We’ve spoken a lot about how your PA can help you, but what about your other employees and future employees? How can a virtual assistant help the whole office without ever actually entering the building?

A PA is usually a boss’s go between for other employees. Assistants have access to the all important diary; they know where you are, what you’re doing, what you like, what you don’t like, what you’re working on and sometimes even what you’re thinking about. So to the rest of the office, your personal assistant is like the golden key to your life. That’s why we make sure that all of our assistants at Outsourcery are not only highly trained in administrative skills, management and technical know how, but they’re also all wonderful with people, which is even more important when communicating takes place over a phone or via email. They know how to prioritise and when to take the initiative to act, meaning you’re saved the little decisions and can feel confident that your company is running like clock-work unless you’re otherwise alerted. You could even ask all employees to email your assistant queries, rather than coming directly to you so that your inbox isn’t overspilling with requests for a larger stationary budget and more varieties of tea. Your PA can then brief you in one go during a Skype call to save you time and once you’ve established a smooth, working relationship with your assistant, they should be able to anticipate your replies to the smaller things without consulting you and need only highlight the issues that require your input. Your employees will probably find it less frustrating too, as it’s likely your assistant will answer their emails more quickly than you can, meaning they can get on with whatever it is they’re working on. What’s more, there’s a lot to be said for having your assistant distanced from the working environment because although they won’t get to know your staff on a really personal basis, they also won’t be involved in any inter-office politics, providing a neutral platform for communication if required and maintaining a high level of professionalism at all times.

Then there’s the benefits to the future developments of your company. PAs are extremely useful when it comes to hiring and training team members. As our assistants all work virtually, they might not be able to sit in the interviews with you or make the office introductions when there’s a new member of staff, but they can certainly help source potential candidates, arrange meetings and then prep the new employee on the way your company and most importantly, you function. Put crudely, think how much time you waste welcoming and settling in new staff, correcting them on simple mistakes and trying to get them up to speed on what you’re working on. The same goes for your current employees – most likely, none of you have the time or the patience to explain in the depth what’s required and expected. Here’s where an assistant can step in. Sure, they can’t tell a new employee how to do their job, but they certainly can give them guidelines on what goes on in a general sense and can provide useful information on the company’s history and progress. This means that your new employee will adapt more quickly to the way you do things and you’ll start feeling the benefits sooner, increasing productivity all round.

You also have the opportunity of extending your PA’s hours (all Outsourcery assistants tailor their working days to suit you) to assist your employees directly if they’re short of time or manpower. This is particularly handy if you’ve working on a one-off, long term project that needs coordinating with lots of different people’s schedules and opinions. Our assistants are all used to handling teams, efficiently and calmly and can also implement virtual platforms to aid discussion and development. And if the workload gets too much for your PA, we have many more talented individuals who your assistant can introduce the team to and brief, ensuring no set backs and no wasted time.

So when you think about it, hiring a virtual PA is actually really selfless.