Finding an assistant who can back you up through all your daily admin tasks is a challenging process, especially if you are plagued with doubts and have zero idea where to start.
What qualities should you look for in an admin assistant? Do you really have to hire a full-time onsite employee? Can you afford it? Is there any other cost-effective solution for your staffing woes?
First of all, hiring a full-time in-house employee isn’t your only alternative. Have you heard of a working from-home admin staff?
For startups and small entrepreneurs, hiring a working-from-home admin assistant can be a total game changer. If you compare this one with that of an on-site employee, you’ll quickly realize why.
Cost-wise, there is really no competition. A virtual admin assistant is hands-down your best sidekick without breaking the bank. But besides the costs, there are other reasons why admin VAs are the perfect role players for your everyday menial chores.
A working-from-home admin staff is a remote administrative assistant who supports your business remotely by doing the little mundane tasks in your office.
There’s a wide range of services a working-from-home admin staff can offer your business, including.
These are the tasks that include managing your emails, setting appointments, preparing reports and answering your phone calls.
The devil is in the details when it comes to project management. From managing budgets and monitoring progress to creating timelines, you get what we mean.
Thankfully, a working-from-home admin assistant loves going over the details. They get to the smallest level of detail and make sure everything is in its place.
If you need someone to deal with customer concerns and engage with your target audience in all your social media accounts, a working-from-home admin assistant can handle that as well.
They will make sure your customers are cared for with the highest level of user experience.
As a businessperson, of course, you often travel and meet with different clients from all over the place.
To make sure that you can travel hassle-free, a remote admin support can book your flights and hotel accommodations and plan your itinerary, so you get to your destination safe and sound.
While it’s a dream come true that your company is expanding and your schedule is filled to the brim, it’s taking a toll on you.
Eureka! You’ve figured out a way to get around the growing demands by hiring a virtual assistant. The problem is that you don’t know what to look for in your VA hire.
If that’s what’s bugging you, here are the following qualities and skills that will ensure an effective collaboration.
First on the list is definitely the most important one: communication skills, both written and verbal.
Communication skills are essential for building relationships and getting work done. Excellent communication allows you to communicate with your team and customers cohesively and get better results.
Misunderstanding leads to work disasters, you know.
Of course, your working-from-home admin assistant has to be organized. Since there are plenty of daily office chores, they should be able to handle them simultaneously and find things where they should be without getting lost in the haze.
Your admin staff is going to work on presentations and reports, correct? This means they should know how to use computer software such as Microsoft Word or Excel.
Besides, remote work heavily relies on technology to complete almost all the tasks in the book, so it only makes sense that you work with VAs who know their way around computers.
Managing people from across the continent is really hard. To at least bridge that continental gap, it would be really helpful to work with an admin staff who shows initiative.
Such quality will ensure that they can take action and keep up with the increasing workload, even when you’re not there.
Now, a good problem-solving ability is a very complex skill to find in a virtual assistant.
People with such skills are people who can think outside the box and come up with fresh ideas. They are the ones who can help clients save time and money through critical thinking.
Many business owners will surely agree when we say that working-from-home admin assistants are a godsend.
Unlike a full-time administrative assistant, these remote workers won’t bleed your budget dry. In fact, they will leave you with plenty of resources for other important business ventures.
What’s even better is that they offer other advantages outside of being cost-effective.
If you think about it, the roles of an in-house admin staff are practically the same as your working-from-home admin assistant. They take care of the general tasks of managing emails, answering phone calls and whatnot.
The only difference is that one works from a remote location while the other goes to a physical office where you can physically see them. Before you start yapping about how important real-time face-to-face interaction is, think about the money you can save forgoing office space, equipment and utility.
Spoiler alert: since you’re hiring a remote admin assistant from across the globe on a contractual basis, you’re not obligated to pay for compensation benefits as well.
Have you done your computations yet? That’s going to save you thousands of dollars per VA hire.
Whoever says that remote workers are prone to slack off during office hours is not getting their facts straight. On the contrary, they are actually more productive than their traditional counterparts.
According to the numbers, about 77% of the remote workers who took part in a recent survey reported greater productivity. Another survey even showed that around 66% of professionals believe that their productivity will greatly improve if they work offshore.
What’s even more surprising than these numbers is that 76% of those people also claim to have fewer distractions at home.
What seems to be missing in the traditional office?
Remote workers thrive with more freedom and flexibility. They can control their schedule and choose to work at the peak of their productivity level. More than that, they can create a working environment custom-fitted to their needs.
The most incredible element of hiring a working-from-home admin assistant is that you get to take your pick among the best talents in the world for a cheap price. This allows you to increase the possibility of finding the right person for that open position.
There are trusted virtual assistant agencies like VAV Remote that provide you with the right virtual assistant that fits your needs and who can make all the difference in your day-to-day business activities.
If you’re working for the first time with a working-from-home admin assistant, here are a few tips on how to make the most of your VA collaboration.
From the get-go, make sure that your remote admin assistant understands their role and responsibilities and knows what to expect from them.
Feedback is not a criticism. It offers professional growth and allows you the opportunity to encourage the performance that you want to see.
Provide regular feedback to your remote worker and let them focus on areas of their work where they can improve.
Pretty sure your virtual assistant has a lot of questions regarding their role, make sure that you are available to answer all of them.
To build structure and organization for all your projects, we suggest using project management tools like Trello or Google Workspace. These tools can help you monitor progress and ensure deadlines are met.
See, there are many reasons to hire a working-from-home admin assistant. From saving costs to better productivity, they’ll be sure to make the most of your remote collaboration.
Hiring a remote worker is a big step up in growing your business. If you are convinced by this and are excited to step towards effective resource allocation, book a call today and hire your very first virtual assistant.