoice for the Smith job."
• Waiting: "Quote for the Patel job sent Tuesday, no reply yet. Chasing tomorrow."
• Needs you: "A customer is asking for a refund above my limit. Details in the message thread."

Check the work itself

The most reliable way to know the work is being done is to look at the work. Open the inbox and see what was answered. Pick three invoices at random and check them. Read a week of replies to customers.

Spot checks like these take ten minutes, tell you about quality as well as quantity, and show your VA that you read what they do. If the outputs are right and the daily updates match what you find, you do not need a picture of their screen.

What we record

We take no screenshots, log no keystrokes and never switch on a webcam to check on anyone. We do not claim to track nothing, though: some record is fair to both sides. In the Mango & Co. workspace, your VA clocks in and out and provides regular daily and weekly updates. You get a weekly report written from the work that was actually logged, and a scorecard with the measures you agree, seen by you, your VA and us.

Our assistants are told this before they start. They clock in and out of every shift and post a short daily update before they finish, and that is what verifies the day. Your monthly price is fixed and includes holiday and sickness cover; the only reduction is for unpaid leave you have approved.

If you do monitor: what the law expects

Data protection law does not ban monitoring, but it sets rules. The Information Commissioner's Office, which regulates UK GDPR, publishes guidance on monitoring workers. It covers anybody who performs work for an organisation, whatever the contract, so it is not only about employees. As a UK business, what you collect about your VA is likely to fall under UK GDPR even though they work abroad, and the law where they live may add rules of its own.

The ICO notes that the guidance is under review following the Data (Use and Access) Act, so check the current version before you rely on it. As it stands, the main points are these:

• Tell them. Apart from very exceptional cases where covert monitoring is justified, workers must be told about any monitoring.
• Use the least intrusive means. If you can achieve your aim in a less intrusive way, the guidance says you must.
• Have a lawful basis. Consent is not usually appropriate between an organisation and the people who work for it, because of the imbalance of power, so most businesses would look at legitimate interests, which means weighing your need against their privacy.
• Do a data protection impact assessment first where the monitoring is likely to be high risk. Keystroke monitoring is one of the ICO's own examples of high-risk processing, and it can count as biometric data, because the way somebody types can identify them.
• Be very wary of webcams. The ICO says you are particularly unlikely to be able to justify capturing webcam shots or footage.
• Remember they work from home. The guidance points out that people expect more privacy at home than in a workplace, and that monitoring at home risks capturing their family and private life.
• Collect no more than you need, keep it no longer than you need, and expect that they can ask to see what you hold about them.

If you still want a tool

Some businesses have a genuine reason, such as a regulated process or a security requirement. If that is you, take advice, and at the least:

• Write down the purpose, and why hours, outputs and updates are not enough to meet it.
• Switch off the most intrusive features: webcam capture, keystroke logging and random screenshots.
• Limit it to working hours and to work systems, never their personal accounts.
• Tell your VA in writing, before it starts, what is recorded, who sees it and how long it is kept.
• Set a date to review whether you still need it.

Trust, checked

None of this means taking the work on faith. It means checking the right things: whether the work was done, done well and done on time. Agreed outputs, recorded hours, a daily update and a monthly review give you that, and they give your VA a fair picture of what you expect.

If you are working out whether a VA would suit your business, our free plan at /fit takes about three minutes and shows which jobs to hand over first.