The myth that virtual assistants—otherwise known as remote workers—are for start-up companies🥃 operating on a shoestring budget while they get up and running was blown out of the water last March when the pandemic hit.

As a matter of fact, big name companies are announcing the decision to keep remote workers in place permanently. Facebook, Novartis, and Shopify barely touch the tip of the iceberg as . Some are keeping staf𒁏f on-site. Others switched their companies to 100% virtual pretty quickly after the onset of the pandemic.

That’s ཧbecause employers realized that once the kinks all worked out—both at the management level and by staff adapting to an entirely new groove—having remote teams was a totally viable option for their company. In fact, companies that had never considered a remote workforce now state it’s how they stayed afloat this year.

Robert Nickell, the founder of , a leader in the virtual assistance industry, isn’t a bit surprised. “Lots of employers accepted the myth that VAs could on📖ly be used to complete simple tasks—like keeping track of scheduling appointments or making scripted phone calls, for instance. The pandemic forced them to discover for themselves that isn’t the case,” he said.

Robert continued, “Remote teams disper🤡sed on the fly and were expected to handle every aspect of the business possible. They did it by utilizing zoom and other available technologies💎. HR teams scrambled to make sure new processes got documented to keep everyone on the same page. It was pretty amazing to see everyone pull together and get the job done.”

Taking the plunge

Of course, it was chaos in the beginning—that tends to happen when you’re hit with life-changing events overnight! Once everyone had time to adjust to the changes—and for many that included figuring out how to homeschool their children at the same time—the new routine♌ fell into place pretty quickly.

It didn’t take✱ employers long to discover the benefits of having a ♊remote workforce.

A of 16,000 remote workers determined that their productivity increase𓆏d by 16%.

Overhead costs reduce by as much as 40% too. That’s because you don’t need as much—or any if you decide to go 100% virtual—office space. Moreover, when hiring new emꦗployees, many candidates are willing to take a cut in salary when offered a remote position. That’s because they realize the value of not having to commute, buy lunch, or the need to purchase business attire.

Not only that, but the💟 idea of having a flexible work day is especially attractive to millennials. They aren’t into a traditional “nine-to-five.” They want to fit their work day around their outside interests.

It’s not just a personal assistant

A lot of people still connect the term “virtual assistant” with someone hired to manage a calendar, 𒀰confirm appointments, and provide necessary reminders. Taking over email corresp🌼ondence and handling travel arrangements also fall into the typical job description.

Another bad rap that VAs have incurred is that you’ll wind up with someone living in another country who doesn’t have a very good grasp of the language. In the beginning, the language barrier alone caused employers t🎃o abandon the idea of hiring remote workers. Not to mention the havoc it wrea🌸ked in following a set process.

However, lots of things improve over time, don’t t൲hey?

Today, the term virtual as𝐆sistant encompasses a workforce with a wide array of skill sets. Yꦆou can hire a VA to perform virtually any type of task that you can imagine.

All you need is a thoroughly documented process and a stellar onboarding process. You want to make sure you provide your virtual assistant with all the nece𒐪ssary information and training that they need to be successful right out of the gate.

Take advantage💃 of all that technology has to offer. You can start small or put together a stellar team of employees that can work together from remote locations around town or around the world!

Sailing into scaling

Fifty-one percent of the U.S. workforce was worki🍸ng from home within a month of the pandemic hitting. Overall, the for most is that co-workers miss each other.

Make sure you check in with your virtual employees ꧅to see how they’re doing. Isolation is hard for some people. Find creative ways to boost morale. It could be as simple as encouraging team member꧃s to surprise each other with “just saying hi” contacts. No business discussion allowed!

“The virtual workforce is going to continue to grow worldwide,” Nickell said. “At Rocket Station, we work with employers to develop teams that are equipped with the skill set necessary to handle th🅠e job. We set them up with ൲employees who will enhance their businesses and promote company growth.”

He continued, “Business owners 🐬tell me aꦫll the time that they’ve tried using virtual assistants but the experience didn’t go well. That doesn’t mean that it’s not going to work for them. It just means they need to fine-tune their process.”

𒀰Here are a couple of industries that could easily utilize the remote workforce.

