Virtual Staffing Saves Businesses Money

The REAL cost of an employee is at least TWICE
the annual salary. Because you pay for time-on-task
ONLY, your employee’s 8-hr day can be reduced to
3-4 hrs by hiring a VA (virtual assistant).
The VA does NOT charge you for idle time, washroom
visits, personal phone calls, computer downtime,
lunch hours, sick leave, vacation leave, etc. so
a 15-20 hr week for a VA can save you money without
reducing the quality of work performance. (AVirtualPro)

Workers, Workplace and Work:
Connecting the Dots at the Speed of Change

This keynote speech from the Alliance for Work-Life
Progress 9th Annual Conference is posted at the AWLP website.

It describes the impact of change on the workplace today -
the pace of change itself; increasing focus on human capital as key to organizational success; government's drive toward "ownership society"; shift from an industrial to a "knowledge" society; and change from a single-minded focus on work to a "dual focus" -- It goes on to detail the changes in perspective of today's work force, which is flexible and demands equal time for family and personal growth.

The trend toward virtual staffing is in keeping with the goals of today's work force and is synched with the needs of business.
Check it out - awlp.org

The Future of Work

Just as new technologies helped spur the rise of
democracies, reversing the long trend toward centralization
in societies, today's technological advances are beginning
to spur a similar reversal in business. With new communication
technologies like e-mail, instant messaging, and the Internet,
it is now becoming economically feasible--for the first time
in history--to give huge numbers of workers the information
they need to make more choices for themselves. Today, many
people in business can have the kinds of freedom that used to be
common only in small organizations. And that can be very good
news for both productivity and quality of life...they often
work harder and show more dedication and creativity.
(The Future of Work – by T. Malone - more)

VIRTUAL OFFICE STAFFING is the fastest-growing
segment of the broader business out-sourcing market –
more than doubling in the past year to $1.7 billion
in the first quarter 2005, SAVING US businesses
more than $5 BILLION per year in employee costs. (TPI)

SUCCESS STORY:

Law Firm Saves Client $1.7 Million in Attorney Fees by Using
Virtual Employees

THE CHALLENGE

A law firm needed to maintain an offensive strategy throughout a critical phase of litigation for a major client’s case. The litigation involved millions of documents and thousands of hours of billable time. Since the firm had a track record of being among the top 20 law firms in the country for client service, they needed superior people to supplement the firm’s team.

THE SOLUTION

Virtual assistants teamed up with the 400-lawyer firm to provide experienced temporary litigation attorneys and paralegals who had the ability to step into the case, get up to speed very quickly and gain client confidence to handle high level tasks.

THE RESULTS
The law firm’s client received outstanding service and saved nearly $1.7 million in attorney fees that would have been paid if the law firm had relied solely on permanent staff.

Outsource ONSHORE for savings and better service --US-based virtual admins provide cost advantages & fewer problems --

Average cost savings from offshoring operations are about 10% by ZDNet's ZDNet -- Ventoro LLC survey found that only 9% of any cost shavings from offshore outsourcing was the result of lower overseas labor costs. The cost savings from offshore outsourcing was not in the 35-40% range that many corporations assumed they would gain went they decided to go overseas. Savings averaged slightly less than 10% for all [...]

Virtual Assisting a $130 Billion Industry by 2008
According to the George Washington University Forecast of Emerging Technology” (January 2000) revolutionary innovation is now occurring widely in all scientific and technological fields. This phenomenon has been brought about by the IT revolution which is being used as a tool to spread and accelerate scientific and technological advances across a much wider spectrum than previously imagined. As a result over the next 20 to 30 years a broad array of new technologies will emerge in what many now call the coming “technological revolution”. MORE

Learning on the Fly
Leadership lessons for today's turbulent times may be up in the air.

We have entered an era of convulsive change, unprecedented in its scope, breadth and pace. Whether we're talking about our business, social, political or economic environment, all the navigational landmarks that used to guide our path have been obliterated.

Expenses are up. Margins are down. Competition is up. Customer service? When was the last time any of us had time to sit with a customer? Labor costs are rising sharply and so are the demands to reduce headcount. Loyalty — forgettaboutit. Then there are the ever-pressing demands coming out of the corner office: value added, customer intimacy, coopetition, integration. Do more with less. And do it faster.

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