Are you in search of dedicated virtual assistants in the Philippines, or are you merely in search of full-time workers who can work remotely for you?
Maybe you are tired of dealing with unnecessary office space and ridiculous overhead costs, as well as your busy work as a business owner. Maybe you’ve already decided that having full-time virtual assistants would be the best option for you to run your business efficiently, but you don’t know where to start.
Whatever your reason may be, chances are that you are inclined to think whether Filipinos are the best virtual assistants for your business. Here are the pros and cons, tips, and how-to before you hire a virtual assistant in the Philippines:
Benefits of hiring virtual assistants from the Philippines
The Philippines is home to talented, skilled, and hardworking people. It is without a doubt that they are one of the most sought-after service providers all across the world. Despite sharing a top spot in the outsourcing business industry with Asian countries like India and China, the Philippines continues to skyrocket faster due to the continuously improving quality and efficiency of Filipino remote talent. Here are some of the advantages of choosing a Filipino virtual assistant for your business:
Cost Effective Way
The cost of living in the Philippines remains relatively low compared to other Asian countries. As a result, the cost of services and products from the Philippines is also comparatively cheaper. If a Filipino freelance VA is hired through a middleman or agency, the starting cost may range from $9 to $15 per hour. However, even at these rates, the cost of hiring a Filipino VA is still 30 to 50 percent lower than hiring a VA from other Western or Asian countries, where starting salaries can reach $25 to $50 per hour.
Skilled and Experienced Service Providers
One of the best assets of Filipino virtual assistants is their strong Western cultural affinity and high level of English proficiency. Most Filipino workers are also highly experienced in customer service, lead generation, social media marketing, social media management, administrative support, calendar management, web development, bookkeeping, email management, medical transcribing, data entry, and more.
Time-zone Friendly
Most Filipinos are amenable to working on US and European hours. Since the Philippines is in the opposite time zone from Western countries, you can sustain your sales office operations 24/7 with Filipino virtual assistants without incurring additional costs to your business.
Reliable and Trustworthy
Filipino workers have always been commended for their quality service, integrity, and compassion. They are known as one of the most hardworking and compassionate people to work with, whether as an on-site or virtual coworker.
Inclined to work for long-term
Virtual assistants from the Philippines are usually more inclined to work for longer contracts, become full-time employees, and they value job security. This is beneficial for your business since you can expect a lower employee turnover rate when you hire a virtual assistant in the Philippines.
Expanded Reach
By hiring a virtual assistant in the Philippines, you can tap into the growing market of business process outsourcing (BPO) and service industries, which would allow you to reach new clients. Filipinos can also offer a different global perspective to your business, therefore increasing your potential leads.
Disadvantages in hiring Filipino virtual assistants
Filipinos may be the best virtual assistants, but the reality of the hiring process and finding qualified candidates does not come without cons. Here are some things you should consider and look out for before hiring Filipino remote employees:
Trickier integration
While the Philippines is undoubtedly a pool of talent, not all the needed skills may be available in one Filipino virtual assistant. Hence, there may be a need for additional training, certification requirements, and other expenses that could drive up the cost of your hiring process. Relying solely on individual job postings to find the most qualified candidate may be inefficient. Fortunately, you can also outsource from virtual assistant companies to address such human resource-related problems:
Technical Difficulties
While the Philippines is undoubtedly a pool of talent, not all the skills you need may be available in a single Filipino virtual assistant. This could necessitate additional training, certification requirements, and other expenses that could drive up the cost of your hiring process.
Relying solely on individual job postings to find the most qualified candidate may be inefficient. Fortunately, you can also outsource from virtual assistant companies to address these human resource-related problems.
Security and Privacy Concerns
Unsecured internet connections and a lack of specific remote work paraphernalia can pose a threat to the security and confidentiality of information that you share with your virtual assistant. This issue could put your entire business operation at risk. Some Filipino households may share their local area network (LAN) with their family members, neighbors, and friends. In very rare cases, they might share their work device with another individual. Make sure to communicate your security and privacy concerns to your Filipino virtual employees before onboarding them.
This issue is not only limited to virtual assistants from the Philippines but also to industries whose operations are done remotely. Establishing internet usage policies, setting up virtual private networks (VPN), and issuing company-specific devices may address this problem.
Government Limitations
Regardless of how a business is conducted, where its employees are located, or what type of working relationship it has with its freelance virtual assistant, paying the right amount of taxes is an indispensable practice that a trustworthy company must do.
Unfortunately, the difference in tax and other business compliance laws in both countries may pose an obstacle to your business growth. It is imperative to reiterate to your virtual executive assistant or remote personal assistant that they are individual contractors who are responsible for their taxes.
