Virtual Assistant for
Recruiters & Staffing Agencies
The sourcing, scheduling and ATS admin a remote VA can take on, what should stay with you, and what it costs.
Short answer: a virtual assistant for recruiters and staffing agencies handles the time-consuming admin around hiring: building candidate lists, first-pass résumé screening against your criteria, interview scheduling, ATS updates, follow-up emails and keeping client and candidate communication moving. Final hiring decisions, offer negotiation and legal or compliance sign-off should stay with you. With MyVirtualExpert, a dedicated VA costs $10/hour on a flexible plan, from $699/month part-time or from $1,199/month full-time.
Recruiting is a numbers game run on a clock. Every open role means dozens of profiles to review, emails to send, calendars to line up and records to keep current. For independent recruiters and small staffing agencies in the US and Canada, that admin can eat most of the day, leaving little time for the work that actually fills roles: talking to candidates and clients. A virtual assistant can take on much of the busywork.
What a recruiting virtual assistant can do
Sourcing and candidate research
- Search job boards and professional networks for profiles that match your role criteria.
- Build and clean candidate lists in a spreadsheet or your ATS.
- Find publicly listed contact details and check for duplicates.
- Draft first-touch outreach messages from your templates, for your approval.
Much of this overlaps with what a lead generation virtual assistant does for sales teams: research, list building and organized outreach.
Screening support
- Do a first pass on incoming applications against a checklist you provide (location, years of experience, required certifications, the screening questions you've set).
- Tag and shortlist candidates for your review.
- Send pre-screening questionnaires and collect the answers.
Your VA flags and sorts; you decide who moves forward.
Interview scheduling and coordination
- Coordinate times between candidates, hiring managers and your own calendar.
- Send confirmations, reminders and video links.
- Reschedule when plans change, which they always do.
Scheduling is one of the quickest wins. Read more about how a calendar management virtual assistant works.
ATS and CRM upkeep
- Update candidate stages, notes and attachments in your applicant tracking system.
- Log client contacts, job orders and follow-up dates.
- Keep job postings current and close out filled roles.
Candidate and client communication
- Send status updates and polite "not this time" emails from approved templates.
- Chase missing documents, references and availability.
- Prepare weekly pipeline summaries for your clients.
Paperwork after a placement
- Send new-hire document packets and track what's been returned.
- Set reminders for start dates and 30/60/90-day check-ins.
- For staffing agencies, help organize timesheet collection and reminders.
What to keep in-house
A VA is a support role. Some parts of recruiting should stay with you or a licensed professional:
- Hiring decisions and final candidate selection, for you or your client.
- Offer and salary negotiation.
- Legal and compliance decisions, such as background-check rules, work-eligibility checks and employment law questions in each US state or Canadian province. A VA can gather documents; the decision belongs with you and your advisers.
- Payroll approval and client billing disputes.
Write these limits into your VA's instructions from day one so everyone is clear.
Protecting candidate data
Recruiters handle personal information: résumés, phone numbers, sometimes salary history. Before you hand over access:
- Give the VA their own login to your ATS with only the permissions they need.
- Avoid sending candidate files over personal email or chat apps.
- Have your VA sign an NDA (all MyVirtualExpert VAs do).
- Remove access promptly if the arrangement ends.
Our guide on hiring an offshore VA safely covers more steps.
How many hours do you need?
A simple way to decide: track one week of your own time and add up the hours spent on scheduling, ATS updates, list building and follow-up emails.
- Under about 20 hours a month: the flexible plan at $10/hour is usually enough, for example for an independent recruiter who wants scheduling and ATS updates covered.
- Around 80 hours a month: part-time from $699/month suits a busy solo recruiter or a small desk of two or three.
- 160 hours a month: full-time from $1,199/month suits a staffing agency with steady job orders that wants one person on sourcing and coordination every day.
Not sure which fits? Our guide to part-time vs full-time virtual assistants walks through it, and full plan details are on our pricing page.
Why recruiters work with MyVirtualExpert
You get a dedicated VA (not a shared pool) who works your time zone, so interview scheduling and candidate replies happen during your business day. There's no setup fee, plans are month-to-month, every VA signs an NDA, and if the fit isn't right we replace your VA free. After a free 30-minute call, most clients are onboarded within 24–48 hours.
Want to spend more time on placements and less on admin?
Book a free 30-minute call. We'll map your sourcing, scheduling and ATS work to a dedicated, NDA-signed VA who works your hours. Onboarding in 24–48 hours, no setup fee, month-to-month.
Frequently asked questions
A VA can do a first-pass review of applications against criteria you set, tag and shortlist candidates, and send pre-screening questions. The decision on who moves forward stays with you.
Yes. Give your VA their own login with limited permissions and they can update candidate stages, notes, job orders and follow-up dates in most common ATS and CRM tools.
With MyVirtualExpert, flexible support is $10/hour, part-time (80 hours/month) starts at $699, and full-time (160 hours/month) starts at $1,199. There is no setup fee and plans are month-to-month.