Frequently Asked Questions
HOW QUICKLY CAN I GET STARTED?
We can sign you up in 10 minutes and your staffers can be ready in as little as 2-3 days.
Read about our onboarding process below.
HOW DOES THE ONBOARDING PROCESS WORK?
To get started simply call one of our account directors and they will get you signed up. We just need the 2-hour daily shift you need the staffer to work (for example: 2PM-4PM EST). For double shifts, simply choose an additional daily shift. And for full time you can choose any weekly schedule you need. We also need a little info about the tasks/functions you would like your staffer to start with and the contact info for the person who will handle payroll and the service agreement.
After we have those we will send you:
- The service agreement (which is always pay-as-you-go)
- The NCND (a non-disclose/non-circumvent agreement which protects your proprietary information)
- An intro email from the CSM with their contact info
- An invoice and Paypal link for your first two weeks
Your CSM will get to work on matching you up with your Ready Staffer. This usually takes 2-3 days depending on how many clients are ahead of you. In the meantime the CSM will have asked in the intro email for you to send over any materials (websites, platforms, documents, programs, instructions, training materials, company info) your staffers will be working with. This is important to make the training session(s) go more smoothly for you.
Once the CSM has matched you with your Ready Staffer they will contact you to secure a time you will be available for the training and orientation conference call. Training is free. You get up to one shift of training time included (2 hours for single shift, 4 hours for double shift and 8 hours for full time) . We are very fluid about accommodating your training needs. You can do the training yourself or have your staffer train using instructional materials all with the support of the CSM. After the included free training time is used, you can continue to train if need be but the staffers will have launched and be on your time at that point.
WHAT SCHEDULE CAN THE STAFFERS WORK?
Our available shifts are as follows:
EST:
5am – 7am, 7am – 9am, 8am – 10am, 9am – 11am, 10am – NOON, 11am – 1pm, NOON – 2pm, 1pm – 3pm, 2pm – 4pm, 4pm – 6pm
PST:
8am – 10am, 10am – NOON, 11am – 1pm, NOON – 2pm, 1pm – 3pm, 2pm – 4pm, 3pm – 5pm, 4pm – 6pm, 5pm – 7pm, 7pm – 9pm
If you require a different shift, please let us know and we may be able to accommodate.
All shifts are MON-SAT. No exceptions unless choosing the full-time plan.
These are single, 2-hour shifts. If you choose the double plan (for just $10 more per day) you can select two of these. If you are going to go full-time then these shifts do not apply to you. You can design any schedule you require.
WHAT ARE THE MINIMUM HOURS PER WEEK?
Our minimum is a single daily 2-hour shift, MON-SAT for a total of 12 hours per week.
WHAT IF I NEED LESS THAN 12 HOURS PER WEEK?
We recommend you sign up for at least a single daily shift schedule because there are ALWAYS more tasks a staffer can help you with. And you should want to be delegating as much as possible. Every hour you work on a task that your Ready Staffer could have done for you is an hour that you decided to pay yourself below minimum wage. Your time HAS to be worth more than that.
There are companies that sell smaller batches of hours or “tasks” but there are two big issues with that format. First, you don’t usually get to work with the same staffer all the time because generally they cannot sit idle waiting all month for you to use your allotted hours. This is crucial. You do not want to give up the huge benefit of working with the same staffer all the time. Second, they typically charge about double what we do per hour so you end up paying the same or more to have half the work performed.
DO I HAVE TO WAIT UNTIL THE CURRENT PAYROLL PERIOD IS FINISHED TO SCALE UP?
Not at all. We will prorate every hour so you never need worry about scaling up to a double shift or full time. Many clients find that delegating more and more work to their Ready Staffer enables them to free up their own time to focus on more important functions. You CSM is always ready to help you scale as needed.
ARE THE STAFFERS FREELANCERS?
No. Ready Staffer cares about offering great employment opportunities to overseas college students. We hire all of our staffers formally. We pay all of their taxes and even provide 100% medical insurance coverage. All included in the lowest rates in the industry.
WILL I HAVE THE SAME STAFFER WORKING FOR ME ALL THE TIME?
Yes. This is key to getting the most out of your engagement. You should never hire a company that will have you working with a rotating crew of staffers because you won’t accrue the benefits of experience that the staffer gains over time. An experienced staffer is MUCH more valuable to your operation. Plus who wants to waste time training new people all the time?
WILL I HAVE TO TRAIN THE STAFFERS?
