We tend to think of an executive assistant as someone who has to be physically present in the office because that’s how a traditional executive assistant operates. They are supposed to be the face of the organization. The person who greets guests when they come to the office. However, the business landscape has changed over the years, and remote work is now considered a prevalent mode of work. In this article, we’ll look at how hiring a remote executive assistant would make sense for your business.
A remote executive assistant can handle the same duties and responsibilities as an in-house executive assistant – unless the task requires her to be physically present in your location, of course. They don’t need to be at the office to perform tasks like managing emails, scheduling meetings and appointments, preparing reports, receiving and screening phone calls, making travel arrangements, overseeing the work of lower-level clerical staff.
If you want someone to lighten your workload and handle all those tasks, a remote executive assistant can do all that without being physically there.
Yes, you read that right. A remote executive assistant can do practically the same amount of work as their office-based counterparts. The idea that remote workers are less efficient is a myth. Companies like Basecamp, Buffer, GitHub, Treehouse, Toptal, Upworthy, and Zapier have embraced the remote work culture for years now, and their employees seem to be doing well.
In fact, a study by Nicholas Bloom, the Eberle Professor of Economics in the School of Humanities and Sciences at Stanford University, and Ctrip founder James Liang, has revealed that remote workers were 13% more productive at home because they found it easier to concentrate after they eliminated distractions like long commutes, office politics, and other job-related stress.
Still not convinced? Take a look at this self-report study conducted by Airtasker. In the survey, office workers reported an average of 37 minutes of idle time daily compared to 27 minutes for remote workers. The study also showed that there was no difference in the quality of work between remote and office employees
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As you might expect, the cost of hiring a remote executive assistant is considerably lower, especially if you’re hiring someone overseas. The average hourly pay for an executive assistant in the US is around $25 an hour, so you’ll have to sacrifice a big chunk of your budget if you want to hire one locally. You’ll also have to pay for employee benefits like social security and workers’ compensation insurance.
If you’re on a shoestring budget, you’re better off hiring a remote executive assistant overseas. For instance, do you know that executive assistants from the Philippines are willing to fill the role for around $3 an hour? Take note, these are college-educated professionals who speak fluent English.
Now, let me ask you: Who would you rather hire if they have the same skill sets and can do the same tasks efficiently? The executive assistant who will cost you $25 an hour, or the one who is willing to do the same amount of work for around $3? That is a no-brainer, right?
Aside from the affordable rates, you’re also don’t have to pay for the usual employee benefits if you hire an executive assistant from outside the country. Of course, you can always offer perks to make your employees feel valued. And you don’t have to allocate money on office equipment because the remote executive assistant already has her own home office.
You don’t have to worry about geographical restrictions in your search for a remote executive assistant. That means you’ll have access to the top talent from anywhere in the world, and you will get the chance to find the right fit for your company with the huge talent pool available to you.
There are dozens of online job markets you can use in your search, and if you don’t have the time to do the recruiting yourself, you can always get your remote executive assistant from a staffing agency.
While there are many online job markets out there, we prefer to hire from the Philippines because the candidates there have the right mix of affordability, skill, and proficiency in the English language. OnlineJobs.ph is by far the largest online job site in the Philippines, with over a million resumes in their database, so that’s always a good place to start your search. Create an account, post a job ad, and wait for the applications to come in.
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While signing up is free, you do have to upgrade to a paid subscription to communicate with the applicants. The good thing about this setup is that you can look at the applicants’ resumes even if you have a free account. This will allow you to see if the candidates have the skills you are looking for in a remote executive assistant. If you don’t find anyone you like, you can go and find the right person somewhere else. If you do find what you’re looking for, go ahead and upgrade the account.
There are two pricing plans available: the Premium plan at $99 a month and the Pro plan at $69 a month. The Premium plan has some nice features that are not available on the Pro plan, like a video guide to outsourcing, a worker mentoring service, and unlimited background data checks. However, you don’t really need to use these if you’re only planning to hire a remote executive assistant. So just choose the $69 plan and unsubscribe once you’re done hiring.
If you need someone physically present so she can run errands for you, then what you need is an office-based assistant. But if you’re looking for a cost-effective option, a remote executive assistant can do just about everything that an office-based assistant can do.
Need help crafting the perfect executive assistant job description? Check out this article.
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