A virtual assistant service places trained remote assistants with busy clients, and the business lives on the match between assistant and client. Poor matches, hidden hours and sudden exits break trust quickly.
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Share your requirementsA virtual and executive assistant service supplies remote assistants who handle calendars, inboxes, travel, research, data entry and follow-ups for founders, doctors, consultants and overseas clients. Most assistants work from home on their own devices, often across time zones, and each is tied closely to one or two clients. Billing is by hours or a monthly retainer, so the firm must show what was done and when. Clients share passwords, accounts and private matters, so trust is the product. Account managers match, supervise and handle complaints. The pool is mostly young graduates and returning women professionals, and many treat the work as a stepping stone or a flexible job. See HR for professional services.
These are the places the people side of this kind of business tends to give way. The rest of this page works through them.
HR here has to work for each of these groups, not only the office. The set-up below is written with all of them in mind.
GullyHR runs talent acquisition for permanent roles in virtual and executive assistant services. For each role we agree the job description with you, find and screen candidates against it, and support the offer through to joining. Tell us the role and the number of people, and we start there.
We recruit permanent employees. We do not supply contract or temporary staff.
Every business interviews, but few have a written process that works the same way for every role and every interviewer. GullyHR designs yours, from the role brief to the offer, trains your managers to run it, and can run it for you on the roles you hand us.
We agree what the role must deliver, the must-have and nice-to-have skills, and how each will be scored.
Screening call, assessment, interview rounds and decision points, sized to the role and the number of people you hire.
Structured questions for each role family and a rating guide, so two interviewers judge the same answer the same way.
A short briefing for your managers on what to ask, what to avoid and how to give a clear yes or no.
Who approves, how the offer is made, and how candidates are kept informed from first call to joining.
When that person leaves or is ill, the client loses a trusted helper and often blames the firm.
Billing rests on logged time, but an assistant working across tools and time zones leaves patchy records, and disputes follow.
Calendars, bank mail and personal details sit with remote staff, and the firm has little view of how they are stored.
A fast-talking executive paired with a quiet new assistant leads to complaints on both sides within weeks.
Assistants work alone for days, get little feedback and little recognition, and slowly disengage.
An assistant serving a client overseas works nights, and rest and overtime are not discussed.
Each client uses a different mail, calendar and travel tool, and nobody keeps a record of what an assistant has learnt.
A client who values the assistant offers a direct job, and the firm loses both billing and trained talent.
Start with the topics that matter most here: Employee Engagement and Experience; Retention and Attrition Management; Policies, Compliance and Governance. Then work through the rest. Each topic is written for professional services, not in general.
Communication, recognition and the conditions people actually work in.
Who leaves, when, why — and which of them mattered.
Policies a manager can apply, and obligations with owners and dates.
How many people, in which roles, by when — and what they will cost.
Structure, reporting lines and who is allowed to decide what.
Requisition to joining, the same way every time.
A first day that is the same for the fifth joiner as the first.
Records, attendance, leave and the day-to-day HR that must simply work.
Salary structure, payroll inputs and a month that closes on time.
Goals, reviews and ratings that hold up in a conversation.
Training planned from need rather than from the calendar.
Named backups for the roles that cannot be vacant.
Two routes — one for complaints, one for conduct — kept separate.
Induction, records, incident reporting and follow-through.
Resignation to relieving letter, in a defined order.
Records that survive people, and approvals that do not queue.
A short monthly pack management actually reads.
An HR function that runs the same way every month.
The pieces a virtual and executive assistant services business puts in place, in an order that makes each easier. Open any card for the detail.
A second person who knows the client's routine and can step in at short notice.
A second person who knows the client's routine and can step in at short notice. The attendance and leave process governs cover.
A time and task record that shows what was done, shared with the client at agreed points.
A time and task record that shows what was done, shared with the client at agreed points.
How passwords are stored, which devices are used and what is never saved locally, signed at joining.
How passwords are stored, which devices are used and what is never saved locally, signed at joining. The HR policy packages include confidentiality and device rules.
A one-page profile of the client's style and the assistant's strengths, reviewed after two weeks.
A one-page profile of the client's style and the assistant's strengths, reviewed after two weeks.
A short call for each assistant, plus a monthly review with the client.
A short call for each assistant, plus a monthly review with the client. The employee engagement process can shape it.
Hours, rest and extra pay or time off for those serving other time zones.
Hours, rest and extra pay or time off for those serving other time zones. Settle terms with a qualified professional.
Before changing anything, find out what is true today. These checks take an afternoon and tell you which of the topics above to start with.
Share your requirementsConfirm with a qualified professional. What applies to you depends on your business, your state and your arrangements, and it changes. This page describes practice. It does not state a legal position.
The services below fit this kind of business best. Each starts by recording where you stand, and every later report compares against that. We do not promise outcomes.
Cover rules and hour records that stand up to a client query.
Confidentiality, device and remote-work rules that every assistant signs and follows.
A rhythm of check-ins and recognition so remote assistants feel seen.
A clear screen for tools, communication and reliability, so the pool stays steady.
Start with a free conversation, or see the paid HR Diagnostic.
Understand the business, its workforce, current processes and HR challenges.
Find the missing, weak, inconsistent or person-dependent processes.
Create the structure, processes, policies, SOPs, dashboards and systems needed.
Help HR and department managers actually adopt the new system.
Digitise repetitive and approval-based workflows where it is worth doing.
Track hiring, attendance, employee cost, performance, training and attrition.
Strengthen the people-management system continuously, not once.
From the GullyHR blog: one on HR in professional services, and one on each of the topics this page points to.
Why associates and managers leave consulting, accounting, legal and advisory firms, and how to ask about progression, workload and partners at exit.
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Eighty per cent responded, the report was thorough, and six months later trust was lower than before. What went wrong between the survey and the silence.
8 min readRead article
What really keeps mobile app and web developers in a small firm: stay conversations, growth paths, fair release rules and a risk sheet an owner can use this month.
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How an India head can sort a global parent's HR policies into apply, adapt or replace, write an India addendum with advisers, and keep headquarters on side.
7 min readRead articleMore on the GullyHR blog.
Keep a simple log of tasks and time per assistant, share a summary at agreed points and let the client raise queries within a set window.
The backup steps in. Hold a short client profile and routine note so the cover can start without a long handover.
Use a managed password tool, never personal notes or chat, and remove access on the last day. Set the rule in writing and review it with a qualified professional.
Put clear terms in the client agreement, reviewed by your lawyer, and keep the assistant engaged through growth and recognition.
Give regular check-ins, visible feedback, a path to team lead and occasional meetings in person where possible.
We would ask how you prove hours, who covers when an assistant is absent and how passwords are handled. A sensible first project is a backup system with a written work log. Scope is written for you to accept or change.
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