What Does a Virtual Assistant Do? Tips for Hiring Remote Workers

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As more businesses are looking to keep costs down, many are increasingly turning to independent contractors. This can include people who work remotely from another state or even another country. 

One position growing in popularity is that of virtual assistant. But what exactly does a virtual assistant do, and should you consider hiring one?

What Is a Virtual Assistant?

A virtual assistant is a worker who offers administrative services to clients and companies from a remote location, usually while working from home. 

Traditionally, these were individuals who were considered self-employed and performed specialized tasks. In recent years, though, virtual assistant companies have cropped up, offering a range of services you can choose from. 

What Are the Duties of a Virtual Assistant? 

The job description of a virtual assistant depends on the needs of the company or client. However, the typical tasks that a virtual assistant might perform include: 

  • making phone calls
  • scheduling appointments
  • arranging travel details
  • maintaining email accounts
  • performing bookkeeping and clerical tasks 
  • entering data and organizing online files 
  • providing customer support 

More specialized tasks include: 

Reasons for Hiring a Virtual Assistant

But how do you know if a virtual assistant will be a good addition to your company? Consider the following factors: 

1. Reduced costs

One of the biggest advantages of hiring a virtual assistant is the reduced costs. This includes the following ways that you can pay less: 

  • You pay only for actual work done: Compared with hiring a full-time employee for tasks that may not use up all their time, you can pay a virtual assistant on an hourly or project basis.
  • You cut back on office-related overhead expenses: Because virtual assistants work remotely, you don’t need to pay for office space or equipment. In most cases, they also pay for their own internet connection. 
  • You save on training costs: Because a virtual assistant already has training on how to do most of the routine tasks, you can actually put them to work right away. The exception is when you have specific ways of doing things.

2. Increased efficiency

When you outsource routine, non-core tasks, your in-house employees can focus on the more important things.

This translates into greater efficiency and a greater return on your investment. Plus, if your virtual assistant is already skilled and self-motivated, you won’t have to waste time managing or supervising these non-core activities. 

Also, as the business owner, it frees up your time for more important activities, such as strategic planning, or even time for personal commitments.

3. Quick expansion

If you want to expand your business quickly, you can hire virtual assistants on a by-project basis. This means you can have people working on the tasks that need to be done without pushing you to recruit full-time staff too quickly. 

Since virtual assistants are independent contractors, you will not feel the pressure of having to deal with a person who may end up not meeting your expectations. When things start to settle down, you can take your time sorting through and selecting potential full-time employees that you believe can grow with you in the long-term. 

4. Customer support 24/7

Virtual Assistant 24/7 Customer Support Image
Photo by Maria Stewart on Unsplash

Most businesses offer products and services globally. But if your staff is mainly in-house and only in one timezone, it will not be possible to answer all customer queries outside of office hours. However, we all know how frustrating it can be to be a customer with an urgent question, but have to wait for office hours in a different timezone! 

You can get around this by hiring virtual assistants across the globe. That way, when someone from Australia has inquiries, a virtual assistant in the Philippines may quickly respond to them instead of waiting for one in New York to get out of bed. 

Where Can You Find Virtual Assistants?

Many job sites can help you find your next virtual assistant. Some of these sites include:

  • OnlineJobs – This website lets you create your own job post, or you can also search resumes of potential employees.
  • VirtualStaff – This website lets you hire workers around the world, and you can pay through several payment methods, including direct bank transfer, Xoom, PayPal, and Western Union.
  • UpWork– Upwork is a great place to look if you want to hire a virtual assistant on a freelance basis. Remember though that they charge a 2.75% processing fee for every payment transaction.

Tips for Communicating with Virtual Assistants

Whether it’s your first time hiring VAs or you’ve already had them in your business for some time, take a look at the following tips to help you improve your communication with your VAs:

  1. Keep a clear track record of tasks by using project management software, such as Asana.
  2. List exact details of the tasks they need to do on the project management tool of your choice.
  3. For booking transactions, make sure you give exact dates, times, or an exact order of choices.
  4. For research tasks, show them exactly what you need. If you are using an Excel sheet, fill out the first row.
  5. Keep in regular contact, via e-mail, Whatsapp, Slack, or video call, especially right after you assign a new task. This way you can see if they are doing their work correctly and quickly steer them back on track if needed.
  6. Consider writing directions in bullet points that detail specific steps.
  7. Consider using video to demonstrate what you need them to do.
  8. Encourage your VAs to ask questions. It’s better to answer questions constantly than have to redo a whole lot of work.
  9. Schedule a regular call with your VA to review their output and overall performance. This might call for a monthly one-on-one to help you troubleshoot areas of concern with specific VAs on an individual basis.
  10. Do express appreciation for a job well done, while also providing constructive feedback.

The Role of Virtual Assistants

In this increasingly connected global landscape, virtual assistants are becoming some of the most important people in a company. If you are a business owner, you can delegate the routine non-core tasks and buy back your weekend or time better spent elsewhere. 

And the good thing is that with all the project management tools available, it’s also easy to keep track of work that’s being done, no matter where on the globe your workers are! 

Did you find this post helpful? Let us know in the comments below!

 

If you enjoyed this post, then you might also like:

The post What Does a Virtual Assistant Do? Tips for Hiring Remote Workers appeared first on TCK Publishing.

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