What Is a Virtual Executive Assistant?

A Virtual Executive Assistant is an independent contractor who typically supports high-end executives within a company with tedious and time-consuming administrative tasks. As responsibilities of your executives mount, hiring a Virtual Executive Assistant will become a necessity—especially if your business is growing at a rapid pace.

The responsibilities of a Virtual Executive Assistant include scheduling events and appointments, managing projects, writing emails, drafting memos, answering phone calls, handling the work calendar, and similar administrative tasks. Unlike a salaried full-time employee, a VA gets paid by the hour or per completed project, which means the costs of hiring one are significantly lower for most organizations.

Some of the most relevant benefits of having a Virtual Assistant include:

• Being able to save money you’d otherwise waste on a full-time employee doing the same job
• Having a wide talent pool to tap into and pick a candidate from, as you’ll be hiring remotely
• Saving time on miscellaneous tasks that require no more than 3 to 4 hours a day and can be completed remotely

What Does a Virtual Executive Assistant Do?

Not all Virtual Assistants have the same duties, nor do they provide the same services. Their tasks will vary depending on the organization and the industry they work in. Still, the core responsibilities of this role mostly involve the following:

• Handling office tasks remotely—A VA in this position is responsible for managing your executive’s files, organizing documents, creating memos, sorting their inbox, and answering client queries. They can also manage your executive’s contact list, prepare spreadsheets, keep online records, and create presentations as required
• Scheduling events, appointments, and business trips—A Virtual Executive Assistant can be in charge of monitoring your executive’s work calendar, which includes keeping timetables and scheduling events and appointments to ensure they don’t overlap. They can make lists of invitees to specific internal company events, and monitor attendance to keep the number of no-shows to a minimum. This professional can also be responsible for scheduling business trips and making appropriate travel arrangements
• Performing basic accounting tasks—A Virtual Executive Assistant should also possess a working knowledge of accounting and statistics. They help executives monitor expenses, track payments, and report on unpaid bills and possible debt accrual

How Much Does It Cost To Hire a Virtual Executive Assistant?

The average compensation for the Virtual Executive Assistant role varies depending on numerous factors, such as the employee’s education, prior experience, geographical location, and the present market rate. As per ZipRecruiter, the average annual salary for a Virtual Executive Assistant in the United States is $42,243.

Having a Virtual Executive Assistant comes at a much lower cost compared to having a full-time employee. This is because you are paying a VA only for the hours of work they’ve done without any additional benefits provided to a full-time employee. Since they work remotely, you won’t have to pay for their workspace or provide them with equipment!

If you want to grow your business successfully, you’ll need someone who will take care of your company logistics in the background. A professional VA will handle all the tedious administrative chores remotely, giving you more time to focus on promoting your brand and improving your company’s productive capacities.

Expert Tips on Hiring a Virtual Executive Assistant

Even though having a Virtual Executive Assistant comes with many benefits, the process of finding the right candidate is anything but straightforward. You have to approach the task seriously to find an individual who not only possesses the right qualifications but is also reliable enough to be entrusted with important company information.

Here are some handy tips to help you hire a professional Virtual Executive Assistant who will suit your business needs perfectly:

1. Test and interview a large number of candidates—To make an informed hiring decision, you first need a solid base for comparison, which means you shouldn’t snatch up the first decent VA you come across. Withhold your decision until you have thoroughly assessed a few dozen candidates. After comparing their skills and competencies, you can make a much better choice of whom to hire in the long run
2. Make a precise, detailed job ad—To ensure you attract the best candidates while simultaneously deterring unqualified ones from applying, you need to be specific about the tasks they’ll have to perform in your company. You should carefully list out all the requirements, including the prerequisite technical skills, preferred level of education, work experience, and any job credentials and certifications you deem necessary
3. Don’t focus too much on the rates—You are looking for quality, which might take a bit more time and money, but the results will be well worth it. Don’t hire a VA based solely on low rates. They might be inexperienced or otherwise unsuited for the job you need them to perform. That’s why you should always select the most qualified candidate you can find, even if they charge higher rates than other VAs

Is there a way to find the best Virtual Executive Assistants without spending ages looking for them? Yes—you can avoid handling the entire hiring process manually and let Workello help you! By setting up an automated hiring funnel with our platform, you’ll save the time and energy you’d otherwise waste sorting through dozens of applications.

Hire a Reliable Virtual Executive Assistant Faster

You can think of Workello as the perfect virtual hiring assistant. Our fully automated hiring funnel is the product of countless hours, over $100,000, and dozens of iterations. With Workello, you can automate testing, scheduling, and email correspondence with candidates so you can focus on scaling your business and maximizing revenue.

Here’s how Workello makes hiring Virtual Executive Assistants a breeze:

1. Sign up for a free Workello account and launch your automated, pre-configured hiring funnel in less than 3 minutes
2. Post your job ads across LinkedIn, Monster, Facebook, Indeed, and all your other hiring channels and link to your Workello job ad
3. See all your candidates in a single, unified Workello dashboard, regardless of which hiring channel they applied from
4. Reject, test, interview, and send offers to [keyword] Virtual Assistants with a single click
5. Filter out unqualified candidates with Workello’s built-in testing feature
6. Trigger automated emails and move candidates through your hiring funnel simply by changing their status from a drop-down menu
7. Minimize transactional questions by enabling candidates to see a live status page that tells them exactly which stage of your hiring funnel they are in

Don’t waste hundreds of hours looking for a perfect Executive VA that’s supposed to save you valuable time. Set up a fully automated hiring funnel with Workello, cut your hiring costs by 50%, and start accepting ideal candidates today!

Sign up now and review 5 Executive VA tests for free.