Becoming a Remote Executive Assistant
Running a business or pursuing a career comes with lots of responsibilities. You have to worry about landing new clients while keeping existing clients happy. Also, you have to manage the daily operations of your business. In essence, you have to do so much in so little time, and that can be pretty stressful. To work more efficiently and relieve stress, you will need to hire an executive assistant. This person will be responsible for managing your schedule in order of priority. Not only is hiring tedious and costly, but there also might not be enough office space, so it is more beneficial to hire a remote executive assistant.
This article will furnish you with everything you need to know about remote executive assistants. We’ll talk about what they do to their qualifications and expected pay and work hours.
What is a Remote Executive Assistant?
A remote executive assistant is a person responsible for administrative functions. Administrative functions can include organizing projects, communicating with clients and management, scheduling meetings, and more.
As a remote executive assistant, for you to work effectively, you have to show your value to your employer. It would be great if you can preempt events and solve problems before they spring up. Also, you must know the priorities and working style of your executive to be effective in this role. Ensure you prioritize events and set reminders so that nothing skips you.
With the advancements in technology, this type of assistant can automate processes to make things easier. In light of this, as a remote executive assistant, you need to be familiar with lots of project management tools and communication apps like Asana, Slack, Trello, Microsoft Outlook, and lots more.
What Kind of Work Does a Remote Executive Assistant Do?
As a business executive, you need to know the responsibilities of a remote executive assistant before hiring one.
The bulk of the responsibilities of remote executive assistants involves administration. These administrative functions range from repetitive tasks such as drafting invoices, hotel bookings and writing up minutes to mentally demanding tasks like expense management and researching.
Some remote executive assistants might be required to manage social media accounts and websites if they have the skills and experience.
How to Become a Remote Executive Assistant
Besides post-secondary education in a business or administrative field, you need the following skills and qualifications:
- Strong attention to details
- Ability to schedule appointments and organize events
- Microsoft Office proficiency
- Time management skills
- Ability to multitask
- Sound verbal and non-verbal communication skills
- Experience with project management tools
In addition to the above-mentioned qualifications, you should have professional certifications to help you stand out in this competitive field.
What Kind of Hours and Pay Can You Expect?
According to ZipRecruiter, as of the first quarter of 2021, a Remote Executive Assistant in the United States receives an average annual salary of about average yearly salary $50,522. That is equivalent to about $24.29/hour, $972/week, or $4,210/month.
Recent job listings on ZipRecruiter show that some remote executive assistants receive as high as $104,000, while others get as little as $21,500 annually.
Where to Find Qualified Remote Executive Assistants
You can get highly competent remote executive assistants through the following ways:
Hiring a Full-time or Part-time Employee
You can hire a remote executive assistant as a full-time or part-time employee in your organization, but this is pretty expensive if you take the cost of advertising on job listing platforms and training after recruitment. You also need to acquaint yourself with the guidelines for hiring remote workers from within the United States or elsewhere.
For instance, if you employ someone directly by your organization, the organization will be responsible for the social contributions and taxes.
Hiring a Freelancer
If you do not have the resources to hire this type of assistant for part-time or full-time, you can work with a freelancer. But bear in mind that misclassification of workers in the United States can get you in serious trouble with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).
If you misclassify the remote executive assistant you are hiring, they can miss out on 401K, paid vacation, and health insurance packages. As a business owner, you might be slammed with several lawsuits and incur harsh fines or even jail time. So, again, ensure you do not misclassify the assistant you are hiring.
Use Subscription Staffing
Subscription staffing is a fairly new hiring process that allows business executives to sign up to remote staffing platforms where they can hire qualified remote executive assistants at a much cheaper cost than hiring an employee.
In 2-3 weeks, you can finalize the process of hiring a talented remote executive assistant. After paying a monthly subscription fee, you will not be bothered with payroll, compliance, and legal issues. You have the flexibility to work with one or multiple remote executive assistants on time agreed upon by both parties.
Conclusion
While the job description of a remote executive assistant intersects with that of a virtual assistant, they are not the same. A virtual assistant helps businesses or organizations perform basic administrative tasks. On the other hand, remote executive assistant supports executives with communication, organizational, and project management tasks.
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