VA Guide - Authorify

in writing to the WFH designation. It’s good to create a WFH agreement with any virtual assistants creating deliverable products for you. Benefits of the Work-for-Hire Agreement For example, let’s assume you hired a web developer or article writer. While they work for you, they are developing work items, and a “work for hire” agreement ensures what they produce belongs to you and not to them. If you neglect to get this document signed, and the assistant is fired or quits, the assistant has the right to claim the work he/she developed, preventing you from using it in the future. Perhaps you hired someone to develop some software over the course of a year. Without a WFH agreement in place, your assistant has the right to clone this software, resell it, and even compete against you. Your competitor may contact this person and offer to pay more for the content. This is not that uncommon, so it’s very important to have the protection of a work-for-hire agreement. This is more important for some hired positions than for others, but it’s always a good safeguard. My process is to send my virtual assistants the work-for-hire document and ask them to sign it. If they don’t own a scanner but have a smartphone, I ask them to take a picture of the document and mail it back. I like to ensure people understand these terms and conditions before I invite them to work for me. Ensuring the assistants and I have a clear understanding is far more important than the actual document because, if I’m being honest, I’m not going to sue them over the material. It’s just usually not worth the time. However, I do want them to understand what I expect. Other Paperwork Let’s discuss employee paperwork for virtual assistants. I have a lot of documents, employee handbooks, and materials for employees who work in an office. In-house employees probably sign 50-100 pages of agreements. However, when you hire overseas, that’s not necessary. Sometimes, all I obtain is a work-for-hire document. I usually create a document that explains how many hours the assistant has agreed to work and what I have agreed to pay. It’s not very complicated. I then explain, “This is your job offer with all its terms and conditions. Should you make a decision to accept the offer, please reply and state in the email that you agree with the terms and conditions.”