subject: Virtual Assistant Vs Regular Employee - Advantages And Disadvantages [print this page] Thanks to the technology advancements, a Virtual Assistant could save you tens of thousands of dollars if you are planning to hire a new employee or rather I would say a virtual assistant. A virtual assistant is a person who can help you with whatever you need to get done from a remote location through internet and phone. If you are thinking about hiring a full time employee, I would say think again because virtual assistants can come in handy.
Due to the significant difference in salary and other costs related to hiring a regular full time employee, more and more businesses are starting to hire virtual assistants. In most of the cases you will only be paying less than half the salary of what you would be paying for a regular employee and also there are several other ways in which you could save money. Some examples are costs related to health and medical benefits, vacation pay, holiday pay, travel allowances, food allowances, office supply expenses etc.
There are so many advantages in hiring a Virtual Assistant over a permanent employee. Cost is considered to be the major factor in this. You can hire a VA for a probably less than half the salary that you would be paying for a regular full time employee. Remember the fact that salary is not the only cost related to hiring and maintaining a regular employee, there are so many other costs related to benefits, vacation pay, holiday pay, travel allowance, food allowance, office supply expenses etc. Hiring a virtual assistant can help you to eliminate all of these and will save you a good amount of money.
Being able not to worry about the costs related with medical and health benefits is another major advantage in hiring a virtual assistant. Recent studies shows that the cost for providing benefits to employees has gone up by 22% compared to 7 years ago. Many companies are trying to cut down these costs by providing health insurance only to the employee and not their family members. When hiring a virtual assistant, you don't have to worry about providing any kind of benefits. If you think they are doing a good job and saving you time and money, you can throw in some extra money couple times a year as a bonus which will definitely make them much happier.
Another thing to look out is whether you would want to hire an individual virtual assistant or a company which provides virtual assistant services. The answer depends on the type and quality of service which you would expect from the virtual assistant. I'll review the benefits of hiring a virtual assistant company over an individual VA in my next month's article.
