7 Reasons to Hire a Virtual HR Assistant

Why You Should Hire a Virtual HR Assistant

What do virtual HR assistants do?

A virtual human resources assistant works online to support the operations of the human resources (HR) department in a company or organization. In this remote job, they assist other human resources employees with various tasks. For in-person HR needs, an experienced specialist will always be necessary. As the “human” element of human resources is imperative. However, that same specialist has an abundance of tasks in their day-to-day that can be handled by a reliable professional outside of the office. This is where a virtual assistant comes in, to help manage the finer details and busy work of such a broad and important department. Here are just a few examples of tasks a virtual HR assistant can do for any business.

• Reporting on general HR activities
• Coordinating employee services
• Performance evaluations
• Documenting employee information
• Supporting recruitment and hiring operations
• And much more

Why should you outsource HR with a virtual assistant?

As mentioned above you shouldn’t outsource your entire HR efforts to a remote working professional. There will always be in-person needs for any business’s HR department. Leveraging a virtual HR assistant for everything else that doesn’t require any in-person needs is where the benefits start stacking up. Here are just seven reasons why a virtual HR assistant can be beneficial to any organization.

1. Save money

   1. It’s no secret that outsourcing roles are often more cost-effective than hiring in person. By leveraging a virtual assistant for tasks that can be done remotely, especially from a service provider, you get the same quality of work at a fraction of the cost. One flat fee, no PTO or insurance, and no overhead needs. Some companies can’t afford any HR team when they first get started, so a virtual HR assistant can fill that initial gap on a budget. 

2. Mitigate legal risks

   1. Staying compliant and protected legally is very important in the sensitive world of HR. Federal, state, and local regulations are constantly changing. Having an assistant to help keep up with the ever-changing landscape is invaluable. Because fines and penalties can come up a lot when a business grows and fails to meet FMLA and ACA reporting requirements. 

3. The local team can focus on core business processes

   1. A lot of responsibilities that fall on the HR team are very sensitive and important. By leveraging a virtual assistant to help manage all of the busy work and day-to-day tasks, you free up your local experts to focus on higher-level duties. Give your specialists more breathing room to focus on the human side of HR, and let someone remotely manage everything else.

4. Improve employee relations

   1. Difficulties among your employees are inevitable. Having a virtual HR assistant can help mitigate those difficulties and improve relationships among employees. Putting all of that responsibility on one specialist is a lot of pressure, and employees will notice. It helps to have a neutral, remote professional to provide support when necessary, even 24/7 if needed.

5. Gain expertise not found in a single-hire

   1. It’s important to have a diversity of knowledge and skills on any team. You likely hired an HR specialist to run the department in-house, but having an assistant is an opportunity to expand their capabilities. Having different expertise to support HR is beneficial for all of the compliance keeping, software management, etc. Basically, any specific tasks that your HR department may not consider their usual expertise.

6. To help the business grow faster

   1. The most time-consuming part of hiring a new employee isn’t the interview, but the review process and the onboarding. Expedite your recruiting and onboarding processes by having a reliable assistant available to your team. Data entry, scheduling meetings, sending documents and guides, answering questions and more can all be made more efficient. Then watch everything else in your business grow faster because nothing is slowing you down.

7. Better fit for multi-site employers

   1. A lot of companies have multiple office locations and some are across different states. While it’s essential that each location have its own in-person HR specialist, it benefits the entire company to share HR tasks across locations via remote assistants. This can improve productivity, and help keep things more organized, thorough, and cohesive. One assistant can support several teams in different locations.

Virtual vs. in-house HR

What to look for in a virtual HR assistant

Although there are many advantages to hiring virtual assistants for just about any role, the first steps are always challenging. Due to the highly sensitive nature of HR, you need a professional that is reliable, experienced, and proven. Below are two of the best tips for finding and selecting the right virtual HR assistant for your business.

• Evaluate your needs first – It’s important to have a clear understanding of what benefit you’re seeking in this virtual HR assistant. Come up with a game plan of what responsibilities you intend to offload from your in-house team. Then prepare training materials and guides to be used by whoever you hire. The less time spent micromanaging your new assistant or fixing their mistakes, the more value you’ll get out of them.
• Test your candidates – Anyone can fluff up a resume and give you all of the answers you want. The best way of evaluating an assistant is to test their skills. Come up with a test assignment of some kind, or prepare interview questions related to the specifics of HR and their expected duties. It’s important to see for yourself if this assistant is ready for your or not, as wasted time with a bad hire is wasted money.

Finding the right virtual HR assistant for your business

Anything that brings this much benefit to your business won’t be easy to do right off the bat. It’s important you take the right steps and understand your options before entrusting a virtual assistant to your team. While freelance options exist and can be enticingly priced, going with a proven service provider is always the best and safest option. MyOutDesk has been providing experienced and talented virtual assistants to companies of all sizes for over 15 years. Our professionals are thoroughly interviewed and vetted before being brought on. This ensures that we not only provide the best of the best to our clients, but it also means that we know exactly who we have and where they belong. Making the onboarding process for clients as quick and painless as possible. 

Upon our understanding of your HR team’s needs, we hand-pick several qualified candidates for you to interview. Once you’ve selected your desired assistant, the onboarding begins. The entire process is often completed within one month, as opposed to the average of 2-months it takes businesses to bring on someone new. MyOutDesk also handles all of the nitty gritty of our virtual assistants, so you don’t have to worry about added costs like insurance, benefits, and PTO. Leave that to us, while you pay one flat monthly rate to have the best virtual HR assistant money can find.

Frequently Asked Questions

• Can virtual HR employees also assist with administrative tasks?

  • Yes. The foundation of any virtual assistant is competence with general administrative and customer-focused tasks. Data entry, scheduling and coordinating, inbox management, payroll assistance, and more are all within the breadth of a virtual HR assistant.

• Which is best, a virtual or in-house HR assistant?

  • This depends on your specific needs in the role. The average HR assistant won’t be working on much in-office that they couldn’t do remotely. The biggest difference here is the cost. An in-person assistant needs to be on your payroll, thus they require benefits and insurance, PTO, and insurance to have them on site. A virtual HR assistant can do all of the necessary tasks possible from their computer at home or in a remote office. Without adding numerous expenses to your budget.

• Are there any disadvantages to outsourcing HR?

  • The primary disadvantage is the inability to meet in person. Often with HR positions, the human element comes into play frequently. As in-person sit-downs and discussions need to occur when dealing with personal matters internally. The HR specialist should be handling matters such as this personally. The assistant is typically helping with more technical and communication tasks, as those can be done from anywhere.