A Quick Guide to Outsourcing and Hiring Virtual Staff

virtual staff outsourcing

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These days, it’s not uncommon to hear or find companies working with a virtual staff service provider or business process outsourcing. Businesses choose to delegate their processes to third-party services for many reasons, from cost-cutting to establishing more room for growth.

The best benefit of outsourcing is you get to maximize the skills of a virtual assistant for the job you hire them for since they already have the experience and expertise to accomplish specific tasks and goals. Here’s a brief definition of what outsourcing is.

What is virtual staff outsourcing?

The term “virtual staff outsourcing” pertains to the practice of businesses contracting out certain business functions to virtual assistants or external service providers to do the job for more cost-effective payment schemes.

Here are some of the tasks you could outsource to an independent virtual assistant or virtual assistant services:

  • Social media management
  • Web development
  • Administrative tasks
  • Bookkeeping and payroll
  • Calendar management
  • Customer support
  • SEO tasks
  • Project management

Businesses that don’t have the time and resources to form an in-house team or hire someone to perform specific tasks can outsource them to freelance virtual assistants (VA) or a VA provider. Among virtual assistants, one of the benefits applicants are looking for after the pandemic when evaluating clients to work with is genuine work flexibility.

The Benefits of Hiring a Virtual Team

Busy business owners recognize the immeasurable value of hiring a VA or virtual staff. Sometimes, it’s the difference between falling into the deep end and keeping the business afloat.

You don’t need to scale up your office

Typically, when organizations build an in-house team or hire more employees to support the growing business, they need to make room for the addition to the company.

Hiring a virtual assistant or staff does not require a physical office. Except for specific software and tools you use for communication and managing your remote team, the main expense of working with VAs is their compensation.

You’re not limited by local talent

Due to the pandemic, more people prefer remote jobs. Skilled virtual assistants are scattered across the globe. This enables you to tap on potential candidates for specific roles from any part of the world and work together as long as they have an internet connection.

You get to work with trained and experienced staff

When you start looking for virtual assistants, you’ll find many of them are multi-disciplined experts. They can fill in more than one job responsibility, such as email marketing, social media marketing, and project management. Simply put, VAs can do more than just scheduling meetings, taking calls, and administrative tasks.

If you prefer to outsource job functions to external service providers, you can discuss what your company needs so they can set up an experienced virtual team to perform the work. Since these staff work under a provider, you can be confident that they are trained well and have a designed system to support their clients.

You can reduce business costs

Working with a virtual team not only allows you to delegate tasks to experts but also cuts costs while doing so. Depending on which part of the world they live in, their hourly rate may be significantly lower than what hiring local employees would cost. The same applies when you outsource work to third-party contractors.

Working with VAs through outsourcing partners can match you with suitable candidates, and they can provide the training as well. Essentially, outsourcing is an affordable alternative to hiring full-time employees.

When to Work with an Outsourcing Company

If you have a long list of job functions you need assistance with, working with an outsourcing or VA company would be the best option.

Hiring freelance virtual assistants takes a significant chunk of your day since you have to review applications and interview them. On the other hand, an outsourcing company can set up a dedicated team for your business.

For instance, if you need an online marketing team, a VA provider can build a team of content marketers, graphic designers, and SEO specialists for you.

Things to Keep in Mind When Looking for an Outsourcing Partner

Once you’ve decided it’s more sustainable for the company to hire virtual staff, the roadblock that follows is knowing where and how you can hire them. Here are some of the things you need to consider.

  • Determine your budget. Before you start looking for a contractor, find out the usual cost of hiring virtual staff and establish your budget. Take note that you may need to pay a higher amount for higher quality work.
  • Review services they offer. Depending on the services you need, some providers offer or specialize in one or more types of services. Make sure that the provider you work with can deliver what you’re looking for.
  • Check the reputation of the company. Work with a service provider that is known to deliver results and has experienced employees as well. Research on the number of projects they’ve worked on and completed to gauge if they’re a good fit.
  • Seek feedback from their current or past clients. Getting feedback from their previous or existing clients is a great way to help you choose which company to partner with.
  • Find out how they communicate with clients. Communication is key to the success of this type of partnership. Look for a contractor that is responsive and prioritizes communication with their clients.

Wrapping It Up

It may be tempting to do everything from scratch at the start when operating a business. But remember that you can’t do everything on your own. Working with a remote team can be game-changing for your business.

Virtual staff outsourcing has proven to be indispensable in propelling a business forward. Run your business more productively with the help of skilled and trained VAs—with less cost and more reliability.

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