How to hire a virtual assistant in the UK: a step-by-step process covering costs, legal considerations and what to look for. Includes an in-house vs outsourced cost comparison using real UK data.
To hire a virtual assistant in the UK, start by listing the tasks you want to delegate, then decide between a freelance VA, a platform, or a specialist agency based on the complexity of the work and how much oversight you want to provide. A general VA handles admin, email and diary management at around £15 – £35 per hour. An executive virtual assistant handles higher-level support – inbox triage, stakeholder management, travel logistics and project coordination – typically through an agency at a fixed monthly rate. Outsourcing to an agency like DonnaPro starts from £2,350 per month, compared with £8,449 per month for an equivalent top-tier in-house employee in salary and employer contributions alone – before you add recruitment fees, equipment, workspace and HR overheads.
You have built a business that demands more of your time than you have. The inbox is unmanageable, meetings eat entire days, and operational tasks that should take minutes take hours because nobody else has the context. You know you need help – but the idea of hiring a full-time employee, with all the cost, compliance and management overhead that comes with it, feels disproportionate to the problem.
This is the point where most UK business leaders start searching for a virtual assistant. The question is not whether to hire one – it is how to hire the right one without wasting time or money on the wrong fit.
This guide walks through the entire process: the types of VA available, a step-by-step hiring framework, what it actually costs in the UK (with real numbers, not just salary benchmarks), and the legal considerations that trip up first-time buyers. If you are already clear on the kind of support you need, skip to the step-by-step section. If you want to understand the role first, our guide to what an executive assistant does covers the territory in detail.
The shift to remote and hybrid work made virtual assistants viable for businesses that would never have considered them five years ago. What started as a cost-saving measure for solo founders has become a strategic choice for established companies.
Several forces are driving adoption in the UK:
The result: virtual assistant services are no longer a start-up workaround. They are how modern UK businesses manage operational leverage without the overhead of traditional employment.
Not all virtual assistants do the same work. The term covers a wide spectrum, and hiring the wrong type is the most common mistake UK businesses make.
| Dimension | General Virtual Assistant | Executive Virtual Assistant |
|---|---|---|
| Core work | Data entry, email handling, diary management, basic research, social media scheduling | Inbox triage with judgement, stakeholder management, complex travel, board preparation, project coordination |
| Decision-making | Follows instructions and templates | Makes operational decisions autonomously within agreed boundaries |
| Who they support | Entrepreneurs, small business owners, solo founders | CEOs, founders, C-suite, senior leaders |
| Typical experience | 1 – 3 years administrative experience | 5 – 15+ years, often ex-corporate EA or chief of staff background |
| Working style | Task-based, reactive | Proactive, anticipates needs, owns processes end to end |
| UK hourly rate | £15 – £35/hr | £35 – £75/hr (or fixed monthly retainer) |
| Best for | Repetitive, well-defined tasks with clear SOPs | High-context support where the assistant acts as an extension of the leader |
General virtual assistant vs executive virtual assistant – scope, skills and typical use cases compared.
If your main problem is “I need someone to do these 15 tasks from this checklist,” a general VA is the right fit. If your main problem is “I need someone who can think, prioritise and act on my behalf across everything that lands on my plate,” you need an executive virtual assistant.
For a deeper look at what the executive level involves, see our guide to C-level executive assistants.
Whether you are hiring through a freelance platform, a recruitment agency, or a specialist VA provider, this framework applies.
Before you search for a VA, track your time for one to two weeks. Write down every task you do that does not require your specific expertise. Common categories include:
This list becomes your brief. Without it, you will either over-hire or under-hire – both expensive mistakes.
Be honest about how much support you actually need. Most leaders overestimate at first. A useful starting point:
Many agencies – including DonnaPro – let you start part-time and scale up as the workload grows.
You have three main options in the UK:
We compare these in detail in the agency vs freelance section below.
A strong virtual assistant is not just someone who completes tasks. You are looking for:
If you go through an agency, they handle screening for you. If you hire a freelancer, plan to interview at least five candidates and run a paid trial task before committing.
