Remote Assistance As Needed
Cloud computing solutions have changed what it means to run a business, large or small. BYOD is a big game-changer. If you’re unfamiliar, BYOD refers to “Bring Your Own Device”. This is a method by which office space and equipment can be outsourced to employees in a cost-effective way which saves everybody money.
When employees don’t have to commute, they save time and fuel expenses which over the course of a year add up to more than the cost of technological equipment in many scenarios. Employers don’t have to buy the equipment, and additionally they can expand their employee base while saving money through remote workers.
This is one of the reasons Virtual Assistant positions have taken off. Such solutions can be found cost-effectively online, and VAs can be optimized such that in many ways they are actually more efficient than physical assistants. Following are ten ways you can optimize the efficacy of your virtual assistants.
One: Incorporate Cloud-Based Applications
There are quite a few different cloud-based applications which can be used to help increase the speed, efficiency, and accuracy of your virtual assistant teams. Cloud-based applications like Clockspot allow you to manage timesheets in real time and finish payroll in minutes, for example.
Managing virtual assistants with cloud-based apps makes the task easier and less time-consuming. Additionally, you can help source other apps specific to your business’s needs, and provide them for virtual assistants to employ. This way everyone isn’t just optimized, but on the same page.
Two: Incentivization
If you incentivize your VAs, you can give them fuel to increase performance. It won’t work for all businesses, but many have metrics that define employee performance on a monthly or annual basis. Many of those metrics can be improved upon by individual employees. If you incentivize that improvement, you’ll likely see increases across the board.
Three: Assistant Redundancy
If you want an agile VA, you’re really going to need more than one. There are about 168 hours in a week. You can’t expect one person to be available for all of them. You can’t even expect two people to do the job correctly. Four is a better number, but at 42 hours per, that’s a bit risky. If you’ve got eight VAs hired, that’s 21 hours per week per VA.
That’s pretty comfortable for everybody. Such a schedule could be provided to your VAs with their option to choose which schedule they prefer as well. Several may be branching into income supplementation territory—but if your operation is well-enough organized, they may not need to. It depends on what you can pay.
Still, if you’ve got built in employee redundancy, then if the worst should come to the worst, you’ve always got a backup VA available.
Four: Give Them The Tools They Need
Apps have already been discussed briefly. Additionally, you want your VAs to have requisite systems access pertaining to your network. Schedules, contacts, clients, prospects—give your VAs the right data, and they will be more adequately equipped to help ensure your entrepreneurial pursuit runs as smoothly as you had envisioned. For example, if you want to start accepting payments online, you’ll need a proper gateaway implemented.
Five: Workload Management
Part of working with a team involves spreading out your business’s workload evenly. You don’t want to overload your good employees and under-load the bad ones. The good ones will get worn out, the bad ones will get less focused and detail-oriented. You want to have an even spread as much as it’s possible to do so.
Six: Specified Tasks
If you’re working with freelancers, keeping the most talented ones around requires concerted strategy. While VAs aren’t exactly “freelancers”, they are working a position that can almost be treated that way, given the availability for remote VAs in today’s marketplace.
In order to keep the best ones on, you want to play to their talents. Find one who is good with numbers and use that person for certain bookkeeping requirements. The young lady who has an excellent command of prose may be put in charge of sending out company-wide emails and the like—you get the idea. Play to their strengths when specifying tasks.
Seven: Provide A Career Path
This is much easier said than done—especially for new entrepreneurial exploits. But you want to give your VAs the opportunity to increase their wages over time, such that they feel they’re getting somewhere. Keep them from stagnating by giving them the opportunity to increase their integration in the company.
Eight: Hire Based On Team-Building
Look for VAs that fit in certain team niches as you go about acquiring these professionals. Know what you want beforehand, and then build a complimentary team. This will help you optimize more quickly.
Nine: Consultation
Ask around. Find other entrepreneurs who have used VAs. Read blogs. Google the topic and see what information you can find. You’ll always get better results if you do your homework beforehand.
Ten: Let Skill Be Your Primary Hiring Factor
Find a way of determining VA skill, and use that to decide who you do and don’t bring aboard your entrepreneurial exploit. Politics and personal proclivities shouldn’t play a part here.
Optimizing Your Business
Provided you take your time and are strategic in sourcing VAs, you’ll likely build an effective team that saves you money through cost-effective digital optimization.
