Behind the scenes of managing 150 Philippines Elite Assistants
Bean Ninjas
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Episode breakdown
Want to hire the best Philippines Support Assistants for your business?
In Episode 63 of the Bean Ninjas Podcast, Bean Ninjas CEO Meryl Johnston talks to Barbara Turley about the importance of systemizing your business and the value behind properly outsourcing your staff.
- How Barbara got into the business of hiring Support Assistants
- How the early months of the business look like
- Barbara identified common Client problems with handling the off-shore team and address each of it
- The System built that works for both Client and Support Assistant
- Looking into the internal structure of The Virtual Hub team
- Barbara’s views on internal promotion and hiring management
- Hiring Team Leaders for Support Assistants
- How personal engagement with the business and people works
- Reporting structure around the business
- Biggest Mistakes in hiring Support Assistants and how Barbara overcome it
- Metrics in hiring Support Assistants in the Philippines
- Remote work vs. Office work
- Characteristics of The Virtual Hub Employees
- Tips for Startup Business Owners
Spending years of building systems for the business will surely pay off.
In this episode
00:00 - Introduction to The Virtual Hub and Its Origins
Barbara Turley shares the story of how she founded The Virtual Hub, which began as an accidental business while she was doing consulting and business coaching. She identified a recurring problem among entrepreneurs who struggled to afford staff yet couldn’t grow without them. Initially hiring a few virtual assistants from the Philippines for her clients, the unexpected demand quickly turned into a thriving business.
03:40 - Early Challenges and Discovering the Real Problems
Barbara describes how, despite early success, the business unraveled within six months due to clients’ inability to delegate effectively and manage offshore team members. Clients lacked processes and expected Support Assistants to be mind readers. This led to stress and operational issues, prompting Barbara to pause, cut back staff and clients, and spend the next year developing structured training programs for both clients and Support Assistants.
05:46 - Building Training Systems and Operational Improvements
Barbara discusses how the implementation of basic but impactful training—like using task management tools and recurring task lists—helped address the delegation issues clients faced. Recognizing that Support Assistant resumes often overstated skills, she developed comprehensive training programs on both sides, eventually transforming the business into a well-oiled machine with 140+ staff and high success rates.
07:49 - Evolution of Internal Team Structure
As the business scaled, Barbara recounts her experience of growing from managing a handful of Support Assistants herself to establishing a structured hierarchy. She began promoting top-performing Support Assistants into team leader and project manager roles but learned through experience about the mentorship and leadership training required for these transitions.
10:02 - The Importance of Organizational Design and Planning
Barbara credits a pivotal piece of advice from a colleague: design the org chart for a 100-person business first, then hire to fill those roles as needed. This forward-looking approach helped her identify the need for positions like head of HR, head of operations, and team leaders, setting up the business for scalable growth.
11:51 - Promoting Internally vs. Hiring Externally
Barbara shares strong views on internal promotions versus external hiring, noting that both approaches have merits depending on the role. She successfully promoted rockstar Support Assistants to training roles but realized through challenges in HR and operations that certain specialized positions required experienced external hires.
16:08 - Challenges with Team Leader Hiring and Fit
She reflects on the difficulty of finding team leaders externally who understand The Virtual Hub’s unique model. Unlike call centers, her Support Assistants work independently with clients and need digital marketing knowledge, making it tricky to recruit team leaders with the right mix of skills and experience.
18:26 - Leadership Involvement and Operational Oversight
Barbara and Meryl discuss the balance between delegation and deep involvement in operations. Both agree that leaders should have a thorough understanding of key areas like SEO or operations to manage risk and optimize external partnerships. Barbara admits to being hands-on with process approvals and system automation to maintain control while scaling, a practice that has served her business well.
21:57 - Leadership Oversight and Metrics Tracking
Barbara discusses the importance of leaders maintaining oversight through proper reporting structures and dashboards. She emphasizes that leaders shouldn’t necessarily be involved in day-to-day operations but need rapid visibility into emerging issues through well-tracked data and metrics. She shares her ongoing project of building a metrics dashboard and the importance of proactive internal reporting beyond financials — covering marketing, sales, and operational data.
24:05 - Early Hiring Mistakes and Evolving Recruitment Process
Barbara recounts her early hiring errors, particularly her tendency to be too emotionally involved in interviews. She learned that being metrics-driven and process-heavy improved hiring outcomes. She describes a rigorous, multi-step recruitment process involving exams, assignments, and intensive training to ensure only qualified candidates proceed — drastically improving their hiring success rate.
27:16 - Applicant Funnel and Employer Branding in the Philippines
Barbara details how they attract large volumes of applicants through targeted job sites and employer branding efforts in the Philippines. She highlights the separate marketing strategy they built over two years for their employee brand, focusing on showcasing company culture and career growth rather than just job listings — which eventually led to consistent inbound interest through social media.
30:36 - Freelance vs Employee Mindsets and Employer Positioning
Barbara explains the difference between freelancers and employee-minded candidates in the Philippine market. She stresses that freelance Support Assistants often struggle with structure in an employee model and can pose risks like client poaching. By tailoring their employer branding to attract people seeking structured employment and long-term growth within a team, they’ve mitigated these challenges.
32:10 - Remote Work vs Office-Based Operations
Barbara shares lessons from managing remote teams in the Philippines, noting initial success but eventual operational chaos as the business scaled. She describes cultural factors, like multi-generational households, that complicated remote work. Transitioning to an office-based model improved productivity, employee happiness, and operational oversight, though it required significant effort in company setup and compliance.
35:48 - Characteristics of Top Employees
The best employees, Barbara notes, are smart, agile, and adaptable — those who quickly accept when processes aren’t working and iterate solutions. She values people who fit seamlessly into her structured, systemized business environment and avoid trying to overhaul established processes. Cultural fit and adaptability to structured systems are non-negotiable traits for success in her organization.
37:39 - Advice for Early-Stage Business Owners
Barbara advises new business owners to prioritize market validation and sales before diving into systems, hiring, and outsourcing. Once demand is confirmed, the focus must shift to building infrastructure, processes, and teams to support sustainable growth. She warns against clinging to the chaotic startup phase too long, emphasizing the importance of internal leverage and operational maturity to handle external demand.
