Should you work with a virtual assistant or hire an employee?

Do you have a business that is starting to grow? Are you feeling overwhelmed by all the work that is required to maintain the momentum of the growth? Even if you are a seasoned entrepreneur, and you have been in business for a while, hiring people can either break or make your business. The right person can help your business grow and thrive. On the other hand, the wrong person will leave you frustrated and you will incur losses in addition to having wasted your time. In this article, we are going to break down the differences between hiring an employee and a virtual assistant for your business so that you know which option is the best for you.

Now that we have defined and differentiated a virtual assistant from an employee, let us look at the advantages and disadvantages of each.

So what are the real differences between a virtual assistant and an employee when it comes to cost? For many businesses and startups that are just getting on their feet, cost is usually a significant deciding factor. If the business owner decides to have an employee, they must 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 for you.

From the initial costs mentioned above to the costs incurred while advertising for the open position to the costs of hiring a recruiter, the expenses of the interview and the post-interview expenses (pre-employment tests, checking references, etc.), signing bonuses, if offered; and onboarding and training costs. The cost of getting the right employee is already high to start with. On the other hand, hiring a virtual assistant is very budget-friendly. All that is required is to create a job description and share it on relevant platforms such as Upwork, Facebook groups, or contact organizations like Runnovate 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.

Additionally, an employee comes with a lot of additional expenses in addition to the salary. These include: holiday pay, life insurance, overtime pay, paid sick leaves, paid vacation leaves, healthcare (Medical and Dental), taxes, and payroll costs. A virtual assistant only requires to be paid for the work done and nothing more. This makes the cost of working with a virtual assistant to be significantly lower as compared to an employee.

The client only pays the virtual assistant for the hours spent working, the monthly rate they had agreed on, or the specific tasks allocated, and nothing else. On the other hand, you must pay your employee the full amount even on days with no or very few tasks to be done. This is regardless of whether your business is making money or not!

Virtual assistants use a lot of time chatting with other employees at the office or driving to and from work. They create time blocks to focus on the tasks that were allocated to them. This ensures that they are very productive and get more things done at a rate that is faster and more efficient than most employees. On the other hand, a lot of time is spent by employees commuting from home to work, coming in late, extended lunch breaks, and chatting with other coworkers at the office. This takes away valuable time that could have helped move the needle in the business and affects the overall productivity of the business.

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

For a virtual assistant to remain competitive and have an edge over the rest, they have to level-up on their knowledge and skills on their own. This ensures that they are ready for any task that will be allocated to them. Also, a client can decide to work with a specialized virtual assistant who has the specific skill that the client is looking for. However, for an employee, the employer will have to shoulder the cost of the training to adequately equip the employee with the relevant new skills and knowledge that they had not previously been trained in. This also means that the productivity of the employee will reduce during the training period and a lot of time will be spent upskilling the employee.

When you are running a business or a startup, you will need different kinds of help depending on the stage of your business. This means that you will need to work with people with different kinds of skills at different stages of your business. Most virtual assistants are multiskilled. This is especially true if you are looking for general virtual assistants who are able to do different things. You can have one virtual assistant who is proficient in content writing, SEO, technical support, logistics planning, and social media marketing and graphic design. This means that the VA will be able to handle all of these tasks satisfactorily and professionally. You can also work with a specialized virtual assistant who focuses on a specific skill and is very good at that skill. The fact that a virtual assistant can be hired from anywhere in the world and is therefore not limited to their geographical location also means that people looking for virtual assistants have a lot of options and higher chances of finding the perfect fit for their needs.

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

As mentioned above, virtual assistants come with less costs than employees. This makes them the best choice for project-based, part-time, and short-term tasks. This means that the virtual assistant can be hired only on an as-needed basis, such as during the peak season or when a project is just about to begin. This compared to an employee who will still have to be paid during the off-peak seasons or when a project is completed shows that working with a virtual assistant is more ideal in this context.

Most virtual assistants have flexible working hours depending on their schedule. This means that a virtual assistant may be able to accommodate last-minute changes if they are available at that time. A client and a virtual assistant can also work on a schedule that works well for both of them. An in-house employee, on the other hand, normally expects to complete a fixed set of tasks daily during the agreed-upon hours only. This is especially true if the business operations rely on an established schedule. This can be limiting if there are things that come up last-minute or scheduling changes that come up due to unforeseen circumstances.

A virtual assistant works remotely and therefore can be located anywhere in the world while most of the time, an employee must report to the office and handle the tasks in person. For the employer, having an in-house employee can be a good thing since this means that supervision is made easier. The employer can be able to know the exact number of hours the employee is working and the productivity levels, and subsequently be able to decide the areas that need improvement. For a virtual assistant, tracking the exact number of hours that the virtual assistant has been working and the actual work can either be accurate or unreliable, depending on the platform where the virtual assistant is hired. It is a loophole that allows for deceitful behaviors and practices especially if the virtual assistant is on a flexible but hourly work schedule. Runnovate combats this by having value-based packages where clients pay for the value that they get and not the hours spent on the task. Therefore, clients are assured that they do not need to worry about paying for virtual assistants who are not productive.

Having an in-house employee guarantees effective communication. All the mistakes and misunderstandings are promptly and adequately addressed. Customer-related problems and technical problems are also effectively fixed and there is minimal loss in productivity. Since a virtual assistant works remotely, there may be hitches in regular communication. If the virtual assistant does not have fixed working hours, immediate availability is not guaranteed. Technical difficulties experienced by the virtual assistant will be out of the control of the employer and this will adversely affect productivity. The virtual assistant though can take up several measures to ensure smooth workflow. This includes having backup batteries for the laptops in case there are power blackouts. Alternative internet providers in case the primary one is facing technical hitches. This is just but to mention a few.

It is true, many employers are still afraid of leaving the traditional way of hiring an employee. This may be because they have assumed that since they will not meet and supervise the virtual assistants, then working with a virtual assistant can be unreliable and unaccountable. This is just a stereotype, the times are changing! Online presence and virtual interconnectivity is fundamental to the success of the business and good customer engagement. E-commerce and remote working is the new normal. Especially now that there is social distancing because of the pandemic and a lot of people are staying at home. This requires a lot of the business functions to migrate 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 now getting.

Most of the time, employees are committed to the company because they are considered as part of the main company. They also receive benefits and other perks that come with being an employee. This creates loyalty and commitment to the company. On the other hand, virtual assistants are usually hired for temporary positions and so they may not necessarily invest more than they are paid to do. Also, virtual assistants often work with multiple clients at once. This means that the level of commitment of a virtual assistant to a specific client might not be as deep as that of an employee.

Since human beings are wired to be social, physically meeting with one’s employees ensures that they form real deep bonds. These bonds in turn bring about commitment and loyalty leading to an employer-employee relationship that is mutually beneficial It is also easier to judge a potential employee’s work ethics and capabilities by meeting them physically. The physical presence of an employee at work makes it easier for the employer to track productivity regularly and consequently the ability to identify and rectify any issues that may arise.

In conclusion, one of the greatest factors in achieving success in any business is knowing the right people to hire depending on what the business needs. Most importantly, a client should hire someone who likes the work that they are doing and will be able to complete the tasks allocated to them. As every business grows, the business owner will require help to be able to manage all the tasks that are required to run the business. In this article, we have covered the pros and cons of working with virtual assistants and employees. With this information, you can decide whether to hire a virtual assistant, an intern, or an employee based on your business needs.

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