For small business owners in the United Kingdom, expanding their workforce by hiring a full-time employee is a significant step towards growth and success. However, before making this decision, it is crucial to understand the financial implications involved and any possible alternatives. In this blog post, let’s look into the cost of hiring a full-time employee for UK small business owners, relying on the latest statistics from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) AND the alternative of a Virtual Assistant.

Let’s take the most obvious cost into account, salary. Did you know that as of the most recent data, the average annual salary for full-time employed administrative assistant in the UK is £21,363 (excluding bonuses). This would obviously be varied due to location, experience, and job role. But let’s take this average as the base for the workings out.

On earnings above £9.568 a year, employers also have to pay National Insurance Contributions (NICs) at 13.8% (this is only the lower threshold) – making that another £1,627.71.

There is also the mandatory workplace pensions to take into consideration at 3% - So we have another £640.89 to fork out.

Don’t forget about any recruitment and training costs such as, job advertising, agency fees, background checks and on the job training. Or the cost of any liability insurance which must be taken out. Or software, office space, furniture, tea, coffee, sugar…

Without these other factors to take into account, so far, the sum is as follows;

   £21,363 salary

+ £1,627.71 NICs

+ £640.89 pension

= £23,631.60 And this doesn’t even factor in those other added costs.

What if I was to tell you that a Virtual Assistant was more efficient than an employee? Would you believe me? The thing is, as a virtual assistant, I can’t just sit on my arse scrolling ASOS on the work computer or chilling by the water cooler waiting to tell Janet the latest gossip – My whole business reputation relies on me being efficient and bloody good at what I do, so I HAVE to be on the ball. And, all Ad Hoc and Retainer work is logged and time on Toggl, so you can see what I’ve done and how long each task took.

It is very rare that anyone needs a virtual assistant fulltime and it wouldn’t make financial sense to either. In most cases, small businesses hiring an employee, need said employee for certain specific tasks that are taking up all their time, and then the rest of that time ends up with you finding jobs for them to do, to fill it. When you think about it, only big blue chip companies, or businesses that need manual labour or a physical presence in their store actually need someone fulltime. My guess is that you could just do with someone getting back to your email enquiries, following up on those and if you have it, someone to get back to the enquiries in your social media DMs. This can be done on a ‘per hr’ basis, or as a package. For example – If you need someone just to literally get all your pre-made social media content, up and scheduled to go out on specific days, with captions and hashtags added – I can do that for you for £180 per month. And that’s just one of the services I provide. I’m sure there is something I can offer to help you, that won’t cost you the earth. How many people do you know that are employed for up to 1 hr a week to do your social media scheduling? None! Because who’s able to afford to feed their family on 4 hrs a month.

So let’s see – The fulltime cost of hiring an employee is at least £23,631.60 And remember, this doesn’t even factor in those other added costs. Then let’s say for arguments sake – you hire them part-time instead – making it £11,815.80. Then, as an example, let’s use the social media scheduling package at £180 per month – making it £2,160 for the year.

           £11,815.80

-          £ 2,160

=         £9,655.80 more expensive to hire an employee to do this each year, part-time.

You know full well, employed roles can be like a container – with the employee as the liquid. The liquid will spread out to cover the space of the container, whatever the scenario. Sure, sometimes you can find a diamond in the rough and you will find that perfect staff member that will work exactly as you want them to, and go over and above (probably burning themselves out) – But how much will it cost in job advertising, training and retraining, and in salary before you get there? Can you small business absorb that cost?

Another benefit of hiring a VA for those time consuming tasks is the flexibility offered. I can work with you ad hoc, varying the hrs as you only pay for the exact time spent. When you’re off away on holiday and don’t want someone working – we can plan to have that week off, so you’re not paying me. On the flip side, you can ask me to cover more hours to make up for you not being in. Can you do this with an employee? I’m pretty sure you can’t force exactly when someone uses up their holiday pay (ahem, yes holiday pay – another thing you have to pay for).

I know which option I’d be taking, how about you? Let me know what you think in the comments.