Why Virtual Assistants Are The Right Kind Of People
In any business the cost of manpower is dominant. Did you know that it could represent as much as 80% in some cases? Business owners are often faced with a quandary. They know that taking on human resources is a considerable challenge and that there are many added costs, yet they understand that skilled labour is essential if they are to expand as they want. Quite simply, they cannot achieve what they need to achieve without the “right kind of people” helping them.
Taking on new staff can be a lengthy and time-consuming process, often fraught with dangers and pitfalls. To start off with you have to look for the best staff and have to have a clear job description in mind. Do you have enough actual work to justify taking on a new member of a team for 40 hours or so per week on an ongoing basis? If not, is it possible to find somebody who has a range of skills so that you can allocate more than just a specific set of tasks to this person?
How many other costs are associated with taking on a new staff member? As business owners know only too well, it’s simply not “just” about the actual wage or salary itself. You have to take into consideration payroll taxation, contributions, the cost of holidays, sickness, etc. Then, you have to remember the costs associated with the employee’s workstation and overheads. Some experts calculate that these costs could far more than double the initial cost of the worker’s salary alone.
In today’s economy, each business is faced with tighter margins and needs to justify every penny of spending. Government advisers anticipate that the unemployment level will remain high for such an extended period, post-recession, mainly because business owners are just “gun shy” of taking anybody on. They have so much at stake and there is so much that can go wrong if the process of hiring is even in the least bit faulty.
Let’s imagine a situation where the person who you take on is not as competent as you might’ve thought. They simply don’t “work out.” Not only are you starting to lose money due to a lack of productivity, but you face additional headaches and heartaches associated with finding another replacement and indeed going through the process of redundancy.
Compare all these pitfalls to a much more straightforward and infinitely more palatable alternative. Turn to a virtual assistant. The VA is usually fully trained, skilled and competent, by definition. You will not have to worry about endless overheads and questionable productivity. The work will be completed, carefully and methodically and on time and your associated costs will be fully transparent.
Most of the Virtual Assistants are self-employed or running successful businesses already, so employment costs are not the issue here at all.
While the trading environment will undoubtedly improve, we can be sure that every business owner will be casting a very careful eye on expenditure as time moves forward. Labour costs can be consolidated and general efficiency improved by outsourcing to a virtual assistant.