Managing statutory leave

Business owners understand that staff members may need to take statutory leave. They also know that it often leaves key gaps in the working of their organisation, and that they will need to make sure they have a plan in place to make sure all tasks are covered until the permanent employee returns.

Rather than be taken by surprise by staff taking leave, why not put a plan in place that means you have support ready to go as soon as you need it? For example, check out virtual assistance firms and talk to them about the range of tasks they can support you with. You can find out how much the service costs and how it will work for your business. So you can choose to use an outsourced service all the time for certain tasks, safe in the knowledge that the team will cover your tasks no matter what.

Why work with a virtual assistant business?

What makes this such a good option? It’s all to do with flexibility – allowing you to keep your business running. Using a virtual support service helps you to avoid problems with maternity and paternity leave cover as well as long-term sickness, adoption leave and parental bereavement leave.

Why worry about recruiting another employee to cover leave? It is time-consuming and businesses are often disappointed by ‘cover’ roles who don’t turn up, only work a few weeks or can’t cover the roles properly.

That’s often because, in a small business, a single employee often covers a range of tasks. A general admin role in an SME might cover diary appointments, social media updates, travel arrangements, sales follow ups and more. So, you’d need to find someone who can do all these roles well.

The big benefits of virtual assistant services are that you can find people with expertise in the potentially wide range of roles you need, and that those services are provided seamlessly. If your usual virtual assistant is sick, or goes on holiday, someone else from the firm will do the work for you. So once everything is agreed and sorted out, you can relax, knowing that your essential tasks are being covered by people who know what they are doing. And those tasks can include:

• Bookkeeping
• Diary management
• Data entry
• Phone answering
• Email marketing
• Social media management
• CRM support
• Telemarketing and lead generation
• Invoicing and credit control
• Travel planning and booking

What’s more, your virtual workers are completely flexible. That means you don’t have to think about managing a return to work, requests for lower hours or remote working – instead, you have a virtual team you can trust to get the work done, no matter what.

Are you considering recruiting? Why not think about outsourcing instead – it means you will have a plan in place so that you benefit from seamless cover from your virtual assistance services when you need it. If you’re unsure about where to start, feel free to call us on 0800 994 9016 or use our contact form in the menu above.
 

Related articles:

• New business? Why you should hire the best virtual personal assistant you can find
• Making the most out of your Virtual Assistant resources
• How can a virtual assistant revolutionise your business?