Composing and answering emails? Managing appointments, sorting out your schedules, making appointments, phone calls and even making travel arrangements? It sounds like a job you would rather have your assistant do for you. But hiring a full-time assistant working for you in your office might also include the full-time salary of one, a complex workplace balance to be maintained, and all the additional benefits your regular employees are entitled to.
You are not the only one mulling over the matter, there are several others like you.
And several others have come up with a smarter option—a virtual assistant!
Now, what a virtual assistant does for you is all the above-mentioned tasks and beyond—every major duty expected from a full-time personal assistant. But they are usually self-employed. They’re either or remote employees freelancers working from home.
And now, there are specifications in the jobs of a virtual assistant, like administration, copywriting, contempt writing, customer service and many more specific tasks that they are paid for
Why are people taking up the job of a virtual assistant?
One simple answer is that it provides you with the experience of working in a corporate environment that comes along with flexibility. It’s a freelancing or remote job, after all.
Traditionally, the job of a virtual assistant is to provide remote administrative services to clients. And if they have any relevant expertise, their services can also extend to lead generation, analytics, graphic design, and much more—anything that’s good for the growth of your company.
But before you hire a virtual assistant, it's good to get a glimpse of the current trends.
1) and Specialised Virtual Assistants
Virtual assistants are growing in popularity, and so are start-ups. Not only start-ups but even big firms are now relying on multiple virtual assistants for handling their remote administrative services for their clients. And now, there’s a surge in demand for well-trained and skilled virtual assistants. Especially for those working as remote employees. They can be trained or skilled in various sectors like graphic designing, copywriting, lead generation, social media marketing, marketing, and even content writing. Their salaries depend on their years of experience and skills.
2) Remote Employees over Freelancers
A virtual assistant can be either a remote employee of your company or a freelancer. While freelancers bring their own set of benefits to the table, remote employees are becoming a more popular choice. With the rise of work-from-home friendly start-ups, remote employees make up a significant percentage of the workforce anyway. A virtual assistant becomes a necessity, and a remote VA other than a freelancer becomes a preference.
3) Use of Digital Tools
Not that digital tools were not used before. But as you might have noticed, the current trends show an exceptional surge in the business’ reliance on AI-powered digital tools. Virtual assistants who can master these tools are preferred by most employers. If your business relies on high-tech digital tools, maybe you should look for a virtual assistant who has experience in handling these tools.
4) A More Flexible Schedule
Why are many people's careers in virtual assistance attractive? One of the prime reasons is the flexibility it offers them. Businesses are now all about allowing employees to work at their preferred time but with a set schedule. How they complete their tasks and responsibilities within the set deadline is theirs to handle. Micro-management is draining for you and frustrating for your employees. Options for flexible work hours, on the other hand, give them the freedom and space that they crave and often need.
Rising demand for flexible work hours is a trend among virtual assistants.
5) Surprising Salaries
As discussed before, now, virtual assistants are often skilled in specific sectors, and their salaries vary accordingly.
- In India, an expert virtual assistant offering administrative services can earn up to $10 to $35 an hour, which is a rough value of a whopping 800 to 2900 rupees an hour
- Coming to blog management, it’s anywhere between $2 and $60 an hour, depending on your years of experience. In Indian rupees, it’s anywhere between approximately 160 and 5000 rupees an hour. Talk about getting rich by sitting at home.
- Bookkeeping yields you in India, anywhere between $5 and $15, that is, between 40 and 1250 Indian rupees.
- Similarly, copywriting as a virtual assistant in India can help you earn 500 to 1200 rupees an hour.
6) New Job Trends
Current changes in the technological landscape and demand for talent from the workforce assert that the job market is shifting constantly. One example is the remote work that has become very popular since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. This implies that employers are adopting flexibility at the workplace and therefore create chances for virtual assistants, freelancers or those who work from home.
However, there is a rising demand for specific skills to apply various technologies the organization engages in its operations. New economic fields like data analysis, digital marketing, and cyber security are in demand due to the growing emphasis placed on the business world due to change in technology. However, the increase in a newer economy has also remained relatively strong due to the increase in freelancing with benefits of flexibility and versatility of work.
7) Career Insights
You must be proactive when it comes to your learning and professional development because the job market is now quite stiff. Employers should ensure that they contribute to helping individuals gain transferable digital skills like data analytic skills, social media marketing skills and cloud computing skills so as to improve their employment marketability.
It is also especially important in the online environment as the connections formed may culminate in job referrals or partnership. Furthermore, the pressure for work-life balance is making many individuals want to work in organizations that afford them an opportunity to work from home. This means that employees that are flexible, computer literate and open to change will be at an advantage at the workplace more so when organizations adapt to various flexible work arrangements.
No wonder, there has been a surge of people opting to be a virtual assistant rather than a full-time employee. So, with the current trends in mind, it would be easier for you to hire a virtual assistant who can make running your business a little easier.