Below is an interesting infographic showing how telecommuting workers spend their time when working from home.
It’s also a great opener to the discussion of the difference between a Virtual Assistant who is an independent contractor, and a teleworker who is an employee of your business.
- While a teleworker may be doing all the “non-work” activities detailed in the infographic, you are paying them for a certain amount of time regardless of what they’re actually accomplishing during that period
- You’re probably paying all or some of their internet costs as well as providing some or all of the equipment they use on a daily basis
- A teleworkers hours are set by the employer
- An employer still has to pay employee entitlements to a teleworker, such as WHS, superannuation, PAYG or whatever payments or coverage is legislated in your area.
- A teleworkers agreement may allow you to monitor their work in some way.
These are all things that would NOT be happening with a Virtual Assistant.
- A Virtual Assistant will only charge you for the time they spend on your tasks
- A Virtual Assistant will take care of having their own equipment, and as a result will often have more up-to-date with programs and hardware.
- A Virtual Assistant will either negotiate with a client to be available during a specific time period, or operate with a specific turnaround time. The actual hours worked for a client will depend on the Virtual Assistants overall workload, the amount of work received from the client and any “time packages” bought.
- A Virtual Assistant will take care of their own taxes, superannuation etc. Particularly in Australia, you need to be careful about this and be sure whether you are engaging a Virtual Assistant or an employee.
- A Virtual Assistant should never allow you to monitor their computer. As Virtual Assistants have multiple clients, I’m sure you wouldn’t want to risk another client being able to monitor your Virtual Assistant while they’re working on your tasks.
As the infographic shows, 50% of bosses are against teleworkers. I’m certain that a far higher percentage of people are happy to engage a Virtual Assistant, but if you don’t understand the difference, you’re probably not going to get the full benefit of working with a Virtual Assistant.
Courtesy of: Online Degrees
