Virtual Assistant Statistics

Whether you are just launching your own business or you’ve been at it for years, we bet that efficiency is always on your mind.

• How can I make every hour more valuable?
• How can I reduce costs and increase profits?
• How can I take myself out of the day-to-day grunt work?

If you find yourself pondering questions like these, you may benefit from hiring a virtual assistant (or VA). In this post, we’ll look at 5 virtual assistant statistics that may change the way you do business.

#1 – VAs could reduce your operating costs by 78%.

Perhaps one of the most immediate benefits of hiring a virtual assistant over a traditional employee is the cost savings.

VAs work from all over the world. Often, you’ll be able to find a quality assistant that you can pay much more than a living wage in their home country but at a fraction of what it may cost you to hire a full-time employee locally. Beyond just saving on wages, though, every worker that you hire remotely is one less person you need to provide with space and supplies for work.

All in all, it’s estimated that each full-time VA you hire instead of a traditional employee could save your company as much as 78%.

#2 – VAs are 20 percentage points less stressed than cubicle workers.

Beyond your immediate monetary benefits, you also are likely improving the lives of your staff when you employ them remotely.

One piece of research examined work-related stress and anxiety, broken down by the work environment of the employee. 37 percent of those who worked in traditional cubicles reported stress or anxiety compared to just 17 percent of employees who work from home.

Of course, making your employees happier is a reward in and of itself. But it will also benefit your business in secondary ways, as the next couple of virtual assistant statistics demonstrate.

#3 – Working remotely cuts attrition rates in half.

One study conducted out of Stanford University followed 500 workers at Ctrip, a travel agency based in China. The participants were randomly divided into 2 groups: one continued work as usual in the office, the other was permitted to work from home. The experiment lasted for 9 months.

One of the most amazing findings of the study was related to worker attrition. The office group lost 35% of its employees compared to just 17% lost from the remote work group. Any business owner who understands the costs of hiring and on-boarding new employees can immediately see the benefits of hiring VAs online.

#4 – Remote workers are 13% more productive.

That same Stanford study also measured the productivity and efficiency of the two groups. The primary ways that the researchers determined this was by looking at the number of minutes worked per shift and the number of calls completed per minute. The remote workers were found to take less sick days and fewer breaks, which led to a whopping 13% increase in their productivity compared to their office-bound counterparts.

An interesting follow-up to the Ctrip story is that eventually the company decided to make remote working a voluntary option for all 16,000 of their employees. A little more than half of them took the company up on the offer, and the total boost in productivity jumped up to 22%!

#5 – 59% of VAs are full-time employees.

You may have an image of your VA being constantly distracted by other side gigs or even a primary day job. But the majority of virtual assistants do it as a full-time job.

Just because they are working remotely doesn’t mean that they aren’t giving you their all. In fact, if you pay them by the milestone rather than by the hour, you are likely to get much better productivity out of your VAs than a traditional worker. You won’t be paying them for downtime in-between tasks or for goofing off with their co-workers.

How To Hire a Virtual Assistant

If these virtual assistant statistics have done anything, we hope it is to convince you that hiring VAs is a smart move for your business. So if you are thinking about outsourcing some of your tasks to remote workers, here are some tips to keep in mind.

Know What You Want To Outsource

You have a lot of work to do. But if you try to do it all, your business will never be able to grow. As long as you are stuck into the day-to-day work, your business won’t be able to scale beyond you. So identify the tasks that you are spending the most amount of your time on that could be assigned to a virtual assistant.

There is no sense for the business owner to be spending 4 hours a day on tasks that are only worth $20 an hour, for example. If you can step out of that role, you’ll be able to devote more time to the high level strategy that is much more valuable to your company.

Some business owners need a virtual assistant to answer emails and perform basic data entry. Others are looking for someone to research, write, and publish content on a regular basis. Figure out what you need to outsource to make your job more profitable.

Know How To Hire Online

If you are already used to hiring traditional employees, then you probably don’t need a primer on writing job descriptions and conducting interviews. But you should be prepared to adapt these practices to an online atmosphere.

The good news is that we put together a guide on How To Hire Freelancers that covers everything from vetting VAs online to communicating with them before and after the job.

Know How To Manage Remote Workers

Finally, don’t think that your job as a manager gets any easier just because you are hiring virtual assistants. While it might not take you more effort to manage remote workers, it will definitely take you a different type of effort. Especially if you are hiring full-time VAs, you still want to take into account their need to feel valued, to be guided, and to become a part of the team.

So find ways to stay connected on a regular basis. This is important not just for holding VAs accountable, but also for making them feel a genuine sense of connection with your company despite working from the other side of the world.

Find The Right VA For Your Business Today

If you are looking to hire a virtual assistant for your business today, there is no better place to start your hunt than Legiit. We offer a secure payment gateway that allows business owners like you to access top talent from around the world in a wide variety of industries.