That depends on the kind of work you need performed. Most work today is done on popular platforms such as project management apps, CRMs, bookkeeping programs, social media and other such applications. If a staffer is not familiar with a particular platform you require, your CSM can pre-train them and you can complete their training by instructing them on your specific tasks.
Training is free (2 hours for single shift and 4 hours for double and 8 hours for full time) and your CSM will sit in on all the training sessions to provide support. We are very fluid in order to make sure we accommodate your needs during the training process so you can advance to launch as smoothly as possible. Once your staffer is up and running, providing you with a much needed increase in productivity you will be glad you glad you made the effort to get them trained and launched.
We do a lot of work for many different busy professionals and small businesses. There is no reason we can’t do the same for you.
WHAT ABOUT TIME OFF?
You never pay for an hour that is not worked due to a staffer being off. Occasionally it is inevitable for a staffer to take time off. Any missed time is deducted from their payroll.
HOW DO I KNOW WHAT HOURS THE STAFFERS ARE WORKING?
You choose the daily shift you need and this is monitored by your CSM. Every client’s needs are different. Some clients, such as realtors or a busy office manager work with their Ready Staffers directly throughout their shift. Others, like a lawyer send over file work and know what volume of work should be completed daily or weekly. Others can see their staffers logged into communication platforms such as Skype, Zoom, Slack, etc. in real time during their designated shifts. And others, that don’t fit into any of these categories because their tasks are more varied, typically have their staffers take the last 10 minutes of their shifts each day to send a rundown of their tasks and the time each took via email. All clients are also sent a time sheet every week with a day by day breakdown of the hours worked.
WHY DO YOU SAY THAT YOUR "ROCKSTAR" MANAGERS ARE THE MOST IMPORTANT PART OF YOUR SERVICE?
Many busy professionals and small business clients try and fail to incorporate personal assistants into their work day. Every Fortune 500 company outsources yet very few small businesses do. And the reason is they don’t have the management resources to make outsourcing a success. So we built our model around our Client Success Managers (CSMs). Every client is assigned a dedicated CSM so you not only have the same staffer but also the same manager available to you every day, all day. And the ROCKSTAR part has to do with the fact that our core of CSMs has helped countless small businesses establish an excellent outsourced resource and is experienced in many different industries and platforms.
WHAT IF MY STAFFER IS NOT RIGHT FOR ME, OR IS NOT PERFORMING AS NEEDED?
This is where our Rockstar CSM’s come in. With us it’s never just you and the staffer. You have an experienced manager in place to help with any issues that arise. If your staffer is not performing at the level you require, or if you just feel they are not the right fit for you, all you need do is contact your CSM and they will help either train up your staffer or match you with a replacement. It’s no problem, just because they are not the right fit for you doesn’t mean they won’t be the right fit for a different client. The key is that you lock in with the right staffer that is a long-term solution for your needs.
WHAT ABOUT THE LEARNING CURVE FOR THE STAFFER TO BECOME FAMILIAR WITH MY WORK AND/OR BUSINESS?
We tell our clients that are unfamiliar with working with remote staffers that there is a learning curve and period of adjustment in the beginning. Both for the staffer, who needs to learn a whole new set of tasks, and for the client who may find the adjustment to working with a remote staffer difficult because they are used to working only with U.S. employees and only face-to-face.
It is important that both sides make an extra effort at the beginning and keep their eye on the prize, so to speak. After the training and the first couple of weeks, usually clients will find that, despite the adjustment in the beginning, they end up with a great amount of value every week for their investment. The savings in time and money that come from working with a remote staffer are such that they afford small businesses and independent professionals the ability to go after many opportunities that they couldn’t pursue without the cost savings that outsourcing provides. Increasing the margin of error on the risk of trying new things can mean a totally new strategic outcome for you or your small business. And of course, taking a lot of tedious daily tasks off of your plate frees you up to focus on the big picture, or just play with your kids.
So the point is that it requires some effort in the beginning, but proves to be extremely valuable later on.
HOW DO I COMMUNICATE WITH MY STAFFER AND CSM?
We highly recommend Skype and Zoom. You can have your Ready Staffers and CSM on Skype and Zoom and have them at your easy reach during the daily shift. Skype is great because you can type-chat your staffer and get instant feedback. You can also share your screen to demonstrate something or pass along a file right in your Skype chatbox. And by keeping your CSM on the same chatbox, they can remain in the loop in real time. Zoom is great (and taking over in the US) because nothing beats face-to-face communication and video chat is as close as you can get.
You can also call, text or email your staffer. (All staffers come with a US phone line, included.) Some clients have their own communication or project collaboration platforms like Slack for example, already set up. Your staffer can be assimilated into any system you currently use.
