Outsourcing Admin vs Hiring Part-Time: A UK Cost Comparison

On paper, a part-time administrator looks cheaper than a professional virtual assistant. In practice, the headline hourly rate is only part of the picture.

The true cost of an employee

Beyond gross salary you carry employer National Insurance, workplace pension contributions, holiday and sick pay, recruitment costs, equipment, software licences and management time. Industry estimates put the real cost at roughly 20 to 30 per cent above salary.

The cost of a virtual assistant

A virtual assistant invoices for hours worked. There is no downtime, no onboarding subsidy, no equipment and no employment liability. Retainers make the spend predictable while remaining flexible month to month.

When an employee still wins

If you need someone physically present, on site, full time and embedded in a team culture, hire. If the work is remote, task-based and variable, outsourcing is almost always more efficient.

The hybrid approach

Many growing businesses use both: a core employee for on-site work and a virtual assistant for specialist overflow such as bookkeeping admin, CRM tidy-ups and client follow-up.