Finding The Right People: Local Staff Vs. Overseas Virtual Assistant

With every growing business comes more responsibilities. When tasks start to pile up, we’ll come to the point that we’ll admit that we can’t do everything on our own, so we look for help. But which people should we delegate tasks to? Here, we’ll provide you with some points to help you decide whether to hire staff locally or consider overseas virtual assistants.

 When you hear the title “Virtual Assistants,” you may think about administrative tasks. However, many Virtual Assistants now are highly skilled in different fields that you can hire to handle even the most critical parts of your business and projects. Let’s talk about the pros!

Budget-Friendly

You can hire a virtual assistant overseas, in Asian countries like the Philippines or India. It will help you save more as it’s no secret that a country’s economy affects people’s work rates and that there are countries that offer less expensive rates than your home country.

Aside from this, VA’s are only paid based on the hours they worked or the output to be completed. As opposed to local staff, they are not always paid monthly, and benefits are optional since they are not required to work full-time.

Widely-Skilled

Whenever your Virtual Assistant or remote employee does a great job or exceeds your expectations, you can reward them with a point. They can then keep collecting points and have them exchanged for perks by the end of the month or quarter. These perks can be anything, depending on you. Or you can have a rewards catalog where they can check what kind of rewards they can get for the number of points they have accumulated so they can choose whether to ‘cash out’ early or keep earning their points for that year. For some businesses, their rewards consist of company souvenirs like jackets, mugs, or hydro flasks with their company’s logo.

Time Flexibility

Having different time zones may come off as an inconvenience, especially when it comes to communication. However, hiring a virtual staff overseas may benefit your business better. You can arrange your business operation for longer hours, with your virtual assistants managing the hours you are resting.

Those are only a few things. Let’s now go to some of the cons!

Communication Barriers

The communication barriers you would likely experience are the difference in time zones. It would be hard to schedule meetings or delay sending or receiving updates on tasks and projects. Others are language and culture. However rare since most Virtual Assistants are proficient in spoken and written English, as well as knowledgeable about the Western culture. They also adapt pretty quickly to their clients’ needs.

Data Security 

When working on tasks, it is inevitable to share sensitive information with your Virtual Assistant. The internet cannot assure you that your business’ data isn’t getting copied, no matter what platforms or tools you use. This can be prevented by checking your VA’s background and signing proper NDA’s that legally bind them to avoid sharing information.

Every decision in business always comes with risks, but this shouldn’t stop us from trying our best to grow it, yet, risks are still preventable; trust your instinct and find people you feel you can trust. It’s a gamble – but isn’t that what business had always been?

I Need A VA can add leverage to your business by helping you manage the tasks taking up too much of your time by providing you quality first-class Virtual Assistant service. Start outsourcing with us today!