Virtual Personal Assistant: 6 Key Benefits Over An In-Office Assistant

Anyone who has experienced growth in their business will know that it comes with increased demands. And these demands soon start eating into your valuable time. Support is necessary, but what’s the best way to achieve this? The traditional method is to employ staff members who are available in-person throughout the day. But is this the only way to help support your workload?

The availability of in-person staff may be fantastic, but they come with a lot of overheads such as equipment, taxes, healthcare and a physical space within the business. In a competitive landscape this can soon begin to affect how well you can perform. The key to outperforming your competition, therefore, is to find an alternative to traditional employment methods. And there’s a very simple solution: employ a virtual personal assistant.

What is a Virtual Personal Assistant?

We all know what a personal assistant is. They’re employed to work exclusively for one person and take care of any necessary business or admin tasks as and when required. And they are usually located within an office at a desk. A virtual personal assistant takes this traditional model and gives it a 21^st century twist. The main difference is the integration of remote working. Taking advantage of technology, remote working is a modern phenomenon and it’s here to stay.

Thanks to the development of communication technology, almost any admin task can now be completed from a remote location. There’s no need to step foot in the same office as your manager. Instead, everyday tasks can be achieved through emails, video conferencing and cloud storage. It’s made the world a smaller place and given employees and organizations greater flexibility. And with greater flexibility comes enhanced productivity. It’s what every business strives to achieve, but what are the core benefits of a virtual personal assistant?

The 6 Key Benefits of a Virtual Personal Assistant

It should now be clear what a virtual personal assistant is. If you want an audio file transcribing then they will transcribe it. If you need an article proofreading they will proofread it. And they will achieve this from anywhere in the world that has an internet connection. However, there’s much more to remote workers than just being an easy fix. Here are six of the main benefits they can offer your organization:

Remote Management

The beauty of a virtual personal assistant is that they work remotely. This means that there’s no need to find a physical space to accommodate them. Office real estate, after all, is a limited resource. If you don’t have to give space over to a particular asset then you shouldn’t. Freeing up this space allows you more room for the essentials such as copying machines and conference areas. And, as these personal assistants are digital contractors, the need to manage them is reduced. Sickness pay, holidays and 401(k) contributions aren’t necessary and these savings can make a huge difference to your budgets.

Delegation

Once a business begins to grow then so does the workload; this needs to be managed correctly. Piling extra work onto your employees will only increase the strain on their productivity. That’s why you need to provide room for delegation. And the perfect solution for this is a virtual personal assistant. The range of skills available across a broad range of assistants is remarkable, so there’s no reason why you should struggle to find a PowerPoint virtuoso or a transcription expert. With these professionals in place your employees can then concentrate on what they’re best at.

Choose The Hours

A virtual personal assistant will only work the hours they need to. And these hours are directly governed by you. This delivers fantastic savings for your organization as it reduces wasted labor. Your business may, for example, need additional help during seasonal periods for particular tasks. Rather than employing a full time employee on a 9 – 5 wage, it makes much more business sense to subcontract these duties out on an hourly basis. Maybe you’ll need an assistant for three hours, maybe you’ll need them for five. Either way, your organization is reducing cost leakage through unnecessary expenses.

Keep Your Business Manned Overnight

There’s no need for your virtual personal assistant to be located in the same timezone as your business. As long as they can deliver on the workload provided it doesn’t matter. In fact, this time difference can pay dividends for your productivity. Say, for example, you have a list of tasks that need to be completed by the following day, but the work day is already at an end. Rather than paying overtime, and keeping your staff tied to the office, you could forward these tasks to an assistant who is just waking up. This allows you to benefit from 24 hour productivity and keeps you on top of your workload.

Improve Organization

Managing the day-to-day affairs of a business, no matter which rung of the ladder you’re on, is a tough ask. Just take a look at your meeting schedule; it’s most likely packed full of names and locations. Tracking that one aspect of your work life is difficult enough. And this can have a serious impact on your organizational skills. A virtual personal assistant can prevent this from escalating. Taking control of your daily activities they can plan your entire day and ensure that you remain organized. All you need to worry about is delivering the goods when you get there.

Allows You to Scale Up Slowly

Growth in business is fantastic, but it’s very easy to misread the signals. Many businesses make the mistake of rushing to employ new staff members at the mere mention of a new sales contract. However, while you most certainly need to prepare, you should never rush into taking on new employees on a permanent contract. The business landscape is a precarious one at the best of times, so you need to scale up slowly. And the flexibility of a virtual personal assistant grants you this opportunity. It may even turn out that the way forward for your new workload is the preserve of virtual assistants alone.

Final Thoughts

Around 3.9 million U.S. employees work remotely and this underlines how work practices are changing. Gone are the days when each and every employee had to punch in at the clock in the morning. Thanks to the internet opening up communication challenges there are now endless possibilities for getting your daily business tasks completed. And these remote workers don’t have to be based within the confines of the U.S. Looking further afield for the right candidate is now an option. The choice on offer almost guarantees that you will be able to find a virtual personal assistant who is the right fit for your company and its workload.

It’s crucial, of course, that you understand exactly what you’re looking for. Whatever the need for additional labor, make sure you draw up a plan of how much labor you require and the costs involved in securing this. If the figures indicate that traditional in-house staff members are too costly then you know what to do: turn to a virtual personal assistant. And the benefits aren’t just restricted to your budget. Enhanced productivity, reduced stress and a more professional outlook allow you to deliver a world class service to your customers. Find your perfect Business Virtual Assistant™️ at Pineapple Staffing.