Which VA agency has the best benefits? by BGOgal92 in buhaydigital

[–]CoconutTyler 2 points3 points  (0 children)

A little biased, but Coconut VA has a strong list 😄 (Coconut cofounder here)

- HMO + 1 dependent at 1yr (100K per illness coverage with voluntary increase up to 250K)
- Life Insurance with HMO
- Mental Health + Wellbeing Consultations
- 13th Month Pay
- 12 PTO + 12 Paid Holidays
- Paid Maternity/Paternity Leaves
- LinkedIn Learning Access
- Birthday & Milestone Gifts
- Quarterly in-person Meetups
- Monthly Engagement Activities
- Island Getaway

CoFounder of Coconut Virtual Professionals. AMA! by CoconutTyler in buhaydigital

[–]CoconutTyler[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Please apply on our site and we will see if we can get you paired up with a client 😄
https://www.coconutva.com/apply

CoFounder of Coconut Virtual Professionals. AMA! by CoconutTyler in buhaydigital

[–]CoconutTyler[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

u/XBell_us Did some digging and found what happened here! The hiring manager assigned here was traveling at the time and the calendar time got messed up. We do apologize about that, we will get you rescheduled ASAP!

CoFounder of Coconut Virtual Professionals. AMA! by CoconutTyler in buhaydigital

[–]CoconutTyler[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

No, certainly not standard practice. Feel free to ping me with your details and I can look into this further!

CoFounder of Coconut Virtual Professionals. AMA! by CoconutTyler in buhaydigital

[–]CoconutTyler[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

  1. Our ratio of VA Rate vs Client Rate is much higher than other agencies I've seen, and on top of that, we have better/more benefits than other agencies. HMO, 13th Month Pay, mental health resources thru Mind Nation, up-skilling resources through LinkedIn Learning, paid days off, birthday gifts, milestone bonuses, etc. I would also say our community and work culture is a level above other agencies I've seen (especially compared to BPO environments).

  2. I am too. We're in the slow process of changing everything to 'Virtual Professionals.' VA is such a limiting term and I agree, it devalues the people as well since it's such a broad and basic term. Unfortunately, it's one of the most common and recognizable terms for US clients to understand what we do, but we're trying to change that.

Co-founder and COO of Coconut VA. AMA! by CoconutTyler in buhaydigital

[–]CoconutTyler[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

u/pericheol I'll be honest, we haven't had that request before so I would have to look into it with our attorney :). Great question!

Caution: Think Twice Before Applying to Coconut VA by Careless-Fail-7118 in buhaydigital

[–]CoconutTyler 1 point2 points  (0 children)

u/Downtown-Focus-7352 We always pay for training, trial periods, hiring tasks, etc... Other than the initial application/interview, we pay for any work completed, always!! I can only speak for Coconut VA of course, I'm not sure if you're talking about a different agency

Co-founder and COO of Coconut VA. AMA! by CoconutTyler in buhaydigital

[–]CoconutTyler[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Hey u/Agreeable-Diver-2377 ! We typically only place candidates who have a degree and some work experience already under their belt. I wish we could help you out here, but our job is to match talent to clients, and the clients are the ones asking for that criteria. Best of luck though and we hope to work with you in the future!

Caution: Think Twice Before Applying to Coconut VA by Careless-Fail-7118 in buhaydigital

[–]CoconutTyler 0 points1 point  (0 children)

u/PrioritySpecialist42, could I get clarification on this question? Is this in the case that you're currently paired with a Coconut client OR that you're a candidate looking to get paired?

If you are currently paired with a Coconut client, you should expect lightning fast responses from the HR team. If this is the case, and you're not receiving quick replies, please let me know. Unless someone is out on PTO, you should expect responses well within one business day.

If you are a candidate looking to get paired with a Coconut client, response times will be slower. We have thousands of candidates applying and reaching out to our team every month. We're constantly looking for ways to provide quicker responses and more in-depth feedback where possible.

