The short version: An employment virtual assistant handles HR admin, recruitment support, and workforce coordination tasks remotely for businesses that cannot justify a full-time HR hire. Pay ranges from $15 to $55 per hour depending on specialisation, and the fastest route in is through platforms like Belay, Boldly, or direct LinkedIn outreach to SMEs with 10 to 50 employees.
I want to talk about this one because I see a lot of bad advice floating around about virtual assistant work. Most of it is vague. "Pick a niche!" they say, without telling you what the niche involves day to day, what you need to know before charging for it, or whether there is enough demand to build a real income.
Employment VA work is one of the more durable and interesting sub-niches in the VA world. I have hired people in this capacity myself, and I have also worked alongside HR teams who outsourced chunks of their work to remote assistants. So here is what I know about it.
What an Employment Virtual Assistant Does
The term covers a reasonably wide range of tasks, so let me break it down into what clients are most likely to ask you to do.
- Job posting and candidate sourcing: Writing and publishing job ads on Indeed, LinkedIn, Reed, or Glassdoor. Screening incoming CVs against a brief. Scheduling first-round interviews.
- Onboarding admin: Sending offer letters, collecting signed contracts, chasing documents like right-to-work evidence, setting up new starters in HR software such as BambooHR or Personio.
- Employee records management: Keeping digital files current, updating leave records, tracking probation periods and review dates.
- Compliance chasing: Reminding managers when mandatory training is overdue, tracking DBS check renewals, flagging policy review dates.
- Payroll prep support: Collating hours, expenses, and overtime data to hand to payroll. Not running payroll yourself unless you are qualified, but feeding the inputs to whoever is.
- Job description writing: Many SME founders have no idea how to write a JD that attracts the right people. If you can do this well you immediately stand out.
- Exit admin: Processing resignation acknowledgements, coordinating handover documents, sending reference request templates.
The single thing that separates a decent employment VA from a great one is discretion. You are handling sensitive personal data. Contracts, salaries, performance notes. If a client does not trust you completely, you will not last long with them no matter how efficient you are.
What It Pays in Real Numbers
I am not going to give you a fantasy figure. Here is the honest range as of right now.
- Entry level with no HR background: $15 to $22 per hour, or around PS12 to PS18 in the UK. You are doing the basic admin tasks and learning the tools on the job.
- Mid-level with some HR or recruitment experience: $25 to $38 per hour. You can handle end-to-end recruitment support, onboarding, and basic compliance tracking without hand-holding.
- Specialist employment VA: $40 to $55 per hour. You understand employment law well enough to flag risks (without giving formal legal advice), you know multiple HR systems, and you probably hold a CIPD qualification or equivalent.
Retainer packages are common in this niche. A small business might pay $800 to $1,500 per month for 20 hours of support, which is far cheaper than an in-house HR coordinator. That is the selling point you use when you pitch them.
Platforms like Boldly and Belay typically pay their VAs $20 to $28 per hour and handle client acquisition for you. You give up margin but you skip the sales grind. That trade-off makes sense at the start.
What You Need Before You Start Charging
This is where most "become a VA" content skips the uncomfortable truth. You need to know something before someone pays you to handle their hiring and HR admin. Winging it with someone's employee data is not acceptable.
At minimum, you should be comfortable with:
- GDPR (if working with UK or EU clients) or relevant data protection law for your market
- The basics of employment contracts, what is legally required in them, and how offer letters differ from contracts
- At least one HR software platform. BambooHR has a free trial. Personio offers demos. Learn one.
- Applicant tracking systems. Greenhouse, Workable, and Lever are common. Many have free tiers or trial access.
- How to write a clear job description that does not discriminate unlawfully
If you have never worked in HR or recruitment before, I would strongly recommend the CIPD Foundation Certificate or at minimum a short online course through somewhere like ACAS (free, UK-based) or SHRM (US-based). Even a $49 Udemy course on UK employment law basics changes how you present yourself to clients.
The thing no one else is saying: clients in this niche are often paying for peace of mind more than task completion. They want to know the new starter paperwork will not blow up in their face at an employment tribunal. That confidence comes from you knowing your stuff, not from you being fast at inbox management.