DO THE STAFFERS DO COLD CALLING / TELEMARKETING / APPOINTMENT SETTING?
Yes, we have a small dedicated outbound call center we recently opened with experienced callers specifically to serve clients who had been requesting phone sales. We actually started out as a cold calling call center back in 2003 but moved towards BPO (business process outsourcing) in 2009, so we have a lot of experience in all types of phone verticals. Now we are happy to offer this service again to our clients. Hourly rates for the staffers in the call center are our regular rate schedule plus $2 per hour.
DO THE STAFFERS SPEAK ENGLISH? DO THEY HAVE ACCENTS?
All of our staffers are English-speaking college students and recent college graduates. Some staffers have better spoken English than others of course, but when working with overseas staff accents are unavoidable. That being said, we handle phone support successfully for many clients.
DO YOU HAVE SPECIALIZED STAFFERS?
Our staffers typically have experience in a variety of office and online work. They can also be pre-trained by their experienced CSM’s on other functions you may require. When a client signs up we try to match them with staffers that are appropriate for the type of work that they require. For example if the work is primarily bookkeeping and admin, we will try to assign a staffer that is an accounting major or has other relevant experience. Occasionally an existing client requires a staffer that is a specialist or professional in a specific field, such as a coder or developer for example. In these cases the client will provide us a list of needed expertise and we will send them candidate resumes that best match their needs. Sometimes these specialists will have higher salary expectations than what our regular rates are (usually from around 50 cents to about $2 additional) and we will let the client know which candidates require the higher rates.
IS MY COMPANY INFO SECURE?
We work for law firms for which we do all types of case file work. We also perform HIPAA-compliant functions for doctor offices. We handle client billing and payroll for different companies. We also do customer acquisition for Dish and DirectTV retailers which involves social security numbers and other information. We handle loan processing for mortgage brokers which involves credit histories and banking information. So we are well-versed in protecting sensitive information. We are a U.S.-based corporation and we send every new client an NCND agreement which protects their company information.
ARE YOU HIPPA COMPLIANT?
Yes. We work for a variety of medical practices and can provide our HIPAA compliance statement upon request.
HOW DOES PAYROLL WORK?
Unlike with many of our competitors you are never locked in. We are strictly pay-as-you-go. Payroll is charged at the beginning of every two-week payroll period. When you sign up we send you an invoice with a Paypal link. After that it is charged automatically every two weeks. Every payroll is the same each period (unless you schedule extra hours, which are billed at the same exact rate) so there are never any surprises. You always know exactly what your total cost is.
Any hour or shift that is missed is credited to your account, so you never pay for any time that is not worked.
If you prefer you can also be manually invoiced instead of using Paypal auto-pay. The non-auto-pay rate is $2 more per day ($3 for double shift and $4 for full time).
WHAT ABOUT BONUSES, RAISES AND INCENTIVES?
Our clients often wish to incentivize and/or reward their staffers and CSM’s for good performance, longevity, etc. like they would a regular in-house employee. We certainly encourage clients to do so if they wish as it will help keep turnover low and even a little bit can make a big impact. Any bonuses or raises paid by the client are passed on 100% to the staffer and/or CSM as the client dictates.
WHAT ABOUT TAXES, EMPLOYMENT REGULATIONS, HR LIABILITIES, ETC
One of the great things about partnering with a staffing service like ours is that you get the benefits of being an employer (your choice of shifts, ability to assign any tasks required, flexibility to change anything that is needed in real time) but you don’t have the regulatory or HR expenses and hassles, or the legal liabilities that come with hiring directly. You are in control but our company is technically the employer. And your relationship with us is that of vendor/customer. So you can cancel at any time without the legal consequences of laying off direct hires.
HOW DO YOU TAKE PAYMENT?
For auto-pay clients we use Paypal. If you don’t wish to use auto-pay then you can use any number payment methods. Zelle is our main payroll payment platform after Paypal. It is an online payment network set up by the major banks (Bank of America, BB&T, Capital One, JPMorgan Chase, PNC Bank, U.S. Bank and Wells Fargo). It’s safe, instant and free. And you do not need to be a customer of one of these banks to use it. It works with all banks. We also take checks, online bill pay, wires and ACH transfers.
WHERE DO I SIGN UP?
Just call one of our account directors. They can discuss your needs if you have any questions and sign you up in a couple of minutes. They then hand you off to one of our CSM’s to get the onboarding process started (more on onboarding above).
Delegating works.
That is why virtually every top producer has an assistant.
Call an account director today and let’s discuss.