Virtual assistants for recruitment agencies
Candidate pipeline hygiene, interview slot scheduling and the correspondence between them — handled by somebody who already knows what a pipeline stage means and does not need it explained twice.
- From $10/hour
- Both sides of every match vetted
- Member of VAASA
The work
What lands on the desk here.
- Candidate pipeline management and CRM hygiene
- Interview slot scheduling and confirmations
- Job posting creation and portal syndication
- CV formatting and candidate database upkeep
- Candidate sourcing and initial outreach
- Reference chasing and documentation
- Client and candidate correspondence along an agreed line
- Timesheet and placement paperwork chasing
- Weekly pipeline and activity reporting
- Diary control across consultants
- New client and vacancy intake administration
Where the line is
No shortlisting decisions, no assessment calls, and nothing that represents the agency in a hiring decision.
A Nira professional runs the process around a placement. They do not assess a candidate, decide who gets shortlisted, or represent your agency to a client or a candidate in any conversation where a hiring decision is being made — that judgement is a consultant's, every time. Right-to-work checks and background verification tied to a named person at your agency stay with that person; a remote administrator does not sign off on either. What they run is the scheduling, the correspondence, the database and the paperwork around the decision, so the consultant's time goes on the part of the job that actually needs a consultant.
In practice
How this tends to go.
A recruitment desk generates an enormous amount of process for every single placement — sourcing, scheduling, chasing, updating a pipeline that is out of date the moment nobody touches it for a day — and almost none of that process is the judgement the consultant is actually paid for. The decision about who goes forward takes minutes. Getting to that decision takes most of a week.
The pipeline is where the compounding happens, in the same way a CRM drifts at an estate agency. Candidates sit in a stage they left weeks ago, duplicate records pile up from two sourcing channels saying the same thing twice, and a database that looked clean at the start of the month is unreliable by the end of it unless somebody owns the hygiene every week. That maintenance work is covered in full on the CRM management page.
Interview scheduling is usually the first thing handed over, because the return is immediate and the work is entirely coordination — proposing slots, chasing confirmations, rebooking the interview that falls through an hour before it was due. None of it needs a consultant’s judgement; all of it needs somebody whose day is not already full of client calls.
Sourcing and CV formatting sit close behind it. A first pass against basic criteria — location, qualification, availability — gets a longlist to a consultant faster than starting from a blank search, and a formatted, consistent CV is the difference between a client reading a candidate properly and skimming past one. The judgement about who actually goes forward never moves; the volume of preparation around it does.
Reference chasing and placement paperwork are the least glamorous part of a desk and the easiest to fall behind on. A start date confirmed without a signed timesheet, or a reference still outstanding after a candidate has already started, is a persistence problem more than a skill one, and it is solved by someone whose job that day is the chase rather than the placement itself.
Support is arranged at fifteen, thirty or forty hours a week and starts from $10 an hour — see pricing for what each level covers. If it is the appointment-setting side of the desk you are weighing up specifically, hire an appointment setter covers that ground from a narrower angle than this page does.
Support levels
Fifteen, thirty or forty hours a week.
15 hrs / week
Nira Focus
Focused support. More time for what matters.
Founders and professionals who need consistent administrative support without a full-time commitment.
30 hrs / week
Nira Elevate
More support. More capacity to grow.
Growing businesses that need deeper support across administration, clients, systems and daily operations.
40 hrs / week
Nira Signature
Dedicated support. Seamlessly integrated.
Executives and established businesses requiring a dedicated professional who becomes an extension of the team.
From $10/hour. Recruitment support is delivered at one of three levels, and a business can move between them as the work grows.
Questions
Before you enquire.
Can a virtual assistant screen or shortlist candidates?
They can run the sourcing and the first sift against basic criteria you set — right qualification, right location, right availability — and get a longlist in front of a consultant faster than starting from an empty search. Deciding who actually goes forward to a client is a judgement call and stays with the consultant, every time, regardless of how routine or junior a role looks on paper.
How much of interview scheduling can be handed over?
Most of it, and it is usually the first thing agencies move across. Proposing slots, chasing confirmations, sending joining instructions and rebooking when something falls through an hour before it was due is high- volume, low-judgement work. It eats a consultant's day in small interruptions, never in one manageable block, and that is why it is the first thing to move.
Can they manage right-to-work or background checks?
They can chase the documents, keep the file complete and flag what is missing, but verification and sign-off stay with a named person at your agency wherever your process requires it. That line does not move regardless of how much of the surrounding admin is handed over, because the responsibility is tied to an individual and is not ours to hold on your behalf.
We run a high-volume desk. Is fifteen hours a week realistic?
For a single, lower-volume desk, sometimes; for most volume operations, thirty hours is the more honest starting point. The pipeline hygiene and scheduling load on a genuinely busy desk is closer to a full role than a top-up, and hours can move between the three levels as the desk's real volume becomes clearer over the first month or two.
Where this goes next
Related pages.
Elsewhere on the site
Get started
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A short call if you would rather talk it through, or a short form if you would rather write it down.