This blog post discusses the differences between working with an employee versus a virtual assistant to help you determine which option is right for your company. Includes pros and cons, pricing models, tools & resources, and more!

Have you got a business that starts to grow? Are you feeling so overwhelmed by all the work that is required to maintain the momentum of your business growth? Even if you are a seasoned entrepreneur for many years, and you have been in business for quite a while, hiring staff can either break or make your business. The right person can help grow your business and thrive. On the other hand, hiring the wrong person will leave you frustrated and you will incur losses in addition to wasting your time. In this article, we are going to outline the differences between hiring a local employee and a virtual assistant for your business/es so that you know which option is the best for you.

Hiring a Virtual Assistant in the Philippines Versus A Local Employee.

Let us start from the definition – what is a virtual assistant? A virtual assistant is an employee who works remotely and provides professional administrative, technical or creative assistance to clients virtually. These tasks may include managing and creating ads, website design and management, event management, graphic designs, social media marketing, managing your calendar, just to mention a few. 

Say you need someone to engage your followers on your social media pages by creating daily contents and posting it, increasing your following, and replying to comments. A virtual assistant who specializes in social media marketing might be what you need. You can read more about what virtual assistants do here. On the other hand, a local employee is an individual who works part-time or full time under a contract of employment, whether oral or written, expressed or implied, and has recognized rights and duties.

Advantages of working with a virtual assistant over working with an employee.

  1. It is more economical to work with a virtual assistant as compared to an employee. 

So what are the differences between a virtual assistants and a local employee when it comes to cost?  For many businesses and startups that are just getting on their feet, cost is usually a major deciding factor. If the business owner decides to have an employee, they must have the budget for the acquisition of office space and equipment in anticipation of the employee. This overhead is usually very high! A virtual assistant works remotely and already has the equipment needed to start working and be productive for you.

From the initial luxury costs mentioned above to the costs incurred while advertising for the open position to the costs of hiring a recruiter, the interview and the post-interview expenses (from pre-employment tests, checking references, background checking etc.), not to mention, signing bonuses, if offered; and onboarding and training expenses. 

The cost of getting the right employee is super high to start with. On the other hand, hiring a virtual assistant or hiring a remote worker is very budget-friendly. All that is required is to create a job description and share it to a contact organizations like VA FLIX that connect business owners with trained virtual assistants. Once you select the best candidate from the applicants, they will start working with no further costs. That’s it!

Additionally, an employee comes with a tons of additional expenses in addition to the salary. These include: holiday pays, insurances, overtime pays, paid sick leaves, paid vacation offs, healthcare (Medical and Dental), payroll costs and Taxes! A virtual assistant only requires to be paid hourly and nothing more. This makes the cost of working with a virtual assistant to be significantly lower as compared to an employee especially when you’re hiring a virtual assistant in the Philippines.  It’s way cost effective.

  1. Virtual Assistants are more Productive than local employees.

Virtual assistant uses a lot of time communicating with other employees at the office or driving to and from work. We create time blocks to focus on the tasks that are allocated to them. This ensures that your virtual assistant is being productive and get more things done at a rate that is faster and more efficient than most local employees. On the other hand, a lot of time is being spent by employees commuting from home to work, coming in late, lunch breaks extensions, and gossiping with other coworkers at the office. This takes away the valuable time that could have helped move the needle in the business and affects the overall productivity of your business.

Minimal supervision is required for a self-driven virtual assistant which in turn leads to the virtual assistant being super productive. Working from home requires that the virtual assistant has to manage their time carefully, making sure all the urgent tasks are carried satisfactorily according to the needs of the client and submitted on time. This allows you to have the luxury to focus on the other core tasks that are aimed at making sure that the business is growing.

  1. The Majority of the Virtual assistants have had the additional training required.

For virtual assistants to remain competitive and have an edge over the rest in the market, Virtual Assistants in the Philippines needs to level-up on their knowledge and skills on their own. This will ensure that they are ready for any task that will be delegated to them. Also, a client can decide to work with a specialized virtual assistant who has a specific skillset that their client is looking for.  

However, for a local employee, the employer will have to shoulder the cost of the training to equip the employee with the necessary new skills and knowledge that they had not previously been trained in for. This also means that locally employee’s productivity will reduce during the training period and a lot of time will be spent upskilling the employee.

