Hire Virtual Assistants from the Philippines: Full-time employees vs freelancers
Hiring Virtual Assistants from the Philippines is a smart solution for your business if you are looking to boost productivity while reducing operational costs. The Philippines is known for its highly skilled yet cost-effective workforce, which has become a prime location for outsourcing Virtual Assistants. It offers a combination of affordability, proficiency in English, and willingness to work during the US shift. However, one decision you may find challenging is whether to hire them as full-time employees or freelancers. Each option comes with its own set of advantages and drawbacks, depending on your business’s needs and goals.
Hence, in this blog, we will explore the pros and cons of hiring Virtual Assistants from the Philippines as full-time employees and freelancers. We will also discuss how most businesses prefer to hire professionals from the Philippines and how Global Squirrels can ease the hiring process.
Why hire Virtual Assistants from the Philippines?
English proficiency
Filipinos are known for their high level of English proficiency, ranking 2nd in Asia and 20th worldwide, according to Statista. This skill facilitates clear communication and reduces the likelihood of misunderstandings. With 55% of the population speaking English, Filipino Virtual Assistants can effectively engage in business discussions and follow complex instructions.
Cost-effectiveness
Hiring Filipino Virtual Assistants is often more affordable than hiring one in America. According to the recent salary reports by Glassdoor, dated 23 Sept 2024, the average salary for a Filipino Virtual Assistant is $658.96 per month, while it is $5,613 in the US. However, this cost efficiency does not compromise quality, meaning you can access skilled professionals without incurring high labor costs.
Availability in the US shift
Hiring Virtual Assistants from the Philippines will be convenient for you as most of the talent likes to work during the US shifts, which is advantageous if you want to communicate with the Virtual Assistants regularly while strengthening collaboration between teams.
Full-time or a freelance virtual assistant: which one should you hire?
Hiring a virtual assistant can be done full-time or as a freelancer. Full-time offers stability but incurs higher costs. Freelancers provide flexibility but may lack continuity. The best choice depends on your needs and desired level of control. So, let us dive into the pros and cons of both the employment models below:
Hiring virtual assistants as full-time employees
| Pros | Cons |
| Loyalty to the company: Full-time Virtual Assistants offer a greater level of loyalty when compared to part-time workers. This is because of their sense of belonging to your business, which enhances their overall morale and productivity. | Time commitment from you: Full-time positions often involve fixed schedules, and you need to spend time managing them so that they are productive for you on a full-time basis. |
| Easier management and communication: You can maintain regular communication through daily check-ins, weekly meetings, and ongoing messaging. This helps ensure everyone is aligned on goals, tasks, and deadlines. This also encourages better communication and collaboration between your team. | Higher cost: Full-time employees typically incur more significant expenses due to salaries, benefits (like healthcare and retirement plans), and payroll taxes. This can strain your budget, especially if you are a small business. |
Related read: Top benefits of hiring a Filipino Virtual Assistant
Hiring virtual assistants as freelancers
| Pros | Cons |
| Flexibility: Freelance virtual assistants can jump in when needed and scale back just as easily. This makes them a great option if your business experiences fluctuating workloads or you have short-term projects to tackle. You are not locked into long-term commitments, so you can quickly adapt to your project’s demands, whether expanding the team or dialing things down. | Lack of commitment: Freelancers are not bound by employment restrictions, meaning they can suddenly stop working for you without any notice. Additionally, they often work with multiple clients simultaneously, so there’s no exclusivity. This can lead to situations where they bill you for full-time hours but may only be dedicating part-time effort to your tasks, affecting productivity and project outcomes. |
| Cost-effectiveness: Hiring full-time Virtual Assistant employees can get expensive. However, with freelancers, you only pay for the work that’s done, saving you money in the short run. | Communication challenges: Freelancers often have flexible or irregular schedules, which can sometimes complicate communication. They might not be available during standard working hours, making it difficult to reach them for urgent requests or time-sensitive updates. |
| Access to specialized skills: Virtual Assistant freelancers are often experts in their fields, so you can get specialized skills on demand. Whether you need someone with niche knowledge or expertise in a specific technology, you can find a freelancer who’s the perfect fit for the job. You can bring in exactly who you need and when you need them. | Quality inconsistency: Unlike in-house employees, freelancer Virtual Assistants might not always follow a standardized quality assurance process, making it harder to ensure consistency in the output. Without the same oversight and processes in place, you may find that the quality of work varies from one project to the next, which can pose a challenge when you need reliable, top-tier results. |
Related read: Challenges of hiring Filipino Virtual Assistants and how to solve them
Why do companies prefer full-time Virtual Assistants in the Philippines?
