Why a structured first week matters: In our 237-placement dataset, teams that completed at least
9 of the 12 day-1 setup items in this checklist had ~40% lower 90-day churn than teams that
"figured it out as they went." The difference isn't talent — it's whether the VA could actually do work in week 1.
Before Day 1: the prep block (do this 3–5 days before they start)
The biggest mistake teams make is doing setup on day 1 with the VA watching them fumble around. Do the prep
block before they show up so day 1 is about welcoming them, not provisioning email accounts.
- Provision an email account on your domain (e.g.,
maria@yourteam.com) — not a Gmail.
- Add them to your password manager and pre-stage all credentials they'll need.
- Send a calendar invite for the day-1 welcome call (30 min, video on).
- Pick their first 90-day mentor on your team (the person they Slack with their dumb questions).
- Write a 1-page role doc: their job title, what success looks like at 30/60/90 days, who they report to, and what they're explicitly NOT responsible for.
DAY 1 · MONDAY
Welcome, tools, and the role doc
Your time: ~90 minutes (split: 30-min welcome call + 60 min throughout the day responding to setup questions)
- 30-min welcome video call. Camera on. Introduce them to the team in Slack/Teams.
- Walk through the 1-page role doc together. Ask: "What's unclear?"
- Send credentials for: email, CRM (Follow Up Boss / kvCORE / Sierra / etc.), MLS, transaction management (Dotloop / SkySlope), Google Drive, Slack, Loom.
- Have them confirm each login works before end of day.
- Assign one tiny win for day 1: usually "introduce yourself in #general and set up your Slack profile picture."
Pitfall: Don't dump 8 hours of recorded SOP videos on day 1. They'll glaze over. Save those for day 2 and beyond.
DAY 2 · TUESDAY
SOP walkthrough — you record, they watch
Your time: ~60 minutes (recording Looms) · their time: ~3-4 hours of structured watching
- Record (or share existing) Loom walkthroughs of their 3 most common tasks. Keep each Loom under 8 minutes.
- Have them watch the Looms and write a 1-paragraph summary of each in their own words. (This catches comprehension gaps fast.)
- 30-min mid-day Slack huddle to answer questions on what they watched.
- Show them where the team's existing SOP / playbook lives (Notion, Google Drive, etc.).
- Have them shadow one live task end-to-end via screen share if possible.
Pitfall: If you don't have any SOPs, day 2 is the day to record them. Don't try to "explain it as you go" verbally — the VA will spend the next 8 weeks asking the same questions.
DAY 3 · WEDNESDAY
First real task, low-stakes
Your time: ~45 minutes (review their work + give feedback)
- Assign one real, low-stakes task end-to-end. Examples: clean up 50 contacts in the CRM, draft 3 listing description first-pass copies, build out a transaction file for a closed deal.
- Define "done" explicitly. "Done" should be a checklist they can self-verify before submitting.
- Give a deadline that's 1.5x what you think it'll take, so they don't feel rushed on day 3.
- Review the work the same day. Send written feedback — 1 thing they did well, 1 thing to adjust. No vague "looks good."
Pitfall: Don't assign client-facing or buyer-facing work in week 1. Even the strongest VA needs reps in your systems before they should be in front of your clients.
DAY 4 · THURSDAY
Goals, KPIs, and the rhythm
Your time: ~45 minutes
- Share the 30/60/90-day KPIs explicitly. ("By day 30, you'll be: independently processing X, drafting Y, and you'll be reviewed by me on Z.")
- Set up the recurring 1-on-1 (we recommend Mondays, 25 min).
- Set up the weekly Friday check-in script (use this 5-question script).
- Show them how to log time / tasks / output (whatever your team uses — Hubstaff, Time Doctor, Toggl, or just a daily standup post).
- Discuss communication norms: response time expectations, when to escalate vs decide solo, what "urgent" means on your team.
Pitfall: Don't surprise them with KPIs at day 30. Tell them on day 4 exactly what they're being measured on. Filipino professional culture rewards explicit expectations — ambiguity is anxiety-inducing, not freeing.
DAY 5 · FRIDAY
First weekly check-in + small celebration
Your time: ~30 minutes
- Run the first official Friday check-in using the 5-question script.
- Acknowledge specific things they did well this week. Be concrete: "The way you cleaned up the duplicate contacts — that saved me 2 hours next week" not "good job."
- Surface any blockers from week 1 and assign owners (usually you) to fix them by Monday.
- Confirm tools/access for week 2. Anything still pending after day 5 becomes a real problem.
- Tell them how to spend the weekend: "If you want to go deeper, here are 2 Looms to watch. Otherwise, take the weekend — week 2 is going to be heavier."
Pitfall: The biggest mistake here is skipping the check-in because "we already talked all week." Skipping it once teaches them it's optional, and it goes from a 100% predictable structure to "sometimes we do this." Don't break the streak.
DAYS 6–7 · WEEKEND
Your job, not theirs
Your time: ~30 minutes (Sunday)
- Sunday afternoon: review week 1. Write a 4-line note to yourself: what worked, what surprised you, what to fix in week 2, who else on your team needs to know what.
- If the VA reported any blocker that needs another team member's input, send those messages Sunday so the blocker is cleared by Monday morning.
- Look at your own calendar for week 2. Are you over-scheduled in a way that means you'll be unavailable to them when they need you? Adjust.
- Resist the urge to pile on more tasks for week 2. Most teams over-load week 2, the VA gets behind, and confidence dips. Aim for 70% utilization in week 2, not 100%.
Pitfall: Do NOT message the VA over the weekend with more setup or "one more thing" messages. Filipino work culture treats weekends seriously. Weekend pings train them that the role has no boundaries, which compounds into burnout by month 4.
What "good week 1" looks like
By end of day 7, you should be able to answer "yes" to all of these:
- The VA has working access to every tool they'll need for the first 30 days.
- They've completed at least one real task end-to-end and gotten substantive feedback.
- They know their 30/60/90-day KPIs and can repeat them back to you.
- The recurring 1-on-1 and Friday check-in are on the calendar, not just promised.
- They've been publicly welcomed by the team in your main channel.
- You know one thing they did well and one thing they need to improve in week 2.
If you can't say yes to 5 of those 6, week 1 isn't done — extend it before piling on more work.
The "they're not working out" decision point
A lot of teams panic in week 2 or 3 when the VA isn't yet self-sufficient. That's normal — week 1 is foundation,
week 2 is reps, week 3 is when you start seeing real output. The actual decision point for "is this person a fit"
is usually day 30, not day 7.
The week-1 signals that DO matter (and warrant a quick replacement conversation, not waiting until day 30):
- Repeated unresponsiveness during their stated working hours with no proactive heads-up.
- Defensive responses to feedback in week 1 (fine in week 4, concerning in week 1).
- Refusal to complete the day-3 task or visible disengagement.
- Discrepancies between what they reported and what's in the tools.
Everything else — speed of work, polish of output, depth of question-asking — is normal week-1 ramping
and improves dramatically by week 4.
Want this as a printable PDF + Notion template?
We'll send you the full checklist as a 2-page printable PDF you can hand to your team lead, plus a duplicatable Notion template version you can adapt for your specific role and stack.
No spam. We'll send the templates plus 1 follow-up with our onboarding tips for week 2.
Want us to handle the onboarding for you?
Every PHVA placement comes with a structured 30/60/90-day onboarding program led by us, not you. We've run this 237 times so you don't have to figure it out from scratch. Average time from contract sign to your VA's productive day 1: 11 days.
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