With the rapid growth of global outsourcing in recent years, virtual assistants have grown in popularity. In the past, virtual assistants were limited to doing mostly administrative work but nowadays, we are seeing more and more virtual assistants become stars in different industries ranging from common business niches to more specialised industries.
Even with the popularity, it’s not an uncommon occurrence for the general population to not understand what the roles of a VA exactly are. “VA” is a widely used term to describe offshore workers who are not stationed at an office, making the exact description of what they do uncertain.
While it is a general term and the scope of what they do can be very diverse, there are some common functions of a VA that gives a general description for what they do.
1. Virtual Assistants do Administrative/Daily Tasks
The most common task that a VA does is completing administrative/operational/daily tasks for businesses. These are your generalist VAs. Their job function allows businesses to operate by having an online virtual worker who sees to it that these tasks are checked off from the business owner’s list giving more time to business owners for attending to other matters.
Hiring a generalist VA is the least difficult as they are pretty common. The skills required to fill the role is pretty general, giving you a lot of options to choose from.
Some of the tasks you can expect generalist virtual assistant to fulfill are:
Bookkeeping
Payroll
Paying bills
Transferring funds
Data entry
Tax reports
Managing your accounting software
Create financial reports
Schedule meetings
Document notes in meetings
Organise business meetings
Organise your calendar
Event management
Preparing reports
2. Virtual Assistants can Specialise in Certain Fields
With the growth of outsourcing and virtual tools that allow more specialised tasks to be completed, we are seeing more and more specialist VAs in the industry. Specialist VAs tackle more specific job roles and positions making them a valuable addition to the workforce within your organisation.
Specialist VAs have extensive industry extensive making them suitable for more complex roles within your business. You can expect specialist VAs to have anywhere around 3-10 years or maybe even more years of experience in the field.
With the help of modern day virtual tools, getting the job done is made possible even if you are at the opposite ends of the world. This is another beauty outsourcing provide as you can find equally talented offshore workers in areas where labor is a lot cheaper as compared to your local workforce rates. This presents growth opportunities for businesses especially those that’s running on a more limited budget/capital.
Some of the rolls we can expect specialist VAs to fulfill are:
Social media manager to handle creatives, strategy, scheduling, management and engagement
Social Seller to handle lead generation, prospecting and appointment setting organically
Lead generation to get you a consistent source of leads for client acquisition
Customer support
Web developer
SEO specialist
Copy writer & content creator
Video editing
Graphic design
Sales reps
Digital marketing specialist support
Today however, we are seeing more and more niched job posts being filled by VAs even in industries that are more specialised (like accounting/law firms). We are in the age where we are seeing the maximum potential of global outsourcing.
Virtual Assistant Job Roles Gets More and More Complex by the Day
While generalist and specialist VAs are the two categories we can categorize VAs in to describe their job roles, the possibilities at the moment are unlimited. As more and more programmers and innovators are creating tools that make virtual work possible, it’s a trend these days to see much more extensive roles being filled by someone offshore.
The opportunity for VAs and what it can do for your business is extremely vast these days and you can add us to the list of people who are in awe of how dynamic and fast growing the industry is.. Needless to say, we are on the watch to see new outsourcing trends as well as new opportunities both for business owners and virtual workers.
If you want a more in-depth review of What do Virtual Assistant do, check out this video below:
What Do Virtual Assistants Do? (Hire the RIGHT VA for YOU)
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