If you constantly find yourself wearing all the hats – from doing all the paperwork to managing your projects and employees – chances are you already considered hiring an assistant to do the tedious admin work.
And if you considered hiring a virtual assistant, you may have already browsed through multiple freelancing sites trying to find the perfect VA with skills and expertise in your business. While finding a full-time virtual assistant for less money is quite enticing, what happens when they don’t provide quality work? What happens when they suddenly leave, or what happens with all the sensitive data you’ve entrusted with them?
Finding a skilled freelancer is one thing, but finding the perfect virtual assistant that removes all your doubts is another. And what if I tell you that there’s actually a way to find one?
The answer lies in hiring a virtual assistant from an ISO-certified organisation.
Before we dive into the reasons why this is a good business decision for you, let’s first take a look at what ISO certification is. The International Organisation for Standardization (ISO) is an independent, non-governmental international organisation that develops standards to ensure the quality, safety, and efficiency of products and services. An ISO certification is a seal of approval that a company meets these standards and adheres to a certain level of quality management.
There are many types of ISO standards and one of them is ISO 9001. This standard revolves around quality management principles, including customer focus, the motivation of an organisation’s top management, and an organization’s drive for continuous improvement.
It all sounds good on paper, but what does it actually mean when you compare it to hiring a regular freelancer?
Accountability
When you hire a regular freelancer, you’re essentially relying on an independent contractor’s promise to ensure that their tasks are completed on time and to the desired standards. On the other hand, an ISO-certified company with virtual assistant services has strict guidelines in place that their staff must follow, and they are subjected to a higher level of accountability.
For example, an ISO-certified company will have systems in place to monitor and track the VA’s work, ensuring that their tasks will be done on the agreed time. The VA will also be accountable to the company which provides them with oversight and continuous guidance to ensure quality.
Professionalism and reliability
One of the biggest challenges of working with regular freelancers is their availability and consistency. You’ll never know whether they will show up the next day, and they can resign at any time without prior warning. With a VA working under an ISO-certified company, you can expect a certain level of consistency in terms of availability. Your assigned virtual assistant will only be working full-time for you, and the company will have a dedicated staff to monitor any issues that could happen to the VA – whether it’s an emergency, a power outage, or a sick leave, the company will ensure that somebody could fill in their work so your business won’t suffer while your VA is away.
Training and development
When you hire a freelancer, it’s your responsibility to give them regular updates and training to keep up with processes and industry trends. But will you really have the time to take care of it?
With the quality standards that an ISO-certified company has, you can expect ongoing training – including monthly updates, managing CRM tools/apps, and continuous development of your VA’s soft skills so they can have a real contribution to your business instead of simply being another staff that you need to manage. Imagine this: you’ll be able to get a highly-professional, full-time VA all without the hassle of managing and training them. How cool does that sound?
Security and confidentiality
Now, here comes the critical part. Working with freelancers can be risky, as there’s always the chance that your sensitive business information won’t be handled accordingly. But with a company-based virtual assistant, they will be bound to keep your business details, such as customer information and work processes strictly confidential. There will be an HR team ready to craft a contract protecting your information from unexpected leaks and disclosures, so you can be at ease with handing over sensitive tasks to a VA outside of your business.
What’s more, it will be an additional cost for you if you hire an IT to assist with your freelancer’s technical issues, but a company with outsourced assistants will already have a full-time, dedicated IT team always ready to help.
Legal and Aggregator Compliance
If you’re a mortgage broker in need of a virtual assistant, you know that most aggregators require ISO for you to get a VA. Failing to meet this requirement could result to losing your license, so hiring a regular freelancer should be crossed off your list. You might also lose insurance coverages if you haven’t done due diligence in getting a virtual assistant, so your best option would be getting a VA through an ISO-certified organisation.
Adaptability
As your business grows, your needs will inevitably change. When you work with a VA under an ISO-certified company, you have the ability to require more support from your VA as needed. And what does this mean? This means that you can adjust the level of support you’re receiving without having to go through the long process of recruitment all over again. And the best part? You’ll get way more value out of your VA for less time, money, and effort than you’ll do with a freelancer.
Why you should consider outsourcing with Koruna Assist, an ISO 27001-Certified Organisation
Koruna Assists helps time-poor SME owners save time by offloading low-value tasks so they can spend more time doing what they do best – whether to improve their business or have more time for themselves and their families.
Finding the right freelance assistant for your business will often involve hiring, training, and firing them until you get the perfect fit for your business. Not to mention all the sensitive information they had during their stay might be compromised if you spend too much time working from one freelancer to another. This may put your company culture in a bad light and could have a negative impact on your business in the long run.
You’re hiring a virtual assistant to save time, but that doesn’t mean that you have to sacrifice the quality and security you’re getting. That’s why we’re here to give you a free strategy call – let’s find the perfect VA for you today!