How Can You Hire Virtual Assistants in the Philippines
There are multiple ways to find the best virtual assistant for your business needs. But there are three main ones you can consider to expedite your search:
Job listings on your website
This is the fastest way to express your need for virtual assistance. All you need to do is coordinate with your account managers and hiring managers to find the most qualified candidate for your job. Unfortunately, this technique is dependent on the popularity of your website. In some cases, you may also need to advertise your job listings on your social media accounts to gain reach.
Job posts on major freelancing sites
Hiring remote workers through major freelancing sites like Upwork, LinkedIn, and Fiverr can provide you access to a pool of remote workers, as well as a multitude of other virtual assistant companies and services. However, just like posting through your social media accounts or website, you may also have to go through a large list of job seekers to find most qualified candidate for your company.
Hiring through virtual assistant companies
Employing virtual assistant companies can complete several human resources tasks like interviews, assessment screenings, writing tests, and trainings on your behalf. Top virtual assistant companies typically provide specialized training, grit tests, DISC analyses, and handle administrative tasks to send only the best virtual assistant for the job.
Virtual assistant companies can help you avoid fraud, save hours training your virtual assistant, do background checks, and even manage payment options.
However, you may need time to search the web to find the best virtual staff finder for your business.
Why should you choose Remote Raven?
Other virtual assistant companies may only offer general virtual executive assistants who might need additional training for specialized business processes in your company. For example, executive assistants and personal assistants who only have experience handling general administrative tasks.
But here at Remote Raven, we make sure to find talents that perfectly meet your job description. Our virtual assistant services are not only limited to email management, calendar management, and general secretarial tasks. We also offer specialized virtual assistant services, including lead generation, web design, graphic design, social media management, data entry, IT, accounting, property and asset management, and even medical virtual assistance.
You can expect to have a quality virtual staff finder with our rigorous screening process. This ensures that you will only have the best and most dedicated virtual assistants to help you with your business. With our top-notch outsourcing experience, you can reduce the hours of online research you would otherwise spend finding virtual assistants for your business. Here are just a few reasons why you should choose Remote Raven in finding your virtual assistant:
- They are fluent in American English. We test our virtual assistants through interviews and assessments to ensure the veracity of their English proficiency.
- They are hardworking and have strong work ethic. We make sure to filter and train our candidates to provide you with only the top virtual assistant.
- They have high-speed internet access. We thoroughly check their technical capabilities to prevent instances of MIA during monsoon seasons and other possible unfortunate events.
- The majority hold college degrees. We take into account specialized virtual assistant services that require virtual assistants to have college degrees.
- Interview and reference checked. We conduct the hiring process on your behalf, and we can ensure that all our virtual assistants are legitimate and true to their resumes.
- They have completed 10 hours of professional training and development. All of our virtual assistants are knowledgeable on basic business processes and are culture-fit to help you with your business.
How can I hire virtual assistants from Remote Raven?
Luckily for you, there are three simple easy steps to find the best virtual assistant in the Philippines for your business:
1. Book a free consultation.
2. Talk with our experts.
3. We will start our customized search.
We promise to give you the most reasonable pricing plans for our virtual assistant services. Hiring your virtual assistant from the Philippines through Remote Raven will allow you to reap the benefits of their skills and work ethic while eliminating the possible challenges of hiring an offshore virtual assistant.
Tips On Hiring Virtual Assistant in the Philippines
Before you book a consultation with us, here are some things we would like to suggest.
- Make sure to get a clear description of the virtual assistant services that you need. It would help us find the right virtual assistant when you are specific with the type of remote worker that you need or the digital work that needs assistance.
- Analyze your budget for your virtual assistant services. Having a specialized virtual assistant for your business might seem costly at first. But it will save you hours of training, increase your company’s productivity, and will eventually be cost-efficient for your company over time.
- Communicate well your expectations of your virtual assistant. How would you want your virtual assistant to handle sensitive information? Provide definite deadlines and key performance indicators.
- Use project management tools. This would help track your virtual assistant’s progress and future tasks, and it will make it easier for you to have objective measurements of your virtual assistant’s performance.
- Set up a communication system. It can be through email, Skype, or other specialized company chat systems so you can easily communicate any changes or tasks to be done with your virtual assistant.
Here at Remote Raven, we care so much about our client’s needs. We are more than just a virtual assistant company. We want to help you hire a virtual assistant that fits your needs and will help boost your company’s business growth. Click on this link to start with your virtual assistant search and let us be partners.
