Being a leadership figure in a business is a fantastic privilege. It indicates that someone is highly skilled and dependable to work for the organisation. However, it’s also a huge responsibility. Sometimes, things do not always run as smoothly as you think they should. When someone has been given a high position in the organisation it often translates to a ton of responsibilities that are added to your plate. You are expected to perform duties such as:
- Managing an operations team
- Finding solutions to major operational issues
- Hire (and sometimes fire) staff
- Building customer relationships
- Providing staff supervision and training
- Monitoring and controlling expenses according to the budget
- Conducting and leading regular team meetings
- Identify and address operational problems
- Work with company stakeholders
- Creating a plan and strategy for the company
There’s a particular burden to carrying a team while managing different tasks at the same time. If you’re an operations manager, you oversee a company’s day-to-day activities and ensure the best output possible. Watch this video as our Operations Manager, Richard Phu, shares more about the different ways a virtual assistant can help an operations manager execute his roles and responsibilities efficiently and effectively.
Everyday struggles of an operations manager
If you are an operations manager, you’ll know that having an executive-level title isn’t just all glamour. Aren’t we all familiar with a line from the movie Spiderman— “With great power comes great responsibility.” Uncle Ben gave out the best advice for all the great people out there, and I’m sure it resonates with all operations managers! It’s a philosophy that an operations manager can live by in their practice. In light of that, let’s talk about some of your responsibilities as an operations manager.
What happens when you have a lot of things to oversee but get held back by the small nitty-gritty deliverables? Let’s face it; an executive-level manager is just like any other human out there. No matter how hard we try, we just can’t do all the tasks ourselves. Here are the most common struggles of an operations manager, which are unmistakably headaches.
Ineffective communication
Here’s an eye-opening statistic from Human Resources Online:
“35% of managers overseeing one to two people feel that the expectations of their role are not clearly defined and communicated.”
Sometimes operations managers feel like we are not doing our job well enough because we don’t deliver the expected results. We also encounter misunderstandings that often result in employee backlash. There are even some circumstances where people under our team leave, and you might think you are the problem.
You probably think that you are not hands-on enough with your members that’s why they decide to look for another company to work in. But the truth is that often we just lack proper communication. If, in any case, we indeed communicate with our team, it is because we missed out on one secret ingredient. If you want to know an essential ingredient in achieving clarity, make sure to read the topics below.
So now that we have discussed ineffective communication, what do you think will happen as a result? Conflicts with other departments are right outside your doorstep. If your team cannot communicate effectively, how would they be able to communicate and relay projects to people outside of their jurisdiction? Think of ineffective communication as a matchstick that can easily ignite a wildfire when left unattended.
Conflicts with other departments
This is exactly, by all means, what we try to prevent from happening. Having conflicts with other departments is just like having someone spill coffee on your neat and well-ironed suit on a Monday morning.
Not only does it make things messy, it significantly affects you and your team’s productivity throughout the week. No, we don’t want that! Operations managers see to it that everything runs smoothly. We want to see that all systems are set. The most satisfying thing for us is when all departments in the company work together in harmony. Efficiency and productivity are achieved without a doubt when everything is properly working simultaneously. But when operations managers have a pile of workload on their hands, they get stuck in a zone of underperformance.
Limited productivity
Let’s say, for example, you have multiple tasks to do throughout the day. You have a client call in the morning, a board meeting after a while, then you have to stop by the logistics department and come up with a new customer service system due the next day. Yes, you can do all of those tasks within a day, but can you ensure that the quality of work is not compromised?
After seeing all of the struggles mentioned above, it is worth noting this is not the end of your business or department! There is still hope. We can mitigate the adverse effects of these struggles when you hire Virtual Assistants. It is essential to realise the benefits a Virtual Assistant can offer your organisation.
If you’re looking to hire a Virtual Assistant for a company in Sydney, Melbourne, the United States, or anywhere else in the world, we highly recommend checking out virtual staff from the Philippines. At Outsourcing Angel, we’ve worked with many amazing Virtual Assistants in the Philippines that help us keep our operations efficient. We’d love to see your business experience the same benefits too. If you want to hire a Virtual Assistant in the Philippines, feel free to talk to us today!
Why should you hire a Virtual Assistant to assist management operations
Having looked at these common issues that operations managers face when doing everything themselves, here are the reasons you should hire a Virtual Assistant.
Create a healthy team
Your goal as an operations manager is to ensure that everyone works together to deliver your business’ products and services with top-tier quality. But how can you achieve that? The solution is to build a healthy team.
