FAQ

Here’s what sets HireHarbour apart from traditional virtual assistant services:

• Dedicated 3-Week Bootcamp

All HarbourXs undergo a thorough 3-week training programme before they are partnered with any client. Their comprehensive training includes both soft and hard skills, such as best practices for communication, time management, and training on tools such as ChatGPT to ensure that they always stay ahead of their game. Our HarbourXs are fast learners should you need them to upskill on any internal processes or procedures.

• Additional Flexibility

Get started with as little as 5 hours a week. We offer fractional recruitment with up to 40 hours per week that you can designate and use whenever you want. You can also cancel anytime with no notice across all HarbourX tiers, within your 1st month, and a month’s notice after your trial period.

• Success Management

Our HarbourXs are overseen by expert customer success managers (or CSMs). This means that while you will get to enjoy direct communication with your HarbourX, you may also reach out to the appointed CSM at any time should you have any issues or concerns.

• Ongoing Training

All HarbourXs receive ongoing training to continuously upskill and deliver the best standard for their clients. All training is provided and paid for by HireHarbour ensuring that all virtual assistants have the tools available to excel at their role. Finally, all our HarbourXs can rely on our HireHarbour HQ team for additional support and guidance.

• We Go the Extra Mile

Our HarbourXs are paid weekly and enjoy a lot of in-company benefits such as being able to join our annual, all-paid-for, off-site meetups, match-up bonuses, and many more!

Only HarbourAssociates and Partners will get a custom email domain. HarbourAssistants will come with an @hireharbour.com email address.

Using the email address we provide, HarbourAssociates and HarbourPartners can be incorporated into your internal communication channels as you wish.

HarbourAssistants are typically required to remain within email correspondence (unless you employ them for over 20 hours per week).

Whilst your HarbourAssociate/Partner would happily be accepted into your internal channels, we require you to cover any setup/associated costs.

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We understand that for most of our clients, no two weeks are the same.

Whilst flexibility lies at the core of HireHarbour, our HarbourXs are available 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM local business time.

However, if you find yourself needing to consistently exceed your HarbourX's hours, our customer success managers (or CSMs) can propose a renewed arrangement to better suit your needs.

Full-time HarbourXs are permitted to visit clients within a work capacity, as long as travel expenses are covered by the client.

Certainly--every HarbourX can appropriately and securely organise payments.

It's commonplace for assistants to organise payments on behalf of their client, and our HarbourX internal training programme accordingly includes data security instructions.

Assistants are also required to sign NDAs directed at protecting you and your assets.

Alternatively, you can deposit money with HireHarbour in order for us to transfer/make a purchase on your behalf. This way, you won't ever have to provide your financial information to your HarbourX. However, please note that every deposit carries a 5% admin fee. Please see Security & Confidentiality FAQs for more details.

Only HarbourAssociates and Partners can provide support to your family and colleagues, as long as it aligns with contracted hours.

For your HarbourAssistant, you will be the sole delegator, unless you have opted for 15 hours or more per week.

It’s best to ask our experts to help you determine the best HarbourX for you.

But in summary, HarbourAssistants are great if you require assistance with small ad-hoc tasks throughout the week. This is what we recommend to small business owners, solopreneurs, and individuals in high-pressure industries such as banking, finance, law, consulting, and high-growth start-ups.

HarbourAssociates are ideal if you need a virtual assistant with more experience to support you and your team members. This is what we recommend to SMEs, start-ups, and entrepreneurs.

Finally, HarbourPartners is best if you need a superstar employee who can lead projects independently and even manage teams and workflows for you. Since their role is a hybrid between an executive assistant and a Chief-of-Staff, we highly recommend them to business owners with more than 20 employees or individuals working in high-stress environments such as private equity, venture capital, hedge funds, lawyers, and others.

Where we don't have the perfect HarbourX immediately available, we'll begin sourcing one that fits your needs.

HarbourAssistants can take up to 1-4 weeks, with HarbourAssociates/partners 1-2 months.

These are average timelines, and there are instances where it can take us longer to find the right fit.

Our HarbourAssistants handle a maximum of 5 clients. That said, we ensure that they are not overbooked to make way for adjustments. For instance, an average HarbourAssistant works 5 hours per week per client. This means that they have a fixed schedule of 25 hours of client work utilised, with 15 hours of their 40 contracted hours remaining to spare to allow for flexibility.

On the other hand, our HarbourAssociates and HarbourPartners usually handle 2 clients each.

If you'd like your HarbourX to work exclusively for you, our sales team would be happy to organise a bespoke arrangement.

Sick Leave

Some things we can't prepare for! 

We'll keep you updated on any HarbourX illnesses as and when they arise.

Vacation

We take care of every HarbourX for you, and this includes ensuring they have well-deserved breaks to maintain a high-quality service.

