Assessing the advantages and disadvantages of hiring a virtual assistant vs employee for your business can prove tricky.
Both roles require the person to carry out the same duties as office management, personal assistant duties, social media management, and other general administrative tasks.
However, there are many other factors to consider before you commit to making a decision, such as work flexibility regarding working hours and skill set and, of course, the overall cost of hiring.
Let me help you gain more knowledge of the pros and cons between a virtual assistant vs employee.
Advantages Of Hiring A Virtual Assistant
1. Huge Cost Savings
Saving money is always a must in any business, and hiring a virtual assistant can prove more cost-effective than employing a worker on an annual salary.
Paying an hourly rate to a hired virtual assistant helps you save on costs compared to paying an in-house assistant a fixed monthly rate.
Hiring a virtual assistant means you don’t have the added expense of paying pension contributions or employee-related taxes, and you don’t have to worry about paying for extra equipment and office space.
Additionally, you don’t have to concern yourself with paying overtime pay over regular working hours to remote workers. Also, remote workers are not entitled to sick or holiday payments.
2. More Flexibility In Work Hours
Hiring a virtual assistant freelancer proves a massive advantage regarding the flexibility you gain concerning the hours they work.
Flexibility is always good in business. Being able to hire virtual assistants part-time, for extended short-term periods, or for a longer fixed timescale for the duration of a project is such an advantage.
Peak times are a prime example of when you need to hire a virtual assistant to help you with the additional workload during your busiest times. Remote workers can also be hired as a cover for sickness or when regular staff are on annual holidays.
Alternatively, your business should hire a full-time virtual assistant to free you up from many admin tasks.
3. Hire For Skill Sets
All businesses need workers with diverse skill sets but can’t always afford to employ staff with all the proper requirements. Hiring an excellent virtual assistant on a part-time basis solves this problem.
Standard virtual assistants conduct administrative duties like bookkeeping, scheduling client meetings, and data entry, but multi-skilled virtual assistants can offer much more.
Many companies find it cost-effective to hire a highly-skilled virtual assistant to manage social media marketing, blog content writing, video and photo editing, promotional work, and offer technical support.
4. Contract Flexibility
As a business owner, you need to calculate how much you need to spend annually on each project. Hiring a virtual assistant allows you to pay an hourly rate, including toilet breaks, lunch breaks, and coffee/tea breaks.
Having a more flexible schedule is always an advantage, and hiring a virtual assistant over a fully salaried staff member helps you achieve the flexibility your company needs.
Why pay for so-called dead hours when you don’t need to? Using virtual assistant services allows you to pay solely for hours worked.
Also, the virtual assistant you hire could work outside your regular office hours, which will prove an advantage.
Disadvantages Of Hiring A Virtual Assistant
Here are some downsides to be aware of.
1. Remote Location
When you hire a virtual assistant from a different time zone, you can expect to encounter some disadvantages.
For example, it can be a disadvantage if you need a task done within a short timescale when your VA is offline.
In this situation, you will have to assign the task to an in-house staff member, limiting the number of duties your virtual assistant can perform at certain times.
Technical problems can always arise, such as a slow internet connection. Still, if the problem is related to your network server, which can only be solved in-house, that causes a significant issue.
Wasting time waiting for your virtual assistance worker to identify and fix their internet problem locally could harm your production rates.
2. Language Barriers
Language and cultural barriers can prove problematic because most virtual assistants are based in countries like India, Malaysia, and The Philippines.
Despite your virtual assistant speaking excellent English, translation can still be lost from time to time. For example, you can unintentionally offend by written communication because the tone of the exchange is written.
Businesses operating from Australia and America are well-versed in communicating more forthrightly. In contrast, it is culturally known that people from The Philippines speak more respectfully.
Also, there may be occasions where a freelance virtual assistant can’t work during specific periods or days due to practising their religious beliefs.
3. Keeping Track Of Work
You will incur additional costs by paying for online time-tracking software to help you keep track of the work your remote assistants perform.
Without paying for time-tracking software, keeping an eye on even the most basic administrative tasks your virtual assistant performs is very tricky. Even with a flexible schedule, deadlines still need to be met.
Judging your virtual assistant’s work ethic and general personality can be more challenging when you haven’t met them in person. Tracking their hours of work is vital with the use of software like Time Doctor.
Without such software, you are leaving yourself open to your virtual assistant falling behind on vital tasks, which could cause your business problems.
Advantages Of Hiring An Employee
These are the main benefits of hiring employees.
1. Easier Communication
When you hire a full-time employee based in your office, it is far easier to communicate directly with them when needed.
Many business owners still prefer to have all their staff under the same roof as it allows them to build a better working relationship with all their team while allowing them to have face-face conversations when clarity is needed.
For example, a new staff member, be it a full-time employee or part-time employee, will need hands-on training from other permanent staff members.
Working directly with a co-worker daily can help build a healthy working relationship, which is vital when working on significant projects.
There is far less chance of a communication breakdown when you work in the same office as someone because you can ask for clarification far easier.
2. Employee Loyalty
Achieving loyalty from your staff is critical, so employing a new staff member can be a nervous time for all concerned.
Even when you find the perfect match for your company, you still have to build trust and loyalty with the person to ensure you forge a strong working relationship.
The way to build loyalty is to offer new employees loyalty bonuses to keep them committed to your company.
Standard employee benefits like sick and holiday pay and a company pension scheme are just the start.
Treating your employees properly should come naturally, but when you encourage them to improve themselves, they will remain loyal, which is good for your business.
3. Team Integration
Working side-by-side daily helps to gain trust and respect, which helps to build excellent team interaction.
Every team has strengths and weaknesses, but it is only by working alongside someone that you can properly assess the best way to use each worker based on their strengths.
As a business owner knowing which tasks suit the right employee will help your company work well as a team to increase output and profits.
When everyone is happy and enthusiastic about their role, it is far easier to ask them to go the extra mile when needed.
Disadvantages Of Hiring An Employee
Here are some important downsides to consider.
1. Large Overhead Costs
High overhead costs are the main disadvantage of hiring a full-time salaried employee.
There are many additional costs to think of, such as sick pay, pension scheme contributions, maternity and paternity leave, holiday pay, training costs, healthcare insurance, and bonus incentives.
All these costs alone can drive your overhead costs higher, and that’s before you calculate the additional costs you incur due to office space and equipment, which you save when you hire a virtual assistant.
2. Difficult To Replace Poor Performers
It can be difficult to replace workers who perform poorly. Employment laws are in place to safeguard workers, but this can prove problematic and time-consuming when someone is not the right fit for your company.
Even when you go through all the processes before firing them, you have to replace them, which can take a long time.
Your business will suffer during this period as you find a suitable replacement which you have to train to the required standard.
You will incur added training costs for the new hire, which you will not have factored into your initial training budget.
3. Rigid Work Hours And Contracts
When you employ a worker on a full-time salaried contract, the hours are fixed, and the contract is hard to break.
Entering into a contract with a full-time worker is not to be taken lightly, as you are making a long-term commitment to that person, which is an expensive investment.
You must enforce a three-month probation period when you employ a permanent team member as an in-house assistant. Doing so safeguards you from honouring the contract if the person isn’t suitable during that period.
After the first three months, it is much harder to terminate their contract.
Let Us Help You Find A VA
Both virtual assistants and employees come with pros and cons, and you must commit to which option is best suited for your company.
Hiring virtual assistants can be daunting for any business, so consider working with a highly respected virtual assistance agency to achieve greater business success.
To get on board with the perfect virtual assistant, give us a call today to see how we can take care of the sourcing, hiring, training, and management of your new worker.