Virtual Employee vs. Freelancer

When comparing an offshore freelancer to a Virtual Employee, vis-a-vis hiring and working, where do the respective strengths of each lie?

The objective of this article it to better understand the role of a freelancer as well as a Virtual Employee. Answering the above question will in turn help one deduce which of the two is more suitable for a specific offshore requirement.

Speed: Freelancer wins
Generally speaking, one can assign a project to a freelancer relatively quickly. Hiring a Virtual Employee may take longer.

This is because most, (although not all) Virtual Employees are recruited and undergo more rigorous screening process, which obviously takes more time. So, potential Virtual Employees must first be located and then interviewed and tested before being hired.

Professionalism: Virtual Employee wins
Freelancers work from home, unsupervised and are not legally contracted. Subsequently, freelancers often become complacent when it comes to availability, punctuality in meeting deadlines and completing a project.

On the other hand, working with a Virtual Employee means a significantly greater degree of accountability and supervision. This is because Virtual Employees work from VirtualEmployee.com's office where they are monitored by managers at all times. Furthermore, a Virtual Employee is a legally hired resource. Hence, a Virtual Employee is held accountable to both, VirtualEmployee.com and the client at all times.

Work Priority: Virtual Employee wins
Freelancers work with multiple clients simultaneously. Inevitably, a freelancer will devote their greatest attention and priority to whichever contract is the most financially rewarding for them. Furthermore, because freelancers work on short term projects, they do not have any fear that they could jeopardize losing a long term, secure job, unlike a dedicated employee.

A Virtual Employee, on the other hand, is a dedicated, full time resource. They work for only one client and the client's work is always the utmost priority of the VE.

Cost: Both Freelancer and Virtual Employee win
With regards to cost, both freelancer and the Virtual Employee will save clients considerable expenses.

However, clients get a lot more for their money when hiring a Virtual Employee. With a freelancer, clients simply receive "x" number of hours. With a VE, however, clients not only have a dedicated, full-time resource but, essentially, their own offshore office in India. VirtualEmployee.com's office becomes a subsidiary office of the client's local office. And the client can avail the services of the dedicated HR department, accounts department, IT support, client support department etc... Furthermore, VirtualEmployee.com's managers work on the client's behalf to manage their employee for them and ensure that the client's instructions are followed. Lastly, a VE has easy access to the best infrastructure and hardware, which for a freelancer is highly unlikely.

Choice: Freelancer wins
A client will have a wide variety of candidates to select from when hiring either a freelancer or a Virtual Employee. Nevertheless, because a VE works from VirtualEmployee.com's office in New Delhi, India, the majority of candidates are confined to this geographical area.

By contrast, a freelancer can be located in any part of the world, giving clients a wider choice.

Screening: Virtual Employee wins
All potential Virtual Employee candidates first undergo a telephonic interview, and if that goes off successfully, only then they are invited for a personal meeting with an HR executive. Once again, success here leads the candidates to undergo another round of interviews with technical consultants who are proficient in the same domain as the candidates. In addition to this technical interview, candidates are also given online tests. It is only after a candidate has successfully cleared all these rounds of screening, that their resumes are submitted to the client. The client can then conduct their own phase of interviews and tests before deciding whether to hire or not.

In short, VirtualEmployee.com's screening process is highly effective at filtering qualified candidates from unsuitable ones. The recruitment process focuses on finding the best employee for each individual client's specific needs. By contrast, there is no equivalent screening process when hiring a freelancer. Potential clients have to rely merely on feedback reviews of previous clients who have worked with an individual freelancer. However, this review system is widely known to have been corrupted and exploited by freelancers selling their accounts to other freelancers.

Hardware: Virtual Employee wins
A Virtual Employee, unlike a freelancer, works from VirtualEmployee.com's office. VirtualEmployee.com provides all the necessary hardware a Virtual Employee requires - a PC, telephone with local US/European number, fast internet connection, fax, scanner, printer, web cam etc. The hardware a freelancer has at his or her disposal is unlikely to match what VirutalEmployee.com can provide.

Infrastructure: Virtual Employee wins
Electricity and internet failures are fairly frequent in Third World countries. This can make working with an offshore freelancer unpredictable and unproductive. Whether a freelancer can overcome these obstacles is dependent upon the circumstances of that particular freelancer. The VirtualEmployee.com office is, however, maintained to international standards and thus no difficulties with internet, electricity or infrastructure in general, will be encountered.

Collaboration: Virtual Employee wins
Clients can collaborate with a VE much better than they can with a freelancer for several reasons. Firstly, VEs have better infrastructure/hardware at their disposal, thus making video conferencing, file sharing and remote PC control easier. Additionally, a VE is a dedicated, full-time employee and so they are always available to collaborate with the client if and when required. Freelancers work with multiple clients and so are often not available to collaborate or communicate with the client when the latter so desires. Lastly, a VE can work the exact same office hours as the client. The hours a freelancer works is, however, at their discretion, which may often mean they are unavailable to work the same shift as the client.

Data Protection: Virtual Employee wins
When hiring a Virtual Employee the client signs a contract with VirtualEmployee.com. The contract stipulates that it is the obligation of VirtualEmployee.com to safeguard all client data. The contract also includes a Non-Disclosure Agreement and the Virtual Employee can also sign a NDA if requested by the client.

When hiring a freelancer, however, there are no such legal provisions or overseeing authority present to protect against data theft.

Intellectual Property: Virtual Employee wins
As is the case with data protection, VirtualEmployee.com's contract also stipulates that all works created by the hired VE are the ownership of the client. Intellectual property is, therefore, not a concern when hiring a VE. Unfortunately, with a freelancer there are no safeguards in place to prevent intellectual property abuse.

Conclusion
Both the Virtual Employee and the freelancer serve two different and distinct outsourcing markets. Where the freelancer works on short term projects, a Virtual Employee is a full time, permanent employee. So, inevitably both the freelancer and the Virtual Employee will have different strengths and weaknesses.

Nevertheless, it is evident from the above analysis that a Virtual Employee is a more professional, advanced and evolved alternative to a freelancer. This is why clients attain better results with VEs for long-term offshore projects.