Virtual Assistants: Freelancer/Upwork or Recruitment Agency?

With the internet offering many different options for reaching out to a virtual assistant, let’s breakdown the two most common models and work out which might be a good fit for your business.

Freelancer/Upwork pros:

-No ongoing commitment

-Still have screenshot capture

-Still competitively priced

-Allow you to test out your processes and seeing if you like the system before powering on with this model

-Much of the time worker works from home, saving in commuting for them, giving quality of life and saving overheads which ultimately end up as wage costs for you

Freelancer/Upwork cons:

-Worker may be busy with other commitments and not solely working on your business

-Have to communicate through the platform in the beginning

-If you like them and want to move them off the platform, there are high fees involved

Recruitment Agency Pros:

-Opportunity to really have this person as a true team member of your Busines

-Sometimes the agencies provide services offices, employee benefits such as social clubs and childcare centres and socialisation. This may suit a career focused younger team member looking for social life, perhaps not an older team member who ha as family and wants to avoid commute

-The good ones are like true recruitment agencies, who have a large pool of vetted, quality staff and can do follow up/changes if you aren’t happy

-You may have a local account manager, who will assist you with any teething issues you may have

Recruitment Agency cons:

-Majority of agencies require at least a 20 hour commitment per week (proper “part time” or “full time role”), rather than just an hourly rate based on actual work done from week to week

-Often paying higher than necessary hourly rates, due to the agency taking a significant cut

In any case, no matter which way you go, if you don’t have clear processes, clear accountabilities, and a clear way for you as the business owner (or other staff members, perhaps even another virtual

One!) To review work for completion and accuracy, you will likely be unsatisfied and unsure whether the model is truly giving you efficiencies in your business. You really want to avoid the virtual staff model creating more admin work for you than it saves! Process documentation and an easy way to check the assistants work are key in success if implementing this model into your business.