What it's like hiring a Virtual Assistant from an ISO-certified organisation?

If you constantly find yourself wearing all the hats from doing all the paperwork to managing your projects and employees chances are you already considered hiring an assistant to do the tedious admin work.

And if you considered hiring a virtual assistant, you may have already browsed through multiple freelancing sites trying to find the perfect VA with skills and expertise in your business. While finding a full-time virtual assistant for less money is quite enticing, what happens when they don't provide quality work? What happens when they suddenly leave, or what happens with all the sensitive data you've entrusted with them?

Finding a skilled freelancer is one thing, but finding the perfect virtual assistant that removes all your doubts is another. And what if I tell you that there's actually a way to find one? The answer lies in hiring a virtual assistant from an ISO-certified organisation.

Before we dive into the reasons why this is a good business decision for you, let's first take a look at what ISO certification is. The International Organisation for Standardization (ISO) is an independent, non-governmental international organisation that develops standards to ensure the quality, safety, and efficiency of products and services. An ISO certification is a seal of approval that a company meets these standards and adheres to a certain level of quality management.

There are many types of ISO standards and one of them is ISO 9001. This standard revolves around quality management principles, including customer focus, the motivation of an organisation's top management, and an organization's drive for continuous improvement.

It all sounds good on paper, but what does it actually mean when you compare it to hiring a regular freelancer?

Accountability - When you hire a regular freelancer, you're essentially relying on an independent contractor's promise to ensure that their tasks are completed on time and to the desired standards. On the other hand, an ISO-certified company with virtual assistant services has strict guidelines in place that their staff must follow, and they are subjected to a higher level of accountability.

For example, an ISO-certified company will have systems in place to monitor and track the VA's work, ensuring that their tasks will be done on the agreed time. The VA will also be accountable to the company which provides them with oversight and continuous guidance to ensure quality.

Professionalism and reliability - One of the biggest challenges of working with regular freelancers is their availability and consistency. You'll never know whether they will show up the next day, and they can resign at any time without prior warning. With a VA working under an ISO-certified company, you can expect a certain level of consistency in terms of availability. Your assigned virtual assistant will only be working full-time for you, and the company will have a dedicated staff to monitor any issues that could happen to the VA - whether it's an emergency, a power outage, or a sick leave, the company will ensure that somebody could fill in their work so your business won't suffer while your VA is away.

Training and development - Wh