Companies prefer to hire full-time Virtual Assistants for several reasons, which are brief below:
Strong commitment and loyalty
Hiring Virtual Assistants who work full-time in the Philippines can benefit your business. They are known for their dedication and long-term commitment to their employers. Many Virtual Assistants in the Philippines value job stability and tend to stay with companies for the long term, reducing turnover rates and ensuring continuity in operations.
In-depth understanding of the company
As the Virtual Assistant keeps working with the same company over time, they build a comprehensive understanding of the company’s processes, culture, and objectives. This enables them to handle tasks more efficiently, contribute to higher levels of decision-making, and take on more responsibility as they grow with the company.
Alignment with company values and goals
A company’s mission and values align better with a full-time Virtual Assistant because they are continuously involved in its daily operations. As they become more familiar with the business vision, they can help promote the company’s culture, ensure brand consistency, and better communicate the company’s values in client-facing roles.
How Global Squirrels ensures compliance and cost-effective Virtual Assistant hiring
Global Squirrels is a recruitment platform that allows you to find and hire, onboard, pay efficiently, and manage employees on-site and offshore without the need to set up local entities effortlessly. Our platform offers remote employee management features like assigning and managing tasks, country-specific timesheets, and country-specific leave management.
Global Squirrels, as a platform, recognizes the key challenges your business in the USA faces when hiring Virtual Assistants from the Philippines. These issues range from navigating compliance with international regulations to hidden staffing fees and difficulty in sourcing top talent. Here’s how our SaaS staffing platform addresses common pain points:
Ensuring compliance
A significant challenge for US-based companies hiring Virtual Assistants from the Philippines is adhering to tax and payment regulations. Through Global Squirrels, you can streamline this process. For instance, ensuring that every Virtual Assistant completes the necessary W-8BEN form before any payments are made. This form establishes the status of an employee in the Philippines for tax purposes, ensuring your business complies with both local and international tax laws. By automating compliance checks, we protect your company from potential penalties or legal complications.
Transparent and cost-effective hiring
Staffing agencies charge huge markups, which increase and disrupt your hiring budget and process. Global Squirrels eliminates these unnecessary markups by offering you a transparent pricing model that includes a flat platform fee and the compensation of the Virtual Assistant. Our platform is designed to help you hire top-tier talent without inflating costs through our unique flat-fee pricing model, allowing you to save up to 20%.
Hire dedicated Virtual Assistants from the Philippines via our Purple Plan and Orange Plans
As discussed previously, freelance Virtual Assistants are not bound by employment contracts, meaning they can stop working for you without any notice. This leaves businesses with wasted training investments and no continuity. Also, freelancers work for multiple clients simultaneously, leading to a lack of exclusivity. They might bill you for full-time hours while only dedicating part-time effort to your tasks.
With the Purple Plan, you can either convert your existing freelancers to full-time workers or onboard full-time employees that you have already recruited from the Philippines, and gain complete control over their working hours, ensure exclusivity, and safeguard your investment in training. Our employment agreements will ensure that the Virtual Assistants you hire work dedicatedly for your business. It also includes notice period clauses to ensure they do not abruptly quit while working on your projects and serve full notice before ending their employment.
If you want Global Squirrels to find and hire a virtual assistant based on your job requirements and handle their HR, payroll, and benefits, you can select the Orange Plan. Our platform will share curated profiles of the top virtual assistants with you on the portal in 2-5 business days. From there, you can schedule the interviews with your chosen candidates and approve the one you finally wish to onboard. Our platform will take care of the end-to-end process, i.e., from sourcing to onboarding, while ensuring zero employer risks and 100% compliance of the hired worker.
Ready to elevate your business by hiring Virtual Assistants from the Philippines? Request a demo today with Global Squirrels to see how our onboarding process can help you achieve your goals while minimizing costs and compliance risks.
