The debate concerning virtual assistants and employees is now more crucial than ever for any entrepreneur or business owner. It’s challenging to decide between the two for a variety of reasons. Making the wrong approach might cost you a lot of money, time, and energy that you don’t have.
Long gone are the days when a profession meant working from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. with no adequate working balance. Now if anyone needed evidence of how profoundly technology has changed the way we live, the epidemic and the world’s extraordinary quickness in adjusting to a work-from-home paradigm are proof.
Hiring a virtual assistant is the safest alternative if you are pondering about starting a business or already operate one and want to cut expenses, boost revenue, and save time, don’t you think?
Well, say hello to the future’s work environment. Virtual assistants were once something out of the ordinary. They represented a hyper-efficient, glittering future because statistically, hiring a virtual assistant as compare to hiring a traditional employee can save you up to 78% on operating costs.
Another Stanford University study found that hiring VAs online could cut attrition rates in half. This focused on Ctrip, a Chinese travel agency with 500 workers. In the experiment, 250 employees worked from home while the other half worked in the office for nine months. In the end, 50% more people stayed in the remote working group.
We’ve detailed some key distinctions and considerations when deciding between a virtual assistant and an employee below.
Considerations to make before hiring a new staff
A fulltime employee is a significant investment: There are expenses for office space upkeep (infrastructure and equipment), payroll taxes, and so forth. You may also want to think about employee advantages like:
- Paid sick leaves.
- Holiday pay.
- Bonus based on performance.
- Benefits on the outskirts.
- Corporate discounts.
- Compensation for workers
- Healthcare.
- Life insurance.
- Parental sabbaticals
- Wellness initiatives
- Even more.
Expensive Training: With a traditional employee, you must shoulder the costs associated with onboarding and training. Furthermore, it does not serve when the training overlaps with work hours. As a result, you may wind up wasting money and time.
Adaptability: Each day, an employee has a particular duty and assignment to fulfil. You can rearrange work based on your priorities, but with a predetermined timetable, the employee may be unable to adapt last-minute modifications. Even if they do, the quality of their job may deteriorate.
Productivity: Time and productivity are significant considerations in the workforce. Employees spend a significant amount of time travelling from home to work, arriving late, taking lengthy lunch breaks, and conversing with co-workers at the workplace. This wastes important time. It has an impact on overall productivity.
Why hire a virtual assistant?
Cost-effective:
Virtual assistants can be discovered almost anywhere in the world because they work remotely. In contrast, a full-time employee will typically work at your office and deliver projects in person. Thus, the most intriguing benefits for hiring a virtual assistant as compared to a full-time employee is cost. Enlisting a virtual assistant is less cost-effective than hiring a full-time employee.
Overhead Space :
In addition to the advantages, you do not need to equip virtual assistants for work. You are not required to provide them with an office or actual working area. This is especially useful for work-from-home entrepreneurs who do not have typical office locations. Sure, you may have a designated work place at home, but just one extra person may quickly crowd the room.
Furthermore, you’d be letting someone into your house, which isn’t always the safest option. This is also beneficial for individuals who have smaller workplaces!
Even if you could locate a dedicated place, you’d still need to spend money on office items such as a computer, a desk, a swivel chair, a scanner, a printer, a phone, and so on. And the costs go up. Virtual assistants should not be a burden, but rather a solution. You may relieve yourself of this strain by eliminating these charges.
Hiring and onboarding expenses:
Businesses often resort to their human resource department or recruiting agency to find talent, which requires months. The applicant may be talented, but they might not have been particularly trained for the role you want. This is where recruiting a virtual assistant through an outsourcing partner can come in handy. You will not only conserve money on payroll, but your outsourced company, such as External provider Access, can also match you with the ideal Virtual Assistant and provide training resources and recruitment and selection services.
Any expertise you require can be hired online. All of it is feasible. A virtual assistant can construct a website for you, compose a blog for you, and plan and carry out a comprehensive digital advertising campaign. They can handle your bookkeeping, payroll, product design, and then even arrange your latte.
Virtual assistants are well-trained, skilled, and seasoned professionals: Numerous virtual assistants are specialists in many fields. They are able to perform more than input information, schedule meetings, and handle phone calls. In reality, over 60% of virtual assistants have a higher education. Several are well-equipped to perform fundamental company functions including email marketing, content development, project management, and social media campaigns, to mention a few.
Nevertheless, not all Virtual assistant will have the same characteristics, so identifying one with the qualities you want the most is the best approach to ensure you discover a fit for your organisation.
Over Half of all virtual assistants work a full-time job: One prevalent misperception concerning virtual assistants is that businesses would not be able to locate someone who will devote their time to the occupation. Although there are part-time or freelance VAs, 59% of these professionals consider this to be their full-time career. So, if you require someone to work 40 hours a week for your firm, it is possible.
It all ultimately boils down to your requirement of the company. Possessing a part-time VA does not necessarily imply that their focus will be fragmented. VAs are adept at managing time and projects. More significantly, you will evaluate their job based on the quality of the outcomes they produce rather than the amount of time they labour.
Improved Concentration on Essential Tasks: Most businesses and entrepreneurs devote a significant amount of time to administrative chores such as meeting preparation, calendar scheduling for meetings and appointments, and so on. This could occupy a significant amount of time and money especially when you have to engage an army of personnel to handle these duties for you, streams of critical business dollars will be pouring out before you know it. Virtual assistants would be the ideal human alternative for this task.
Workforce Utilization:
Firms grapple with the misperception that virtual assistants exclusively answer phone calls and respond to client enquiries and complaints via email. Customer service is now a broader notion that incorporates a wide range of tasks.
Hiring a virtual assistant enables businesses to free up an actual employee and use his or her potential for other business-related duties. Furthermore, virtual assistants may achieve perfection and deliver error-free services with greater availability of options.
Extra Assistance:
At a certain point, firms require additional assistance, particularly when they are unable to hire permanent or contract-based personnel. Whether the firm is little or large, it will almost surely profit from the assistance of virtual assistants for almost no added expenditure or cost. They give the type of on-demand, just-in-time resource that would be impossible to achieve with a real crew.
As a business owner, you may be cautious or scared of delegating part of your responsibilities to a virtual assistant. It is best to begin with a few minor regions at initially. Monitor, tweak, and learn as you go to get the most out of your virtual assistant. If you want to increase productivity and build your business, a virtual assistant is just what you need.
Everything is Changing, Virtually!!
Change may be difficult or unsettling at times. If you’re used to working face-to-face with an assistant, the transition to virtual will be jarring. It will take time, just like learning a new programme, but the benefits will become clear soon. Heading virtual provides the business owner with many of the previously mentioned benefits, such as affordability, scalability, and efficiency.
Thus, discovering the ideal virtual assistant is only a few steps away, any expertise you require can be hired online. All of it is feasible. A virtual assistant can construct a website for you, compose a blog for you, and plan and carry out a comprehensive digital advertising campaign. They can handle your bookkeeping, payroll, product design, and then even arrange your latte.