Over the last year, many companies have made the move to remote working and employees working from home has become the new normal. Some businesses have taken a different
route and outsourced certain tasks to a self-employed assistant.
The term virtual assistant has cropped up in online adverts and on social media, but do you know what a virtual assistant really is and what they can do for your firm?
What is a virtual assistant?
A virtual assistant is someone who works for clients from a remote location. They have numerous transferable skills and their sole purpose is to assist in the smooth operating of the business.
A virtual assistant is resourceful, highly skilled, knows how to communicate and possesses tech knowledge that will benefit the business. They have a wealth of office experience and can serve multiple clients and work on different projects. They have the ability to work with any business, in any location or time zone.
What tasks can a virtual assistant deal with?
Virtual assistants have many skills, but most will have a specific niche where they excel, so when it comes to outsourcing administration tasks you can take your pick.
Bookkeeping
A VA will chase outstanding invoices and unpaid bills. It is one of the easiest tasks to assign and all the employer has to do is share their bookkeeping system.
Online research
This task can be exploring new products, finding information on corporate websites, vetting new business contacts and employees, or even just reading a blog to see what is trending.
Database entry
All those business cards you were given at the last conference and which have been gathering dust can be given to the VA to input the new contacts into the database.
Data presentations
The VA will have experience in setting up presentations via PowerPoint or Word.
Manage email
If your inbox is inundated with emails and you dont know where to start then hiring a VA can save you precious time. They will filter your inbox for the most important emails and respond on your behalf. You are copied into the response before sending out to the recipient.
Social tasks
Tasks such as thank you notes or holiday cards can be time consuming for business executives to write. Hiring a VA to take over this will free up your time so you can focus on other tasks.
Travel research
A VA will find hotels,book airfares and map out your itinerary.
Scheduling
Managing your diary efficiently is a necessary part of running a business, but trying to fit everything in can be fiddly to achieve. VA's will manage the calendar, set up meetings, schedule appointments, and plan events.
Industry prep
Do you want to keep up to date on the business news and what's happening in the industry, but dont have time to fit it in to your schedule? Then hiring a VA could be the answer. This will help executives have timely news when dealing with clients.
Why should I hire them and not a full time employee?
There are lots of pros to taking on a VA instead of an employee.
If you are overwhelmed by work and paperwork is piling up on your desk, but your employees are inundated with other tasks or dont have the skill to deal with it, then hiring a VA will be productive as they will manage their time more effectively and concentrate on the given task.
Reduced overheads. The VA works remotely using their own equipment.
Low salaries. VA's charges per hour or per task so you only pay for work that is being done.
Low training. The assistant will only take on certain tasks which they excel at, so there will be no need to offer training.
24/7 customer service. Virtual assistants can be hired from around the globe so there is no having to deal with international timezones.
How to manage a virtual assistant
The thing to remember is to be detailed and specific in your requirement. Make sure they understand exactly what is expected from them. The more information they have at their disposal the smoother and quicker the job will be.
The internet offers many forms of communication which can be used to correspond with your assistant. Messaging tools such as Slack and Fleep are available to use for messaging and file sharing, as well as email. If you prefer face to face, then video calling programmes like Zoom and Skype are easy to install and use.
If you want to monitor their performance then there are programmes such as Time Doctor which can track their hours and time spent on each task. The programme can detect if the mouse has been inactive for 3 minutes. It can also monitor their web-usage for non-work related activity like social media.
If you answer YES to the following questions then it might be time to consider hiring a virtual assistant. You might be surprised at how much smoother your business will operate.
Are you overwhelmed with your workload?
Do you want to focus more on growing the business?
Do you want to cut labour/overhead costs?
Do you want to save office space, power and equipment?
Is it advantageous to do away with timely tasks such as payroll and dealing with employee holidays, benefits, taxes?
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