Since Quickskill started hiring, training, and placing remote assistants with U.S. businesses 12 years ago, much has changed. What started as a niche business has grown to some 170 virtual assistant companies worldwide. Thousands of individual or freelance solo virtual assistants are also in the mix.
2020—before the COVID-19 crisis–seemed like a good time to step back and assess the marketplace for virtual assistants and virtual assistant companies. To do so, Quickskill contracted with Staffing Industry Analysts, a highly regarded global advisor to staffing and workforce-related businesses, to research the virtual assistant industry and where it fits in the broader staffing industry ecosystem. The pandemic slowed the research and allowed SIA to consider its short-term and long-term effects on the remote virtual assistant marketplace.
The report, “The Virtual Assistant Landscape: An Emerging Part of the Workforce Solutions Ecosystem,” has been completed and is now available. Topics covered include:
- The Virtual Assistant Marketplace—where the virtual assistant industry fits in the larger Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) industry.
- Business Portfolios and Differentiation—the different services and business models provided by virtual assistant companies.
- Virtual Assistants v Temporary Workers v Freelancers—a comparison of service delivery models.
- Outsourcing v Offshore—the pros and cons of offshore virtual assistant companies, nearshore and U.S.-based business.
- Market Trends and Impact of COVID-19—how the pandemic and shutdowns impacted the virtual assistant industry.
- Enterprise-Level Services—the migration of virtual assistants from SMB to enterprise services.
- Legal Issues—the legal concerns surrounding overseas employee and part time workers.
- Outlook—what’s ahead for the virtual assistant industry in the context of continued digital transformation.
The study confirms that the virtual assistant industry has come of age and is a growing employment category in the broader staffing industry. There are more than 100,000 virtual assistant jobs posted on Zip Recruiter. According to Flexjobs, the virtual assistant is the second-fastest-growing remote career category. That enterprise businesses embrace the position is a testimony to the efficiency and productivity gains virtual assistants bring to teams of executives.
Virtual assistant companies like Quickskill experienced growth even during the pandemic. The SIA analysts cite the following drivers for these services:
- Productivity—executives spend 68 percent of their time on day-to-day work and just 31 percent on strategic initiatives. Virtual assistants can reduce that 68 percent of time spent on admin tasks.
- Flexibility–with managed services like Quickskill’s, adding a virtual assistant improves flexibility by increasing productivity without adding to executives’ management burden.
- Taping into third-party expertise—virtual assistants offer a fast path to skills needed, providing a competitive advantage.
- Cost reduction—many virtual assistant companies offer fractional services, so companies can access skills as they need them at a lower cost than hiring full-time employees.
- One-on-one relationship–the virtual assistant model facilitates building a strong relationship with the client and can generate more value as the assistant learns the client’s business.
