John discussed the Emerging Trends in Virtual Markets and Workforce Management as a guest speaker at the ENP forum, where he gave participants an overview of the evolution of outsourcing, recent facts and figures of the industry and the global outsourcing market forecast.

“The recent advancements in technology have allowed outsourcing – particularly online outsourcing – to be available to anyone.” John shared, “This has made outsourcing available to, not only big businesses, but to start-ups and small to medium enterprises – the ones that could really benefit from outsourcing.”

Maximizing his years of experience in recruiting and managing a virtual workforce, John also shared the recent advancements in virtual workforce management.  “The common obstacles in workforce management can be narrowed down to these 3 areas: Communication, Connectivity and Collaboration.” John stated, “But these can be easily resolved through the use of the right tools and resources.”

The panel explored various topics that include a highly connective, interactive and collaborative session – key topics:

• 2014 Global Market & Talent Forecast – who is hiring and new customer growth sectors.
• Doing business internationally – what you need to know about partnering.
• Thought leader panel share global business implementation strategies.
• Emerging trends in virtual markets and workforce management.

The partner organization – global business contributing panelists include Eric Fullilove, Chief Financial Officer, World Vision International, Tommy Joe, President of DEX, Meghan Glidden, Senior Director, Belkin International, Andrea Tyndale, Talent Executive, Disney, Peggy Smith, CEO & President, Worldwide ERC and Lew Jaffe, CEO MoviMe.com.

The event featured thought leaders representatives from over 35 global companies including Disney, Taco Bell, Dex, World Vision, B of A, Turkish Airlines, Experia, GALLUP, Mattel and many others.

Decades ago, hiring an assistant is picked and preferred from your locality for your physical office only and not virtually. But, as generations change and technology advances, so does a businessman’s point of view.

Having a virtual assistant is a 24/7 challenge not only to the client but to the assistant as well. There are many things to consider like time zones, how to effectively communicate with your assistant, tasks to relay, and output delivery.

Related: How to effectively manage your Client-Virtual Assistant time

This is what globalization and technology has achieved, bringing people closer in all aspects of day-to-day activity.

This made way to Business Processing Outsource or BPO business, bourgeoning all over the world and competing to gain a slice of the industry.

This leads to the Philippines as one of the top outsourcing destinations in the world and the most sought after when it comes to virtual assistance outsourcing.

There are two types of virtual outsourcing in the Philippines, the head hunting companies and the virtual assistance service providers.

1. Head hunting companies have a pool of curriculum vitaes from freelance VAs.

These companies usually provide at least three cream of the crop CV’s of virtual personal assistants for the clients to choose from. Once the client has chosen the perfect VA for his business, he will then inform the company, sign the contract with the agreed VA pay per hour or monthly pay (depending on the agreement), pay the company for the head hunting fee and everything is set to go.

After the VA is endorsed, the head hunting company has no further obligation to the client and VA. But some do extend the service and make follow up to check on how the VA is doing and if the client is satisfied with his or her working performance. The client pays the VA directly of his compensation.

2. Virtual outsourcing companies have skilled online assistants working for them with different skill sets to cater every client’s needs.

A virtual services company has its own staff like human resource, client representatives, payroll masters, and operations manager to give support not only to the remote workers but also to address complaints and other issues from clients.

Like the head hunting companies, virtual outsourcing companies provide three topnotch VAs and schedule client-VA interviews. After the client chooses his her virtual admin assistant, contract signing follows with details like pay, number of hours worked in a day or week, work schedule and others.

Unlike the former, the virtual services provider has a support team to check and assess the client and VAs on the progress of their tasks. The client pays the company and the company is the one who pays the home-based employees of their salary.

Virtual Assistant Talent is a virtual assistance outsourcing company based in Fremont, California with all-Filipino remote or online employees.

As market competition gets tougher and tougher, entrepreneurs tend to focus more on how to get customers and sell their products to rake profits. But the thing here is they forgot about the importance of technology when it comes to branding, maintaining their website and social media marketing.

As an entrepreneur, it is given that you are good at strategizing. You excel on a number of things but certainly there are other matters that you may not have the time to do or you are not good at, like technology.

If you are one entrepreneur that is technology savvy, you know what we’re talking about. But if you are someone who is not or has less knowledge with online technology and having challenges in this field, don’t get discouraged.

Hiring a virtual assistant is all you ever need. Someone who is technically skilled when it comes to web developing, designing, social media marketing and all that is about digital technology.

Delegate the tech side & focus on the more important side of your business.
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Technical and Non-technical VAs Can Do the Following:

1. Design a professional looking website – If you don’t have one yet or have an existing website but you’re not happy with the design and layout, a web designer can help you create the website that will speak of your brand.

2. Web designer and web developer – A web developer is the one responsible with the construction of your website and making it into a reality – the one you really want for business website. He is in control of all the codes and graphics to create that compelling and professional looking website with all the functionalities your visitors and customers need. These websites can be:

•   Blog and Personal sites
•   Real Estate sites
•   Portfolio, Multimedia, News, Magazine sites
•   Business and E-commerce sites

Nowadays, most people use their smartphones to shop online. So, you can also upgrade to mobile-responsive web design so that your page displays good on mobile phones.

3. Social Media Marketing – Social media is one marketing tool that can help you grow your business for free or for a fraction of cost if you are just starting. But even those companies with big names are using social media to reach more market and target customers. Social media virtual assistants can help you strategize on how to promote, advertise and sell your products and services online according to your market.

4. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) – Struggling to get your page found online by target customers or clients? SEO virtual agents can tweak your website so it becomes more visible and ranks higher in search engines. SEO Packages include in-depth research and analysis to provide relevant strategies for all your pages.
Being a busy entrepreneur is not an excuse when you don’t have time to manage your website, online marketing or your social media accounts. All you need is to delegate these tasks to your staff or hire a virtual assistant.

This will cost you less rather than having a physical staff. You can hire a VA on a project base like Web Design & Development Packages and another assistant to manage your social media and online marketing campaigns.