  1. You can choose Virtual Assistants who have the skills that you are looking for. 

When you are running a business or a startup, keep in mind that you need different kinds of help depending what stage the business is in. This means that you will need to work with Virtual Assistants in the Philippines with different sorts of skills at different stages of your business. Most virtual assistants in the Philippines are multiskilled. Yes, this is absolutely true if you are looking for general virtual assistants or jack of all trades virtual assistants who are capable of doing different things. 

You can have a virtual assistant who is proficient in SEO, content writing, customer service, technical support, logistics planning, social media marketing , video or audio editing and graphic design. This means that the Virtual Assistant is able to handle all of these tasks professionally. You can also work with specialized virtual assistants focusing on a specific skill and is very good at it. The fact that a virtual assistant can be hired from Philippines or anywhere in the world and is therefore not limited to their geographical location. This also means that people looking for virtual assistants have a lot of options and higher chances of finding the perfect match with their needs.

Most local employees are proficient in specific areas and skills. However, it is not unusual for a local employee to be given tasks that they are not trained in being in the world of constantly changing nature of businesses. This is just the fact! This mostly happens when new tasks come up that weren’t part of the job description and an employer needs help with new tasks. Depending on the task and the employee’s skillset, this may not go well. On the other hand, a business owner can choose to work with virtual assistants in the Philippines with the skills that any new task requires. 

Advantages of working with a local employee over working with a Virtual Assistant in the Philippines. 

It is easier to supervise in-house employees. 

A virtual assistant works in a remote location and therefore virtual assistants can be anywhere around the globe, a local employee must always report to the office and handle tasks face to face. 

For the employer, having an in-house staff, this can be a good thing since this means that supervision is made easier. Employers are capable of knowing the exact number of hours the employee is working and the productivity levels daily. For virtual assistants, tracking the exact number of hours that the virtual assistant has been working and the actual work can be two things, 1. accurate or 2. unreliable, depending on the platform where the virtual assistant is hired.  It is a loophole that allows for unacceptable behaviors and practices especially if the virtual assistant is on a flexible but hourly work schedule. VA FLIX combats this by having value-based hourly packages where clients pay for the value that they get. Therefore, clients are ensured that they do not need to worry about paying for virtual assistants who are not productive.   

It is true, many employers are scared of leaving the traditional way of hiring a local employee. This might be because they all assumed they will not meet and supervise virtual assistants, working with a virtual assistant can be unreliable and unaccountable. This is just a stereotype, the times are really changing! Online presence and virtual interconnectivity is fundamental to the success of all businesses and good customer engagement. remote working and e-commerce is the new normal. Especially now that we’re in the social distancing world because of the pandemic and a lot of people are at home. This requires a lot of the business functions to transition from working in the office to working online. The number of employers who prefer and hire virtual assistants is steadily growing and will continue to grow from all the convenience that they are currently getting.

Conclusion.

In conclusion, one of the major factors in achieving success in any business is knowing the right people to hire depending on what the business owner needs.  Most importantly, a client should hire someone who likes the work they are doing and will be able to finish the tasks delegated to their paired Virtual Assistants. As businesses are growing, business owners will require help to be able to manage all the tasks that are required for them to do in running the business. In this article, we have outlined the pros and cons of working with virtual assistants and local employees.  With this information, you can now decide whether to hire a virtual assistant in the Philippines, an intern, or an employee based on your business needs.

Work with VA FLIX Virtual Assistants today.

Interested in working with virtual assistants in the Philippines?  Search no more. We have professional virtual assistants that will ensure that your business runs smoothly. VA FLIX virtual assistants offer services such as administrative, social media management, data entry, digital designs, customer support etc. Start working with a virtual assistant using the button below.

There’s no need to worry – VA FLIX will help you understand what you need  to know to find the right VA for your business.

VA FLIX is a Virtual Assistant Agency in the Philippines – you can find VA’s simply sending us an email.

You’ll get matched with one of the best virtual assistants for your project within 24 hours.

If you find a Virtual Assistant that suits your needs , you’ll be able to chat with them – and they will work for you remotely.

If you want a Virtual Assistant, but don’t need one at the moment – that’s ok too! You can browse our website whenever you like we’re ready to go 24/hrs a day.

VA FLIX is confident and proud that not only you’ll be working with the best Virtual Assistant in the Philippines but  also you’ll be working with the best virtual assistants in their respective fields.

And we guarantee that our Virtual Assistants are all qualified professionals – they have at least four years of experience (some even have decades!), good command of English language skills, and solid qualifications from basic data entry, customer service, administrative tasks and so much more.

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