When you don’t have a Virtual Assistant, you can do everything by yourself for sure, but you will no longer have time for your team. On the other hand, if you have a Virtual Assistant, you can pass simple tasks under your VA. This makes it possible to focus more on investing time with your employees. Another interesting statistic from Human Resources Online states that 44% of managers find satisfaction when they have more time to manage people because of a smaller workload. A healthy team is created when you have built a strong relationship with the people involved in your organisation.
The last thing you would want people to say is that you’re not a good boss. When you have successfully built a healthy team, you have also built a good reputation. You create an image of a dedicated leader rather than a boss who only thinks of the formalities of work.
Our operations manager, Richard, is the best example of this. Because he has a team of Virtual Assistants to take care of day-to-day operations, he now has the time and energy to focus on ways to improve team dynamics and systems. Your business’ operations manager should have the same opportunity.
Gives you peace of mind
Have you ever experienced handling a mountain of tasks that you even find yourself worrying about even if you’re at home? We have heard stories of many operations managers who can’t keep their mind off unfinished projects. Sometimes you probably have thousands of things going on in your head, and you get annoyed when you can’t execute those. The worst is when you forget what those important thoughts even were!
Remember that you need to have a sound mind to achieve your most ambitious goals and projects. Work must be enjoyable. It is supposed to be a haven of creativity and innovation, not a place for anxiety.
For that reason, getting yourself a Virtual Assistant is the best move you can make to declutter your mind. A Virtual Assistant will cover all of those tasks so you don’t need to worry about unfinished tasks anymore. A Virtual Assistant also comes in handy when you have your Virtual Assistant note your ideas down for you and manage a pipeline to get those ideas executed.
More time on your hands
If you’re used to doing most of the work yourself like cold calling prospects, answering emails, setting up a board meeting, doing data entry and all those kinds of stuff, a Virtual Assistant can do all those things for you.
With a Virtual Assistant, you can free up a lot of your time so you can do things that no other employee or person in your organisation can do. That means that you can now focus on top-level activities that can help generate income or grow your business.
Now you’re going to have more time to personally meet clients, effectively supervise your organisation, and market your business so you can attract more clients. The possibilities are endless when you start to leverage your time. In due time you will see the positive effects of having a Virtual Assistant on your team.
Cost-effective
If you are planning to hire a full-time employee, you might want to consider hiring a Virtual Assistant with an outsourcing company or freelance instead. Hiring a full-time employee might feel like you’re adding another overhead expense. But you can save a lot of money when you hire a Virtual Assistant. Work-from-home assistants have their work set up with laptops, internet connections and offices, so you don’t need to worry about getting them all those equipment and utilities. All you have to pay is their hourly rates.
The Philippines is one of the top countries that produce virtual assistants. The average cost per hour is around $10 or less, significantly lower than the average wage rates of Virtual Assistants in Australia and the US, which range from $18 – 50 an hour.
Unlike the US and Australia, Virtual Assistants from the Philippines have a significantly lower average cost per hour, around $10 or less. On top of affordable labor costs and healthcare benefits, the cost of recruiting, training, and hiring is also very affordable. Also, keep in mind that the quality of services that Virtual Assistants from the Philippines offer is not compromised despite the affordable rates.
Here at Outsourcing Angel, we have trained and equipped our virtual assistants with admin skills to fit the needs of our clients.
Looking for an experienced and reliable Virtual Assistant?
Our Outsourcing Specialist is here to talk about all your business needs so that we can find you a Virtual Assistant that meets your expectations and fits seamlessly into your business.
6 ways a virtual assistant can help an operations manager
So let’s talk about how they can help an operations manager like you ensure quality output of products and services.
1. Streamline business meetings
The first thing an operations manager can do with a Virtual Assistant is to streamline business meetings. This task is extremely vital because a simplified business operation allows the business to have more focus. This provides the clarity you need when you want to communicate new projects or tasks effectively. The reason being is that everything is now easier to understand.
If you don’t have this in your system yet, a Virtual Assistant is there to help you set it up. Virtual Assistants have extensive knowledge in using new tools that are needed in today’s business operations. They have the skills and expertise to ensure that even the newest established system can run smoothly. Having said that, you don’t have to worry too much about adapting to these systems.
When your streamlined business operations system has been successfully set up, your company will benefit from the perks of a semi-automated business. Now that a streamlined process is up and running, your Virtual Assistant can now be there to help you manage administrative tasks.
