The current global business environment often dictates that directors and managers travel for much of their working life and are often based from a home office. They may have an assistant who works from an office at the organisation's premises but whom they rarely see, communicating business requirements by e-mail and telephone. The assistant is employed by the organisation and, as an employee, is entitled to all the usual benefits including holiday/sickness pay and training all of which is expensive to an organisation.
Additionally, a small business may not have the premises or the funding to support an on-site office assistant but may require administrative support on a full time or part time basis.
A virtual assistant is the perfect solution to the administrative and PA needs of any organisation.
So what is a virtual assistant?
A virtual assistant (VA) is usually a competent and trustworthy personal assistant and office administrator with many years experience in senior PA and administrative roles who has chosen to become self employed for a variety of reasons. They possess all the usual office equipment and work for their clients via the internet and telephone systems to offer services including a full PA service, bookkeeping, transcription and data processing to name but a few.
How can a VA benefit an organisation?
VAs may work for many clients or purely for one client depending upon requirements. Using a VA means that a business/organisation is paying only for the hours worked and not for holidays, sickness and quiet times; they may be the full time assistant or the ideal "extra pair of hands" to assist on an "as required" basis. They also have the ability to work for clients worldwide, not just in the local vicinity, and are not limited to 9 - 5, working late evenings and early mornings to suit their clients' time zones. They will never be late for work due to traffic, weather and public transport issues. VAs are responsible for their own equipment and for ensuring that technology is kept up to date to allow them to perform their duties in a proper and timely fashion. Taking all the above into account it can be seen that a VA is a cost effective method for businesses and organisations to reap the benefit of experienced assistants who are on hand whenever their expertise is required.
