Companies recruit for all sorts of reasons. You may be enjoying a period of growth, you may be replacing an old team mate or perhaps you’ve got a new product coming on the market.
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Companies recruit for all sorts of reasons. You may be enjoying a period of growth, you may be replacing an old team mate or perhaps you’ve got a new product coming on the market. People make a business, so who you choose to fill the new or existing role can mean the difference between success and business failure. But as technology and our daily lifestyles are being disrupted daily with new and innovative ways of living, so are there new, modern ways of filling the gaps in your workforce.
Traditional Hiring
So where did you turn when you need a new member of staff traditionally? Classic moves were to turn to an expensive recruitment agency or paying to list the job yourself on a platform like Reed, Indeed or Linkedin.
You then do the classic financial assessment for a new member of staff: they’ll need a computer, desk space, potentially a work mobile to start with. Are they a specialist role? Do they need multiple screens for design work, do they need a headset for their call handling? Along with these questions you need to weigh up holiday pay, national insurance and any private pension schemes. The list of costs is pretty lengthy, and that is on top of recruitment costs and the time investment of interviewing, reviewing candidates, training and inducting new team members. Not to mention if they turn out to be the wrong choice… then you start from scratch all over again.
Modern Hiring
The modern way of recruitment is all about being efficient. Remote and virtual working is a widely accepted concept that is growing in popularity by the minute, accelerated by the current coronavirus pandemic. What the current situation has done is given the world a pilot scheme of virtual working. Corporations everywhere have seen first hand that their business can survive without people in offices, and SMEs and startups suddenly exist in a world that shares similar values of employee wellbeing and the benefits to both the personal and professional of working from home.
So why, we ask, when you recruit, would you go back to the old-fashioned way of doing things? You won’t be paying for tech, you won’t have any extra overheads and you will get assured quality. No risk of time or money wasted on the wrong choice for a position when you have 10 years and 1000s of clients evidencing that the new virtual model is the right choice.
How do you hire a virtual assistant?
The first step is research - check that when recruiting for a new position, whether admin based or more specialised like bookkeeping and social media management, you are approaching a business that has suitable breadth and a clear track record of excellence. Then once you have briefed your virtual assistant agency or service provider, sit back and wait to be presented with a suitable candidate.
To ensure your company culture is maintained, make sure you are connected with a person and not an automated assistant or switchboard. We, at SmartPA, take great pride in the efficiency of our personalised, human service.
Remember that no matter which recruitment solution you choose for your business, staff generally quit businesses because of culture and management, rather than because of the actual work. Whether you choose a virtual administrative assistant or an in-house employee, the cultural fit is crucial. Using platforms like Microsoft Teams and Skype can maintain connectivity in a remote team.
It’s time to embrace the new way of recruiting; cost-effective, efficient and guaranteed quality.