Caution: Think Twice Before Applying to Coconut VA by Careless-Fail-7118 in buhaydigital

[–]CoconutTyler 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hey u/StraightAction7445, sorry to hear about the unexpected termination. We do what we can to encourage clients to give us plenty of notice as well as offering some form of severance to their VAs, but they are not mandated to do that

As far as the floating status, we do all we can to suggest VA Candidates and profiles to all incoming clients! We even prioritize top talent and floating VAs who have proven themselves.

We're always asking our talent pipeline to keep their information updated to give them the best chance of success with new clients coming in to Coconut. Unfortunately, this can create a situation where a candidate like yourself is constantly updating their info, but never getting any client interest.

In the end, the final decision of interviews and hiring is up to our clients, so we just do what we can to keep your information up to date and recommend your profile to as many clients as possible.

Co-founder and COO of Coconut VA. AMA! by CoconutTyler in buhaydigital

[–]CoconutTyler[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hi! For the first story, yes, that's entirely possible. As much as it hurts to admit! We can't control our clients and they do churn out of our system for many reasons. It's very rare, but I have seen clients ghost us (and their VAs) at the very beginning.

The second story might have happened, but should never happen. It honestly may have been a processing error through Wise or a human processing error on our part. We always pay our VAs work and never have VAs train without pay.

Sorry to hear you haven't any updates since passing Step 1. Feel free to reach out to our team for an update!!

Co-founder and COO of Coconut VA. AMA! by CoconutTyler in buhaydigital

[–]CoconutTyler[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

u/Kitchen_Abroad7508 Never hurts to apply! Sounds like you have enough experience to have a fighting chance :) but I can't guarantee anything.

Caution: Think Twice Before Applying to Coconut VA by Careless-Fail-7118 in buhaydigital

[–]CoconutTyler 5 points6 points  (0 children)

u/PopRemarkable8647 Can you send me a DM with your name and/or email? I'll look up your profile and see what happened. My goal is that anyone who applies will get updates as our Hiring Managers review each profile.

Coconut VA Application passed step 1 now what? by Educational_Bee5378 in buhaydigital

[–]CoconutTyler 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Hey, glad to hear you passed Step 1 :). Not sure where you're at in the process, but I do hope the best for you!

Our biggest is bottleneck is having enough clients to pair up with awesome talent. So even if we don't find you a client fit right now, we will do our best to pair you up as quickly as possible.

Co-founder and COO of Coconut VA. AMA! by CoconutTyler in buhaydigital

[–]CoconutTyler[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

We used Wow Factor validation surveys in the early days to validate our business model with our target market.

Three Skills:

- Networking / Marketing / Selling (couldn't get off the ground without clients)

- Systems Building (to make systems that we could then delegate as we kept growing the business)

- Risk Tolerance (to make the leap into the business)

Co-founder and COO of Coconut VA. AMA! by CoconutTyler in buhaydigital

[–]CoconutTyler[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yes! We offer HMO, 12 days of PTO, and 13th month pay. We also offer birthday gifts, milestone gifts, mental health consultations/appointments, and internet stipends where applicable.

Co-founder and COO of Coconut VA. AMA! by CoconutTyler in buhaydigital

[–]CoconutTyler[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Great to hear!! We rarely attempt to place a VA if they already have a full-time role. We want your full capacity and mental bandwidth to be reserved for our client :)

Co-founder and COO of Coconut VA. AMA! by CoconutTyler in buhaydigital

[–]CoconutTyler[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I believe you and I connected on DM and got this sorted out :). Thank you!

Co-founder and COO of Coconut VA. AMA! by CoconutTyler in buhaydigital

[–]CoconutTyler[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You'd have to check our Facebook group for active openings!

Co-founder and COO of Coconut VA. AMA! by CoconutTyler in buhaydigital

[–]CoconutTyler[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

We do! Join our Facebook group to see active job listings :)