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Can You Work From Home As An Administrative Assistant?

 

Work From Home As An Administrative Assistant

 

It is becoming increasingly common for businesses to hire a remote administrative assistant as it saves them money on office space.

However, some business owners are still reluctant to offer positions to those who work independently in their own homes and are not office-based.

While the concerns are understandable, a remote administrative assistant can perform their duties just as well as an administrative assistant who works in your company’s main office.

This article explains some of the critical things you need to consider before placing job ads to attract virtual assistants to your company.

In-House Vs. Work From Home Administrative Assistant

There are advantages and disadvantages to working from home as an administrative assistant instead of working in-house.

The Disadvantages

Sometimes business owners believe that a remote administrative assistant will not get on with the general administration tasks they are set and will get easily distracted by home life if they work from their home office.

For business owners and managers, physical disconnection can become a matter of trust. Yes, you can’t see whether someone is putting in the hours you’re paying them for.

But you should be able to set expectations for tasks and daily goals that allow you to track the work completed rather than the hours worked.

There are also plenty of tools available that allow you to track a VAs time at the computer doing work for you, but I would generally recommend that you try to set task completion rather than time goals.

The Advantages

It is fair to say that the advantages of hiring virtual assistants outweigh the disadvantages. For a start, it costs less to hire a remote administrative assistant and pay them an hourly rate than to fully employ an administrative assistant.

When you hire remote workers on short-term contracts, you don’t have to stress about paying holiday pay, sick pay, and health insurance.

The worker is far more flexible in working hours because they don’t have to worry about travelling to and from the office each day.

That flexibility offers many highly skilled and talented administrative assistants the opportunity to better balance their work and life commitments. And it allows business owners to tap into a much larger pool of potential team members.

Skill Requirements For Work From Home Administrative Assistants

There are six key skills you need to focus on from a human resources perspective for this job title and advertising description.

1 – Motivation

One of the big fears companies have is that a remote administrative assistant won’t have the self-discipline or motivation to do the job.

A lack of motivation in their workers, virtual or otherwise, is often a concern for employers and human resources departments. Still, it is up to the company to implement measures to ensure that all staff remain motivated.

In the case of the remote worker you hire, you can use software to measure their time management effectiveness.

Often remote administrative assistants will be working for themselves, so if they don’t perform to a standard, they don’t get paid. Therefore it is in their best interests to be motivated as much as possible.

2 – Written Language Skills

When you’re hiring someone for administrative support, it’s vital that you focus on written language skills. Whether it’s reports, data entry, or the need for an executive assistant to take notes during conference calls, you want any written communication to be clear and understandable.

When you’re putting a job alert together, make sure that you highlight you’ll be testing for written skills during the interview process, and do some reference checks as well to make sure your top candidates have the skills needed.

3 – Verbal Language Skills

Verbal communication skills can play a key role for an administrative assistant if you plan to assign tasks that involve directly dealing with other employees and clients.

This can be through zoom meetings or phone calls, and you need to make sure that your job listing clearly highlights that you’re looking for candidates who are confident in speaking English with native speakers.

When potential VAs then do a job search that brings up your description, they know that they will have to prove those spoken skills.

4 – Creativity

When you’re looking for someone more than a standard virtual assistant for data entry work, then it’s important to also look for those job seekers that can think creatively to solve problems.

While you might need to spend a considerable amount of time training and mentoring a new hire, you’ll ultimately gain huge advantages if the candidates you interview can prove that they creatively tackle problems rather than come directly to you for help all the time.

5 – Social Media

There’s no getting around the fact that every business should be taking advantage of social media platforms for marketing purposes. And hiring an administrative assistant to take care of such project management work doesn’t require the person to be in your office.

In fact, it can be an advantage to hire someone in a different time zone to get all your social platforms updated before your day begins. So make sure that you add social media skills to your job alert.

6 – Attention To Detail

From a virtual assistant for data entry to a personal assistant who looks after your calendar and appointment scheduling, you need someone reliable who focuses on the details and not on rushing a task to get it done.

During the interview process, this is where it can be very difficult to assess, and you should also make sure that they have planned their personal home office equipment in a way that allows them to provide top-quality work.

Think about asking for information on their desk and computer set up as well as security measures. These could all show you that the candidate has thought about the role they want to provide and make sure they have the necessary tools to do so.

Contact Us Today For A Free Consultation

Finding the right candidates for a work-from-home administrative assistant job typically requires a lot of careful planning and screening processes. If this is something that you don’t have experience with, then let our team help you.

We can make sure the right people see a job alert and then screen them to make sure only the best candidates get through to the interview process.

And our team will also handle the hiring, onboarding, and training to make sure you hire a team player who wants to see you succeed.

Call us today to find out how quickly we can have you up and running with an administrative or executive assistant.

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