Web development

Using virtual assistants to develop a website for your company or for those of your clients is an excelle🌳nt example of how the industry is evolvi🎶ng. That’s some high tech stuff!

You ༺can hire a virtual assi📖stant experienced in handling any aspect of web development.

Front end web development entai🦋ls managing what a user sees when first arriving at your site. A front end developer, also referred to as a Javascript developer or web designer, should be fluent in front end languages, such as HTML, CSS, and Javascript. They’re responsible for analyzing code, web design, and debugging applications coupled with creating a seamless user e🔯xperience.

Back end web development manages the ser😼ver side of an application which includes writing code for all the communication between the database and the browser. They꧂ monitor a site’s responsiveness and speed. Back end developers may understand front end languages, but they’re experts in back end languages such as Java, PHP, Ruby, Python, and .net.

These languages are used to create dynamic sites. A dynamic site stores database information. T🎃he content on these sites is constantly updating and changing.

Full stack web developers are capable of building applications for both ends of the site. This might be the be🍷st fit for employers looking t🎐o hire virtual assistants to develop sites for clients. They could assign a set number of clients to a specific VA and hire others as necessary as the business scales.

The demand for full stack developers is high and that doesn’t look to change any time soon. A♚ccording to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, the shows an ant💎icipated growth of 22% over the next decade! That’s much faster than average—and this study was done pre-COVID.

Once you’ve determined what position you’ll be looking to fill, it’s i💧mportant to document your process before hiring a VA. This ensures consistent results because the entire process is layed out from start to finish. Nothing falls between the cracks.

There are a number of ways to track your process using c🐽loud files. You won’t ever experience versioning issues becau🧸se all updates are reflected instantly.

Which of the following would you choose?

• Create templates for certain types of projects
• Load the information into a Google or Word document
• Develop detailed flow charts—Diagram.net is a great tool for this.

Actually, you don’t have🌞 to choose a method and stick with it. Most ag🙈encies use a combination of these approaches.

SEO agencies

Robert said that many SEO agencies don’t think they can find the righ𓂃t VAs to carry out the needed tasks. He disagrees saying 🀅all they need to do is find the right approach.

Nickell laid out this ඣexample for executing a link building campaign.

• Conduct a backlink audit for our client’s site.
• Conduct a backlink audit of their competitors.
• Conduct research to identify new link building opportunities.
• Develop strategies to acquire new links.
• Develop outreach scripts.
• Review all preliminary data with the client.
• Implement toolsets for outreach and tracking.
• Conduct outreach and follow up to acquire these links.
• Track and analyze the performance of our efforts.
• Review performance data with the client.

Once you’ve mapped out the broad scope of things, you’ll want to hone in on the details like determining who does what. For instance, some tasks require specialized knowledge that can’t be conveyed in your documented process. In that case, someone on your internal team would take them on instead of handing them off to a VA.

Next, determine how you will document the process and once it’s completed you’ꩲre ready to source! You can post on job boards, gig sites, social media and other contacts, or use a virtual assistance agency—like💦 Rocket Station for instance.

Insert your company here

No matter what type of business you own, you can utilize a remote w💦orkforce. The key is to determine exactly what your VAs will be responsible for handling. Then, create a detailed plan for them to follow.

Robert shared t in his 🔴virtual assistant agency and said it’s something all employers can implement within their own businesses༺.

• Identify your high-level needs
• Scope your project and determine who does what
• Document every step of the process
• Source your virtual assistants—Determine if you will use an agency, like Rocket Station for example, or onboard your remote employees directly into your company.
• Communicate throughout the project—You want to make sure nothing falls through the cracks.
• Measure performance by defining effective KPIs—You don’t want to have teams wasting time meeting KPIs if they aren’t moving the needle for your clients.
• Scaling up—As you see a need for growth, repeat the above steps so your new VAs can hit the ground running.
• Be ready to adapt and implement an entirely new process if the old one breaks as your business moves into a new environment.

The remote workforce has become a very diverse industry and will continue to grow. Employers are discovering ways to outsource and use VAs for certain aspects of their business to free up their🐷 high paid employees to focus on other tasks.

It mig𒁏ht take a bit of trial and error to get in the groove, but once you’re there—look out!