Hiring a Virtual Assistant in Asia

Virtual Assistants are rapidly growing into a must-have position in most companies, as they can perform several back office and day-to-day tasks. This frees up time and resources for your core services. But did you know that these are commonly outsourced company roles? This article explores the benefits and process of hiring a virtual assistant in Asia.

Overview of the virtual assistant role

What is a virtual assistant?

Virtual assistants are extremely flexible and can perform almost any task you can think of delegating. This continues beyond administrative roles, but also day-to-day tasks that require only a little bit of training. Below you will find the most common tasks handled by virtual assistants:

• Bookkeeping
• Customer service
• Online store management
• Personal, office, and calendar management
• Data entry
• Research and Data analysis
• Social media management
• Content or technical writing

Due to the versatility of the role, it is common for employers to outsource these roles to Emerging markets in Asia, which have primarily young workforces, with high levels of tech-savvy professionals. Countries like the Philippines and Indonesia also have strong English language skills, making them key areas for outsourcing Administrative and IT virtual assistants.

How much does it cost to hire a remote virtual assistant in Asia?

One of the main reasons that lead foreign employers to outsource virtual assistant positions to Southeast Asia is the fact that hiring costs are up to 80% lower than in Western countries. This in turn allows you to lower your overhead costs and more efficiently redistribute capital. Below you will find the average monthly cost of hiring virtual assistants in the most popular markets:

1. Philippines: $800
2. Indonesia: $1100
3. United States: $3600
4. Australia: $5600

Remember that the exact cost of hiring will depend on multiple factors such as overall experience and projected workload. RecruitGo’s recruitment service has experts in most key Asian markets, thus allowing you to tailor your job offer specifically to the experience you require while remaining within a cost-effective, yet competitive salary range.

Benefits of hiring a virtual assistant in Asia

Hiring a virtual assistant in Asia before expanding your business into a new market

Are you planning to expand your business into emerging markets? Hiring a virtual assistant in Asia can give you a competitive edge over potential competitors. A local VA already has prior knowledge of the market and can conduct market research to determine the interest in your products or services. 

Outsourcing preliminary market expansion tasks to a remote virtual assistant can also reduce the logistical cost of your operations. They can already start looking for locations in which to set up your offices, as well as avoid you having to book flights and accommodation to send staff to survey the market.

Virtual assistants can also facilitate business relationships with local contacts by acting as your local representative abroad. They can introduce your company to possible clients and look for suppliers on your behalf. If your business targets a specific industry, RecruitGo can help you find a virtual assistant with prior experience within that sector to increase your return on investment.

Reduce your overhead costs by outsourcing administrative and back-office tasks to a remote virtual assistant

Whether you are planning to expand your business or set up a business process outsourcing back-office team, hiring a virtual assistant in Asia can allow you to avoid the high costs associated with hiring someone with specific expertise in your market by outsourcing some important administrative and back-office tasks:

• Translating documents: English language use is limited in some emerging markets and even in countries like Indonesia and Vietnam, which have high English proficiency, official documents or contracts are required to be translated to the local language.
• Providing customer support: Southeast Asian countries are popular hubs for setting up customer contact centers, as it allows you to enhance your overall range of services for your clients. It is common for virtual assistants to handle customer support-related tasks in combination with other administrative responsibilities.
• Preparing reports and presentations: While navigating timezone differences can present a challenge for some employers, hiring a virtual assistant in Asia can allow you to take advantage of the time difference to ensure reports or presentations can be prepared quickly outside of your regular working hours.

How do you hire a virtual assistant in Asia?

Using virtual assistant companies

A common solution for hiring virtual assistants is working with a company that employs their own and assigns them to work on clients’ tasks. Most virtual assistant companies use a subscription model. Depending on the plan, you get a set number of hours worked by a virtual assistant for a given period. 

These companies are usually more effective for short-term projects. Since you don’t assign tasks directly to the assistant, you generally have to hire an account manager for long-term assistants. The company assigns tasks to virtual assistants in their roster. Thus, it’s unlikely that the same people will work on your account so the quality of work will vary each time.

It is important to exercise caution if you are dealing with sensitive data. Even if the company has policies in place for the privacy of its clients, there’s still a level of risk involved in having less control over data use. The rotating nature of task delegation will also affect the consistency in style for creative tasks like content writing and graphic design. 

Hiring through a freelancing platform

A common option for foreign employers is to post jobs on freelancing platforms. While the platforms do verify the identity of the freelancer, they do not typically validate their credentials. Some platforms offer internal certification tests so users can prove their skills and abilities, but these results can be less accurate than verifiable experience and portfolios .

If you are looking for a virtual assistant to work set hours, it is not recommended to use freelancers, as they generally work open-hours. It is also important to note that freelancers usually prefer short-term contracts to free themselves up for other projects. This can result in less stability for your business, as even a perfect fit may not stick around for long.

For the most part, the agreement between freelancers and employers is informal. If any issues come up, it will be hard to hold the freelancer accountable, as they are not bound to the stipulations and protections of an employment contract. Additionally, similarly to virtual assistant companies, there’s a level of risk involved when sharing data with a freelancer.

Hire a virtual assistant in Asia using an Employer of Record

RecruitGo’s Employer of Record (EOR) service will act as the legal employer of your employees on your behalf in emerging markets. This allows you to start hiring virtual assistants in Asia virtually immediately, without needing to register a local company. Our local experts also manage compliance with local labor and payroll administration.

Our comprehensive service includes recruitment based on your specific needs. We’ll also prepare employment contracts to ensure that you can benefit from the stability of a designated virtual assistant and the flexibility of outsourcing remotely. Our team can also help you set up remote working hubs in emerging markets if you want to set up a local team.

Partnering with our EOR service to hire virtual assistants allows you to focus on your core business, while still providing you with the final say in all hiring decisions. You can also manage your remote employees payroll data, leave requests, and contract details via our easy to use app.

Want to hire virtual assistants in Asia? RecruitGo’s team is ready to help you find the right talent for your business in any of the key emerging markets! Contact us via the form below to get started!