In a bid to find reliable virtual assistants (VAs), a former Meta employee turned to Kenya after facing difficulties with hiring staff from the Philippines. The founder of the US-based recruitment firm MoveVirtual.co, known as Nick, shared his frustrations after many candidates failed to show up for training or quit shortly after starting, often with unusual excuses.
After conducting over 470 interviews in five years, Nick realized that some candidates failed to meet basic requirements, such as sharing a voice recording during interviews. Approximately 40% of the candidates who made it to the scheduled calls failed to show up, while others didn't appear for the mandatory two-week training period before starting the job. Consequently, Nick acknowledged that hiring a VA is challenging, but ensuring daily commitment and support from both parties is even harder.
When he shared his predicament online, Nick was encouraged to explore the Kenyan workforce. He decided to open up opportunities for Kenyans and other countries as well by creating a careers page.
Virtual assistant jobs, similar to other online jobs, have become an important source of income for many Kenyans. These roles involve providing various forms of assistance to employers or clients, such as answering emails, transcribing documents, and preparing statements and letters.
Over the past decade, Kenya has witnessed a thriving online job market, including academic and article writing gigs that pay an average of Ksh500 per page. As of September 2021, a report by the Ministry of Information Communication and Technology revealed that over 1.2 million Kenyans, mostly youth, were already employed on digital platforms.
To tap into the opportunities presented by these online jobs, the Ajira Digital Program was created by the Kenyan government, under then-President Uhuru Kenyatta. Regulations were put in place to allow unemployed individuals to explore opportunities in the digital sphere.
The same report highlighted that 5% of Kenya's adult population, which translates to 1.2 million people, are digital workers. It emphasized the desire of many Kenyans to pursue part-time digital work and the need to remove barriers inhibiting their progress.
MoveVirtual, established in early 2023, aims to connect virtual assistants with clients seeking part-time assistance. By leveraging the largely literate and tech-savvy Kenyan workforce, this recruitment start-up seeks to address the challenges of hiring reliable VAs while providing a source of income to Kenyans.
Kenya's availability of skilled individuals for online tasks, combined with the country's efforts to support digital work, makes it an appealing option for recruiters like Nick. By tapping into Kenya's talent pool, MoveVirtual envisions a stronger and more reliable workforce for virtual assistant jobs.
Moving forward, it is expected that the digital job market in Kenya will continue to expand, providing more opportunities for individuals to earn a living and contribute to the country's economy.
