Being flexible whether it be part time or just at the most productive part of your working week, saves businesses a lot of time and money. It’s literally streamlining your staff and paying them accordingly.

At times of low production, doesn’t it make sense to be flexible? This allows you to reduce costs whilst also enabling your employees to address their own work-life balance, which increases employee morale and reduces absenteeism thus increasing overall productivity.

Before a permanent employee can request a flexible working contract, they must have worked for a specific company for a minimum of 26 weeks. More companies are seeing the benefits of flexible working, with staggered hours, job sharing, flexi-time etc.

Hiring a virtual assistant can help with your flexible working patterns such as a job share or working with staff prior to their maternity leave. VA’s work remotely and are self-employed therefore they don’t impact on the office space or payroll etc, you dictate how many hours you need your VA for which saves on overall costs.

If you compare a paid employee and take into consideration their salary, the hiring of office desk space, utilities and resources used, tax and admin, commuting time and fuel expenses with that of a Virtual Assistant it is estimated that a business can save up to 40% of their costs by switching to a VA.

Employers are often wary of allowing staff to work remotely as they feel that unsupervised staff may not work as efficiently, and could have difficulties separating home from work and be easily distracted. Working with a VA offers peace of mind as they are used to the remote working environment and have experience of completing tasks efficiently.