2. Help with administrative tasks
Every executive, regardless of the industry, probably has a ton of administrative tasks to deal with daily. A Virtual Assistant can handle administrative tasks like:
-
- Data entry
- CRM management
- Schedule meetings and appointments
- Answering client phone calls and emails
- Tracking analytics and insights
- Troubleshooting operational bottlenecks
- Invoicing
- Budget management
- Transcribing various meetings
- Communicating with other departments
- Project management
Can you imagine the time you spend doing these tasks yourself? Not only do you hurt your back sitting on your desk all day arranging meetings and picking up phone calls, you consequently miss out on several business opportunities too.
When you have a Virtual Assistant you get to save yourself from all the back pain and eye fatigue from staring at a computer for the whole day. On top of that, you also get to enjoy more time to explore new innovations, which can be helpful in the development of your business. Aside from being extremely helpful in admin tasks, Virtual Assistants are skilled and effective communicators as well. So whenever you need to coordinate with other departments you will not have any trouble leaving the task to your VA.
3. Talk with potential clients
Now that you have a Virtual Assistant, you will not have to worry about missing important calls again. This edge is very beneficial to your business because you can now talk with potential clients without delay. The quicker somebody can pick up the phone or respond to an email inquiry, the better the chances that you will win that account. Having that plus in your business will be great for a service-based business like a consulting agency, firm, or training company.
You might also benefit from a positive client experience, so they are more likely to cling to your services. Clients will feel like you have better customer service simply because you can quickly pick up their call, contact them, and answer all their queries.
4. Market research
We often don’t pay much attention to research in our daily tasks, and when we do, we think that an hour browsing new trends on the internet is enough. But the reality is that the world is producing new content every minute. There is also a wide array of competitors trying to innovate every day. So, if you want to have in-depth market research and analysis, it will probably take several hours to complete. But you can’t afford to miss out on research either, as it is crucial to the growth of your business. You need to gather data and insights into the market to grow your company.
Thankfully, you no longer have to worry about the research stuff when you have a Virtual Assistant. Let them handle researching tasks such as:
-
- Analysing consumer trends
- Regularly research competitors’ innovations
- Fundamental Analysis (News)
- Interpret data reports and evaluate essential room for improvement
5. Create content for Social Media Marketing
The only way to make consumers perceive your business as an industry leader is by producing content. When you produce content around the products and services you offer, add value to the overall customer experience. Keep in mind that there are hundreds if not thousands of businesses like you out there. So it is only rational to produce content for you to stand out amongst the crowd.
But creating content can be time-consuming work. A lot goes on when creating videos, social media posts, blogs, and so on. There’s a lot to get done from researching, conceptualising, and getting your hands on the actual content production. Having a social media Virtual Assistant take care of that can help free up a manager’s time.
Just like any other tasks mentioned above. Hiring a Virtual Assistant is the key to leveraging this task. Your Virtual Assistant can handle anything from research to driving traffic to your business page/site Such efforts are pivotal towards increasing your company’s lead generation.
6. Improve customer relations
As an operations manager, you already have a lot of tasks to handle. Establishing relationships with your clients is also one of them. We know that you would love to cater your customers’ needs and address some of their concerns. However, doing that task yourself too is really exhausting.
Consider delegating this task to a Virtual Assistant so you can attend to tasks that matter most. Virtual Assistants can help you offer 24/7 care for your clients without the need for your presence. This move is essential and helpful if you want to expand your business globally. Virtual Assistants are mostly remote-based. They can work anywhere in the world. That helps you keep up with customer demands depending on the time zone in which your business operates.
Conclusion
Being an operations manager is a daunting task. You may think you may not address all the problems because you don’t have enough time. But remember that this is just a fallacy, an illusion that keeps you from bringing the most out of your team. A seemingly immovable barrier that keeps you from achieving world-class productivity levels. You are not alone. Most managers out there feel this way too.
The solution to this is by hiring an operations Virtual Assistant. This will help you significantly reduce your workload so you can have more time supervising your team. Simply put, all those struggles can be solved with this simple move–it just takes a small leap of faith.
Our goal at Outsourcing Angel is to help businesses grow by guiding them as they embark on a thrilling journey of delivering value to the world. Now that you know the importance of leveraging your time, we are excited to hear about the results you have achieved after putting this learning into practice.
If you can’t wait to experience the benefits of having a Virtual Assistant in your management operations, book a FREE discovery call with us today, and we’ll help you find the best Virtual Assistant suited for your needs.
Looking for an experienced and reliable Virtual Assistant?
Our Outsourcing Specialist is here to talk about all your business needs so that we can find you a Virtual Assistant that meets your expectations and fits seamlessly into your business.
