When will my virtual assistant be available to me?

 When will my virtual assistant be available to me?

Clients, potential clients, and interviewers all ask me that question. So, how much longer do you think virtual assistants will be around? "It depends" is my standard response. A lot of factors go into it. But before we can do that, we need to clear our heads and get a better grasp on the modern workforce.

Do your own experiences in the workforce inform your assumptions about employee tenure as a home-based or small-business owner? Um, I feel the same way. Poor decision-making. For my part, I am not the type to give up easily, so I always plan to see a project through to completion. For the most part, I've been able to maintain my jobs for quite some time. With the exception of one, but more on that in a bit.

However, we must keep in mind that not everyone is exactly like us. The present workforce in particular. In an earlier piece, I discussed how the days of locking yourself into one job for the rest of your life are over (http://www.teamdoubleclick.com/news/free_articles/workingwithnewgeneration.html). As company owners, we have a tendency to overlook that, which can be frustrating.
This article will allow me to reiterate: Millennials have an average of 18 months of job experience, according to a recent study. Any employee, whether they work in an office or online, will only stay with a company for a maximum of that amount of time. Let that idea simmer for a bit and then we can address the "that depends" that I brought up earlier.

Assumes what?
• Everybody's life is dynamic and subject to change. All of us, including your virtual assistant.

Consider the situations in which you left your previous employer. What events in your past necessitated a change in employment? Ill parents, sick children, sick spouse? What about pregnancy, unexpected depression, family death, changes in financial responsibilities, moving, new career aspirations, returning to college? Sure, and I can think of a lot more. Because they are human, your virtual assistant goes through the same things you do. This is just a small list of the many reasons why a virtual assistant might quit or go elsewhere.

Positivity on the work. You must find fulfillment in your work. May we be able to reach a consensus regarding that. You can be sure that people will constantly be on the lookout for greener pastures if they are unhappy in their current positions. Unfortunately, virtual assistants are just as susceptible as their physical counterparts. In this context, I am not referring to the more general phenomenon of virtual assistants deciding they can't stand the loneliness and giving up their jobs. What I mean is the mundane but essential work that a virtual assistant does every day. She might be asked to do data entry for one client, answer phones for another, and even make cold calls for a third. She will likely request a transfer or resign from her position if she is unhappy with her responsibilities in that area.

Possessing likability as a boss. If I had to choose just one, it would have to be the one where I was treated like a prisoner in a concentration camp—breathed down my neck and all—because I didn't stick around for very long. I went out for lunch one day and came back the next day. Can you remember a time when you had an absolutely intolerable boss? Consider someone you simply could not agree with. Perhaps you had an aversion to one in particular. If your boss made you feel that way, would you continue working for them? I think not at all! And yet, we put our faith in our virtual assistants to accomplish the impossible. With 6.6 billion people on this planet, it's inevitable that some will dislike us more than others. On top of that, you probably won't enjoy all of them.

• Then there is Big Bad Team Double-ClickSM, naturally. In our opinion, here at Team Double-ClickSM, our job is to assist you in figuring out what you need from a virtual assistant, then find the best fit for your personality and skill set. If things don't work out, we'll find a new virtual assistant for you and help you get to know them better. We'll also make sure you're happy with your assistant and make sure you know about any problems that may arise. The virtual assistants we hire occasionally take offense to this. "Big Bad Team Double-ClickSM" takes on our current form at this point. When we post jobs for virtual assistants, we play the hero. But when we have to remove that task or demand payment from a virtual assistant because of their carelessness, they start to dislike us. A virtual assistant will often stop working because of this. There will be times when we have to annoy people in order to safeguard you, our client.

Theft is one example. Theft, indeed. As an intermediary, we at Team Double-ClickSM are a virtual staffing agency. In order to find our clients the best virtual assistants, we work very hard. Furthermore, theft does occur, even from seemingly honest virtual assistants. When money is tight, most people want to avoid middlemen as much as possible. Why? Typically, financial gain is the ultimate goal! Despite our best efforts, there are instances where virtual assistants try to steal clients in order to increase their own income. It's easy to see how this could cause problems for other clients; I'm sure you can, too. Would you be interested in directly hiring someone with that kind of history? In the future, would you really believe they wouldn't attempt to steal from you? Not me. Actually, this leads me to a fascinating tale. A client (Dick) from Team Double-ClickSM was recently pilfered by a virtual assistant (Jane). Instead of getting into a drawn-out legal dispute with Dick and Jane, we decided to just let it go. We naturally brought up the possibility that Jane the Thief could repeat her past with Dick. A quarter of a year later, Dick returned and informed Gayle, "Jane just stole from me — she embezzled my funds in fact." I felt terrible for Dick, but we had foreseen this possibility and warned him. Dick ignored our wisdom and the data we had at our disposal, despite our many years of experience.

• Recognition. Team Double-ClickSM does not employ its virtual assistants; rather, they are contracted. Similar to other competitive bidders, such as home builders and highway construction companies, we also place limitations, standards, and penalties on our contractors if they fail to meet our expectations. One more time, this makes us unpopular, which can lead to a virtual assistant quitting. If our clients' safety were our first priority, would you expect us to compromise?
A virtual assistant's tenure in a company can be better understood if you are familiar with the factors that lead to employee turnover. Several of our virtual assistants are nearing the one-year mark, and about 25% have been with us and the same clients for more than a year. Actually, one of our VAs retired earlier this year after more than three years of service to Team Double-ClickSM and the client she had been assigned to.

That being said, "what is the expected duration of my virtual assistant's engagement with me?" "It depends" is my go-to response. The virtual assistant is likely to remain if everything stays the same and there are no grounds for her to depart. The phrase "It's all about cause and effect" kept coming up in my daughter's classroom.

With any luck, this article has shed some light on the modern hiring process and what might go wrong in your search for a new employee. Hopefully, I have achieved that. We can all be better prepared and less surprised when one of our employees, whether they work in a physical location or remotely, leaves if we have a better grasp of the situation.