Remote Workmate

Remote Workmate is an Australian-registered virtual staffing solutions company that puts a spotlight exclusively on outstanding Filipino virtual assistants.

The company has been known to some since 2008 when Australians John Paul Grant and Matt Canty, who were then based within the Philippines, started offering multiple forms of virtual assistant services to entrepreneurs and business owners.

About Remote Workmate

In 2014, Darwin-based Chris Whitrod, the current company CEO, bought the name Remote Workmate from Paul and Matt and focused on providing long-term, dedicated virtual assistants with ongoing support as the company’s main form of service to entrepreneurs and businesses primarily from Australia, New Zealand, North America, and Europe.

Remote Workmate Services

Remote Workmate provides virtual assistant recruitment plus ongoing client support with no lock-in.

Their recruitment process requires 1-2 weeks or until the client is happy with their selection. Remote Workmate provides unlimited HR support and payroll management while the client takes care of the virtual assistant task delegation.

If in the unlikely case that the client is unhappy with the performance of the person they hired, they can ask for a replacement for no additional processing or recruitment cost!

Remote Workmate aims to work on roles specific to their client needs as opposed to the pre-packaged role descriptions. If they think that the expectations that clients have are quite impossible, they make recommendations on how to make it more realistic.

Based on their past experiences, here are some of the most usual type of roles that they have helped clients fill:

• Social Media Marketing Specialist
• SEO Specialist
• AdWords Expert
• Content Writer
• Virtual Administrative Assistant
• Telemarketer/Appointment Setter
• Real Estate Virtual Assistant
• Property Management Assistant
• Graphic Designer
• WordPress Expert
• Business Development Specialist
• Customer Service Specialist
• Recruitment Specialist
• Bookkeeper

All Remote Workmate virtual assistants are working from home and comply with certain equipment standards like minimum internet connection speed and ideal computer specifications. They work for a minimum of 20 hours per week promoting better and longer working relationship with their clients.

How it Works

Remote Workmate’s hiring process is pretty straight forward. The company works closely with their clients from the discovery call and allows them to take part in the recruitment process as much as they want.

After the discovery call, the recruiting specialists hit the trail and try to find the best possible candidates from their network. They’ll present those assistant profiles to you, and you can schedule interviews with the ones that look most promising.

Plans and Pricing

Remote Workmate does not have a “one-size fits all” pricing plan. As the company strives to have experienced virtual assistants take interest in open roles, the rates are then driven by their skillset and years of experience.

On their website, Remote Workmate gives a rough idea of the average rate for each type of role, in USD:

• Social Media Manager $7.00 – $8.50
• Graphic Designer/Web/PHP Developer $9.00 – $11.00
• General Virtual Assistant $6.00 – $7.50
• Marketing Assistant $6.50 – $7.50
• Content Writer $6.50 – $7.50
• SEO Specialist $9.00 – $11.00
• Customer Service Specialist $6.00 – $7.00
• Payroll Officer/Bookkeeper $6.00 – $8.00
• Content Writer $6.50 – $8.00
• Real Estate Virtual Assistant $6.00 – $7.50

If you’d like to have an idea of what the ballpark rate would be for a role specific to your requirements, you can email them at hire@remoteworkmate.com.

So what’s included in the rates?

• The recruitment process
• The replacement process (if requested)
• VA Pay
• HR & payroll management
• Client consultant (client’s go-to person)
• Time tracking software

Each client receives one billing invoice per month on a pre-payment basis. Payments are done via bank-to-bank transfer, Transferwise, or Paypal.

Why Remote Workmate?

One thing that stands out with Remote Workmate’s service is the freedom to end it if you are unhappy for any reason at all. That speaks volumes as to how confident they are with the quality of service they can provide.

Since they have quite an extensive recruitment process, with 3 out of 4 stages allotted to it, you can rest assured that they won’t stop trying to find a VA you’ll be happy with until you say so. By the time you are working with a VA and you feel that you’ve selected the wrong one, you always have that free replacement to fall back to.

Remote Workmate Alternatives

Remote Workmate is an interesting model that falls between the:

• do-it-yourself recruiting model of OnlineJobs.ph (where you’ll pay a small upfront fee to access the job board, and likely a lower monthly rate ongoing)
• straight-up recruiting service of Virtual Staff Finder (where you pay a bigger upfront fee and likely a lower monthly salary ongoing)
• a managed VA company like VA Staffer (where you’ll pay a higher monthly fee in return for a dedicated office facility and on-site infrastructure)

Your Turn

Have you worked with Remote Workmate? If so, please share a quick review of your experience below and help others with their decision.