Is an ex-corporate Executive Assistant the right Virtual Assistant for your business?

By now, you are probably aware of how popular hiring a Virtual Assistant (VA) has become and you are possibly considering hiring one yourself.

You can hire a top-notch experienced Assistant for the hours you can budget for right now and skip the additional costs and risks of a permanent employee. It is a mutually beneficial working relationship for you and your VA, which makes for a 'happy place' to work together and often leads to a long term working relationship.

Aside from that, how do you know which VA to choose? Since they arrived on the scene, the field has grown, demand and supply in abundance with everyone and their Mum all wanting to have a piece of the flexible work from home action.

While the number of options may be growing one thing is for sure, they cannot all deliver the same results so you need to look carefully at what you require from them.

Firstly, are you looking for a good all-rounder with decades of experience or do you need a more specific ‘type’ to carry out one element of your business support? There are so many now, your Social Media VA, Creative VA, Tech VA, Traditional VA, Bookkeeping VA, Marketing, Ecommerce, Pinterest VA and so on!

Secondly, consider their longevity in the field and are they likely to be a reliable long-lasting hire as your right-hand person. There are many VA's that do go back to permanent working, due to missing the office social life or the stability of a salary, pension etc.

Thirdly, are they a good personality fit for you and your business? The only way to establish that properly is to meet up via video call, this will effectively be the 'interview' where you can both establish working patterns, competencies, required tasks and whether you feel you can build a rapport.

An ex-corporate Executive Assistant is the perfect choice if you want a far-reaching skill-set coupled with a polished professionalism, someone that can competently get on with any task given to them. They are used to working under pressure and to strict deadlines and have excellent attention to detail. It is useful to remember that they were previously interviewed, liked and hired by corporate Executive Director's, and will have passed corporate HR processes too, so you can be confident, they pass the 'hireable' test.

Some of the traditional tasks a corporate Personal Assistant / Executive Assistant would carry out are:

• Complex diary organisation

• Complex global travel bookings

• Inbox management

• Board meeting documents

• Board minutes

• Video call set-up

• Event management

• Document creation and formatting

• HR onboarding

• Project coordination

• CRM management

• Expenses

• Ad-hoc admin

• Maintaining strong working relationships with relevant departments

There are many many great VA's out there to choose from so it is a daunting task finding the right one, however if you seek the right 'type' for your requirements from the get-go you will quickly come across some worthy contenders.

If an experienced VA with a long prior history of working with large corporate companies in London is what you seek, please reach out and book in a call to discuss your requirements.

Get in touch with Nicola Gauyau at your London VA.