Whilst pairing you with the perfect HarbourX, we'll highlight whether they have any pre-booked holiday which may coincide with the duration of their services.

Any requests made during their service have to abide by our two-week notice period, before receiving approval from us, and then you.

Whether you need your HarbourX on a full-time or fractional basis, they'll be available from 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM within your local business hours, Monday to Friday.

Any further availability can be agreed as required.

We do everything to pair you with the perfect HarbourX. And while it rarely happens, if ever, we know relationships can change.

Communication is key at HireHarbour, and we endeavour to maintain an open dialogue throughout the service, including weekly feedback forms and updates to ensure a smooth and improving operation.

Your CSM will be responsible for understanding any issues you may have with your HarbourX, helping to coordinate a joint resolution enabling you to move forward together.

Of course, if for any reason this does not suffice, we will do everything we can to find a HarbourX more suitable to your preferences.

The majority of our HarbourXs are based in the Philippines. They are known for giving stellar BPO services and for being well-versed in working with UK, US, and Australian companies.

There is a £499 admin cost to cover onboarding, including hiring, reference & vetting, checks, and training.

We pair you with a HarbourX that best fits your requirements.

During introductions, we support you in raising any questions or comments about suitability to make sure we provide the HarbourX most tailored to your needs.

We conduct reference checks through a reputable third party agency who verifies employment history, education details, criminal records, as well as any other public records. We also generally prefer to hire through referrals. This way, most of our applicants are already primarily vetted by our team.

Our team is constantly on the search for highly skilled talent, and we screen 500 candidates a month using various recruitment and headhunting methods.

HireHarbour's credibility within the VA community also works to our benefit, with candidates putting themselves forward through the application hub on our website.

Our HarbourXs undergo a rigorous screening process:

1. ‍Initial Screening. We conduct initial CV and Loom video screenings for all our applicants.
2. ‍Testing. Those who pass the first level of screening will then take three tests: a communication test, a personality test, and a problem-solving test.
3. ‍Interview. Those who pass the second level of screening will then undergo a face-to-face interview with our dedicated in-house recruiter.
4. ‍Case Study. The next step in our process is a 90-minute assignment that the applicant must pass. It is composed of three tasks that seek to replicate the pressure of their daily role working with high-demanding clients.
5. ‍Final Interview. Finally, all applicants who have made it this far will undergo a final face-to-face interview with both founders of HireHarbour. Only around 1% of our applicants make it past this stage.

This means that all our HarbourXs meet our high standards and that they are carefully handpicked by the founders themselves before they are partnered up with any client.

We encourage you to make the most of your HarbourX experience. You can find out how to do that in our Playbook.

If, in the unlikely event your HarbourX was required to leave HireHarbour, we will provide an appropriate replacement from our vetted and trained pool of assistants as soon as possible.

Here’s a quick walkthrough of what you can expect the process to look like:

1. You meet with the HireHarbour team and we’ll discuss and determine the assistant services that you need.
2. We will search for the HarbourX who’s most suitable to your needs and preferences from our pool of vetted and trained talents.
3. Meet your HarbourX, and start the onboarding process.
4. Weekly feedback form to continuously improve our bespoke service to you.
5. Our CSMs will perform regular check-ins to ensure you're receiving an excellent service, whilst providing ongoing support to your HarbourX.

Yes, absolutely! We’re always happy when our HarbourXs provide such a level of client satisfaction. You may issue a bonus through us and all the proceeds will be payable to your HarbourX.

In addition, we also offer a bonus match-up benefit of up to:

• £50 per HarbourAssistant per year
• £100 per HarbourAssociate per year
• £250 per HarbourPartner per year

Payments are accepted in advance of a month's service (rolling contract).

Those wanting to pay for a full year up-front receives a 15% discount.

HarbourX salaries are organised internally at HireHarbour.

Our minimum contract term is 1 month.

Securing your information is our utmost priority, and we have a number of different systems in place to protect your privacy.

1. Our HarbourX training programmes include data privacy modules emphasising the importance of securely handling any client information, sensitive or otherwise.
2. All client data is stored on UK servers.
3. Every HarbourX must sign an NDA.
4. Our HarbourXs are equipped with antivirus and VPN softwares.
5. We are supported by a third party that carries out extensive reference and background checks for all HarbourXs.
6. For any HarbourX residing outside of the UK, we ensure they are aware of and receive relevant training with respect to their national data security/privacy legislation, such as the Data Privacy Act in the Philippines.
7. For any personal/work-related log-in credentials wish your HarbourX needs to support you, we utilise a secure password management platform, Dashlane.
8. Where you would like your HarbourX to assist you with financial support. For example, we have an alternative deposit system in case you do not wish to share your payment details with them directly.

If someone from our team requests your bank details outside of a pre-agreed situation, please refrain from doing so until you have reported this to us at clientcare@hireharbour.com.

Please refer to our terms and policies for further information regarding our liabilities.