As a busy executive, trying to balance your professional workload with personal commitments can seem like a never-ending task. Key duties don’t receive the attention they need and important dinners end up being missed. Surely, there must be a better way to manage your priorities? Enter a virtual executive assistant. Hiring a VA gives you time to focus on your responsibilities so you can work smarter and not harder. With that in mind, here we discuss the main duties that remote assistants specialise in, as well as how to find an exceptional EA to help in running a business.
What is A Virtual Executive Assistant?
A virtual executive assistant is an experienced person who works remotely, aiding a busy professional. From helping them tackle their daily duties to streamlining your business, a virtual executive assistant can provide a business owner with on-demand support.
What Does a Virtual Executive Assistant Do?
So, what type of remote work does a virtual executive assistant do? Here are some of the executive assistant services that they offer:
- Administrative tasks
- Making phone calls, such as booking travel arrangements and accommodation
- Project management
- Social media management
- Data entry
- Email management
- Providing customer service
- Managing financial tasks
- Organising events
- Preparing meetings
- Compiling reports
- Researching ideas
- Keeping a remote team on track
- Handling deadlines
- Liaising with clients
- Managing contractors
- Delivering projects
- Compiling important information
- Handling marketing
- Enhancing processes
- Updating systems
- Arranging personal and professional appointments
Learn more about the duties of an executive assistant here.
Why Hire a Virtual Executive Assistant?
A virtual assistant for executives is an important role to grow your business. If you’re contemplating hiring an assistant, here are some benefits to consider.
1. Make Better Use of Other Employees
Hiring a virtual assistant to tackle those essential yet time-consuming tasks helps to free up other team members who can spend time elsewhere. Instead of spending time completing administration tasks or managing projects, your team can help to grow your small business, such as implementing active strategies that will move your company forwards. Hiring an assistant to complete routine tasks makes sense in terms of efficiency, especially as duties such as admin tasks, financial aspects and emails can be completed remotely.
2. Save Money
Outsourcing your administration tasks and other duties helps to reduce costs. Instead of hiring a full-time employee to undertake these duties, you can pay someone at a lower hourly rate who has several years of experience as an EA. Additionally, you can save money on training as an experienced assistant already knows how to perform their duties, as well as understanding how to use a variety of computer programmes and applications, such as Microsoft Teams, Office, etc.
3. Flexibility
Working with an executive assistant can be done on a part-time or full-time basis, providing flexibility to fulfil the needs of your business. You may only require an assistant to help you for a couple of hours each month. In this case, an assistant can offer their hourly rates and bill you for the work completed. This makes sense for your business as you’ll receive high-quality, experienced support when you most need it. Furthermore, you can cover staff holidays and free up your own schedule when required.
4. Save Time
A virtual executive assistant saves you a lot of time. In business, time is money and having an assistant on hand means you don’t need to advertise for help anywhere else. There’s no need to spend time hiring or interviewing job candidates, you don’t need to spend time training your assistant, and they can quickly tackle their duties as they are highly experienced in performing them. Whether you require help with content creation, marketing, finances or administration, you can hire a virtual assistant to undertake your much-needed tasks.
5. Optimise Your Processes
An assistant can help you to optimise your business processes by performing time-consuming duties efficiently. Instead of doing these tasks in-house, it’s always best to outsource them as you can spend your time elsewhere on duties that require your input, such as meeting clients or working on core projects.
6. Streamline Your Schedule
Repetitive tasks fill up your schedule and your creative mind. Whether you need help with filling in financial documents, arranging travel or researching a new project, you can outsource these to an assistant, leaving you with more time to spend on personal matters or growing your business.
7. Improve Business
Virtual executive assistants can deal with clients for you, providing an exceptional level of customer service. Not only does this improve your business, but it also enhances your company’s reputation. Instead of trying to deal with every client issue yourself, your virtual assistant can spend time handling specific issues to ensure even small matters get taken care of adequately.
How to Hire a Virtual Executive Assistant
As a virtual executive assistant works remotely, you may be wondering about the hiring process. Thankfully, with the use of technology, you can still speak to an assistant via the use of Skype or Zoom. However, there are a few aspects to keep in mind.
1. Hire Via Reputable Sources
Hiring an assistant via word of mouth or via a reputable specialist recruitment agency will ensure you’re gaining a trustworthy and reliable individual. There are plenty of places for virtual assistants to advertise their services, including job boards and social media. If you’re not using a recruiter, it’s important to look for genuine reviews of their services to ensure they’re experienced and can perform their job with ease.
2. Consider A Trial Period
A trial period helps you to discover if your assistant is the right fit for your business. You may want to offer a paid week’s work to determine if the virtual assistant has the right skills for the duties you need completing.
Remember, it’s a good idea to regularly communicate with each other during this initial period. You can use online tools like Slack to send virtual messages. Alternatively, you may want to simply use email for communication purposes. Trello and ClickUp are two platforms you can use to allocate tasks digitally.
Additionally, you can ask your assistant to implement time-tracking software on their computer to track how much time they’ve spent on various tasks and to ensure that you’re being billed for work performed.
How Much Does a Virtual Executive Assistant Cost?
Depending on experience, a virtual executive assistant can charge anything from £15 upwards. Cost also depends on the type of duties involved too. For basic administrative tasks, you can expect to pay less, whereas complex skills and extensive experience will require you to pay more.
How to Pay a Virtual Executive Assistant
If you’re using an agency, you’ll always pay your assistant via them. If you’re hiring independently, you’ll pay your assistant directly. Always pay them once they have completed their work and use a trusted payment method, such as PayPal or Bacs.
Are You Planning on Hiring a Virtual Executive Assistant? We Can Help!
A virtual assistant for executives can help to optimise the efficiency of your business output. At Oriel Partners, we specialise in office admin recruitment, ensuring you secure the very best candidates for your requirements. If you’re searching for a remote executive assistant, contact us today.
