Why Businesses In Australia Should Hire A Virtual Assistant

Waves of different issues are changing the economic landscape of Australia. From the pandemic to globalization, various factors are reshaping and transforming businesses at a rapid pace. Small business owners must quickly find sustainable solutions to keep up. In Australia, virtual assistant services have proven to be one such solution.

8 Reasons to Get Virtual Assistant Services

A virtual assistant (VA) is a professional service provider working remotely to support businesses.

Here are 8 reasons you should outsource labor to one:

1. Virtual assistance has kept businesses afloat during the pandemic.

   The pandemic has reshaped all kinds of industries in unimagined ways. Amidst these changes and adjustments, virtual assistance has kept businesses of all sizes afloat during the economic scare. When governments have imposed restrictions and stringent health regulations, virtual assistance made it possible for companies to continue operations. A business solution with this kind of resilience is hard to ignore.

2. It can reduce your operational costs.

   Hiring a full-time employee in Australia is costly, even with work-from-home arrangements. For Australian businesses, hiring a virtual assistant from countries with a lower cost of living is more economical.

   What’s more, working with a full-service staffing agency to find your VA will let you save bigger bucks. 20four7VA, for instance, takes care of training, payroll, and employee monitoring. These responsibilities, when taken off your plate, will leave you more time and resources to invest in critical business functions.

3. It will allow you to work with the most qualified people.

   Forget about hiring for the sheer convenience of proximity. Virtual assistance will let you tap into a more expansive pool of talented individuals. Through remote staffing, you can work with the most skillful or experienced people, regardless of where they are located.

   As your business grows, you need to delegate more tasks to workers with specific fields of expertise. When you work with virtual assistants, you will be able to build your team of specialists without burning holes in your pocket.

4. It will give you access to the global market.

   Imagine expanding a business to a country where you have limited knowledge or contacts. Even with extensive research, you will still have to invest ample time and resources to understand the market and learn the ropes. Now, imagine hiring someone from the inside. Working with a local will give you an insider’s perspective on what your target audience will respond to and how things are done. Some companies outsource virtual assistance services to a specific location to gain traction there.

   

5. It boosts productivity.

   Your brand is only as productive as the people behind it. Hiring and building a remote staff is a sure way of improving productivity. Many studies and reports, such as this one from the Harvard Business Review, have highlighted a significant performance boost among remote workers. Virtual assistants work in the comfort of their homes and generally around flexible schedules. This gives them a better chance of finding work-life balance and, therefore, being better conditioned to do their job.

   Even if you work with a mostly on-site team, hiring virtual assistant services for your Australia-based business will increase your productivity. By delegating administrative tasks or specialized projects to virtual assistants, your local team will have a more manageable workload.

6. It adds business flexibility.

   Many entrepreneurs hire a personal assistant to gain flexibility. By having someone else take care of your schedule, manage your inbox and calendar, and handle communications, you can focus on your executive responsibilities.

   In addition, you can extend your business hours by hiring virtual assistants in different time zones. If you plan on offering a 24/7 service, for instance, you can hire a VA to man the desk and handle inquiries during your offline hours.

7. It promotes efficiency.

   Virtual assistants are generally paid on a productive hour or project basis. This means that they are compensated only after having achieved predefined milestones. Meanwhile, in-house employees are legally paid a fixed rate per hour. A typical workday, regardless of being productive or not, needs to be paid in full. In contrast, when you work with a remote assistant, you get more bang for your buck.

   Another way that virtual assistance promotes efficiency is that it lets you access specialists. If a task requires specific knowledge and skills, such as SEO or web development, it is better left in the hands of people who have the training and experience to do it.

8. It is scalable.

   The pandemic forced thousands of businesses across Australia to close their doors. As the new year unfolds and companies attempt to get back up, business models are changing drastically. Virtual assistance will help you ease back or continue operations on terms that you can afford.

   Need your staff to work on specific hours and days only? Hire virtual assistants so that you only pay for productive hours. Preparing for seasonal sales and need an extra pair of hands? Get more people to share the increased workload by hiring short-term staff. Scalability is one sterling benefit of virtual assistance.

Tips for Working with a Virtual Assistant in Australia

Working with an Australian virtual assistant for the first time? Hiring and working with a virtual assistant can be tricky at first. That is why the means by which you hire a VA is just as important.

Instead of directly hiring a VA through job sites, you’re better off working with a full-service staffing agency. 20four7VA takes care of the groundwork, from skill vetting to background checks. After pre-screening VAs, 20four7VA will train them and even assist with onboarding.

Communication and remote collaboration can be challenging if your team members are scattered across the globe. Fortunately, there are tools and apps that you can use to make remote working easier.

Here are a few examples:

• Slack is a popular tool for both synchronous and asynchronous communication. It’s also useful for file-sharing and project management.
• Google Workspace is the ideal collaboration tool for startups and small businesses. This cloud-based tool includes Gmail, Google Drive, Docs, Sheets, and Slides. Google Workspace has a web interface that allows team members to easily access, share, and edit files.
• Trello has a clean and straightforward interface that makes it an efficient tool even for beginners. This project management app lets you keep track of what tasks or projects your team is working on at a glance.
• Hootsuite is a content manager that lets you post across different social platforms simultaneously. If you’re working with a content marketing team, Hootsuite is an excellent tool for sharing, scheduling, and editing content.
• LastPass makes sharing passwords across remote teams safe and convenient. This tool enables remote workers to access business tools while allowing the business to preserve control and data security.

Final Thoughts

Even though virtual assistance has been around for a long time, it remains an effective and highly relevant staffing solution for the new normal. In Australia, you can get local support and grants from tax relief to funding. For day-to-day operations and eventual growth, business owners in Australia can find reliable and expert help by hiring Australian virtual assistants.