How to Find Clients as an Employment VA
Stop scrolling Fiverr for this one. The price race at the bottom end of Fiverr will destroy your confidence and your bank account simultaneously.
LinkedIn is the right channel
Search for founders and MDs at companies with 10 to 80 employees. Look for job posts where they are advertising for a part-time HR coordinator or office manager. That post is a signal: they have HR work to do and they are considering hiring. Message them. Tell them you handle exactly that work on a flexible remote basis and it costs less than a permanent hire. Keep it short. Have a one-page PDF ready with your rates and three specific outcomes you deliver.
Recruitment agencies are an underused route
Small independent recruitment agencies often need admin support during busy hiring periods. They know exactly what the work involves, so you do not have to explain yourself. Reach out to boutique agencies in your sector specialism, whether that is tech, healthcare admin, or hospitality.
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HR consultancy firms
Firms like Croner, Citation, or smaller independent HR consultancies regularly subcontract admin work during client surges. Getting on two or three of these lists is worth more than a dozen Fiverr gigs.
Your own network
I got my first paid consultancy client from someone I had known for years who suddenly needed help. Tell everyone you know what you are doing now. Post about it on LinkedIn once a week. Not vague content about "being passionate about people" but specific posts like: "I set up a full onboarding process for a 12-person startup this week using BambooHR and here is how I structured it." That one post will get you three warm enquiries.
The Part of This Job No One Romanticises
It involves chasing people. A lot. Chasing new starters for documents. Chasing managers for interview feedback. Chasing finance for payroll inputs. If that kind of persistent, professional follow-up makes you uncomfortable, the work will grind you down fast.
It also involves sitting with ambiguity sometimes. A founder asks you to "deal with" a situation involving an employee, and the right answer is "you need to speak to an employment solicitor" rather than wading in yourself. Knowing your limits is a feature, not a weakness. The best VAs I have worked with said "that is outside my remit, here is who you need" without any fuss.
Is This a Real Long-Term Business or a Stopgap?
Both, depending on what you want from it. You can earn $30,000 to $55,000 a year working 25 to 30 hours a week once you have three or four retainer clients. That is a real income. It is not a side hustle, it is a business.
Or you use it as a 12-month bridge while you build something else, whether that is a full HR consultancy, a specialist recruitment business, or you upskill into people operations work at a growing company as a remote employee. The experience transfers cleanly in all those directions.
What I would not do is drift into it vaguely and take any client who will pay you. Pick your client type (startups, professional services, care sector, whatever) and go deep there. You will get better clients, better referrals, and better rates faster than if you try to work for everyone.
Frequently asked questions
What qualifications do you need to become an employment virtual assistant?
There is no mandatory qualification, but a working knowledge of employment law and at least one HR software platform is essential before charging professional rates. The CIPD Foundation Certificate is the most recognised credential in the UK. In the US, a SHRM-CP or PHR certification helps, though many employment VAs work successfully without formal credentials if they have hands-on HR or recruitment experience behind them.
How much does an employment virtual assistant earn per month?
A mid-level employment VA working 25 hours a week across three retainer clients can realistically earn $2,500 to $4,000 per month. Entry-level work through platforms like Belay or Boldly typically pays $1,500 to $2,200 per month for part-time hours. Specialist VAs with compliance expertise or CIPD qualifications can earn $4,500 or more per month working with multiple SME clients directly.
What is the difference between a general virtual assistant and an employment virtual assistant?
A general VA handles a broad mix of admin tasks including email, scheduling, and social media. An employment VA specialises in HR and recruitment administration: job postings, candidate screening, onboarding, employee records, and compliance tracking. The specialisation commands higher rates and requires knowledge of employment law and HR systems that a general VA would not typically have.
Which HR software should an employment virtual assistant learn first?
BambooHR is the best starting point because it is widely used by small and medium businesses, has strong free trial access, and covers most core HR functions including onboarding, records, and time-off management. After that, learning one applicant tracking system such as Workable or Greenhouse makes you useful across the full hiring lifecycle, which is where most small business clients need the most help.
Related reading: Working From Home as a Virtual Assistant: What the Job Boards Won't Tell You and Indeed Virtual Assistant Jobs: The Real Money, The Catch, And How To Land One.
Related: gdpr sales teams.