Never commit to a long-term arrangement without a trial. Two to four weeks is enough to assess whether the assistant can handle the complexity of your workload. During the trial, evaluate:
The most common reason VA relationships fail is not the assistant – it is a poor handover. Before day one:
For a full framework on building this working relationship, see our guide to working with an executive assistant.
Beyond the screening checklist above, there are qualities that separate a VA who merely completes tasks from one who transforms how you work.
This is where most guides get it wrong. They quote freelance hourly rates and call it a day. The real question is: what is the total cost of the support you need, and how does that compare to hiring in-house?
When you hire a full-time executive assistant as an employee, the headline salary is only part of the cost. A top-tier EA earning £87,180 gross costs £101,390 per year – or £8,449 per month – in salary and statutory employer contributions alone (employer NI at 15% from April 2025, plus pension at minimum 3%). That figure does not include recruitment agency fees (typically 15 – 25% of first-year salary), training, equipment or workspace. The first-year total cost of a new employee typically runs 30 – 50% above the salary once all of these are factored in (Employers Calculator, 2026).
Virtual assistant pricing in the UK varies widely depending on the channel and the level of support:
| Option | Annual cost | Monthly cost | What is included |
|---|---|---|---|
| In-house EA (full-time, top-tier) | £101,390 | £8,449 | Salary + employer NI + pension only. Recruitment, workspace and equipment are additional |
| Freelance VA (general, 20 hrs/wk) | £15,600 – £36,400 | £1,300 – £3,033 | Hourly rate only. You manage screening, onboarding, quality, backup |
| DonnaPro (part-time executive VA) | £28,200 | £2,350 | Dedicated EA, fully managed, backup coverage, no recruitment or HR overheads |
| DonnaPro (full-time executive VA) | £67,920 | £5,660 | Dedicated full-time EA, fully managed, European time zone, AI-trained, backup included |
UK virtual assistant cost comparison – in-house employee vs freelance vs agency. In-house figures reflect salary and employer contributions only; recruitment fees, equipment and HR overhead are not included.
The bottom line: a fully managed, full-time executive virtual assistant through DonnaPro costs 33% less than the salary and employer-contribution costs of an equivalent in-house employee – before you even factor in recruitment fees, workspace, equipment and HR overheads. And you avoid the employer NI liability, pension obligations and fixed headcount entirely.
For a detailed breakdown, see our UK virtual executive assistant cost guide.
Each channel has trade-offs. The right choice depends on what you are delegating and how much you want to manage.
For a detailed head-to-head, see our comparison of EA agency vs freelance and our guide on how to choose an executive assistant agency.
Hiring a virtual assistant in the UK carries specific legal obligations that many businesses overlook – particularly around employment status and tax.
If you engage a VA directly as a contractor (not through an agency), you need to determine whether the engagement falls inside or outside IR35. Since April 2021, medium-sized and large UK businesses are responsible for making this determination for off-payroll workers (HMRC, Off-payroll working rules). Note that from April 2025, the “small company” thresholds changed: turnover under £15 million (previously £10.2m), balance sheet under £7.5 million (previously £5.1m), and fewer than 50 employees. Approximately 14,000 businesses were reclassified from medium to small as a result (National Law Review, 2025).
If the engagement is deemed “inside IR35” – meaning the VA would be an employee if engaged directly – you must deduct income tax and National Insurance at source, as if they were on your payroll.
Key factors HMRC considers:
When you hire through an agency like DonnaPro, the IR35 question largely disappears. Your relationship is a B2B service contract with the agency – you are purchasing a service, not engaging an individual assistant. The agency manages the relationship with the assistant, handles compliance, and takes on the operational responsibility. From HMRC’s perspective, you are a client buying business support services, not an end client engaging an off-payroll worker.
This is one of the less obvious but most significant advantages of the agency model for UK businesses.
Your virtual assistant will likely access personal data – client emails, employee records, financial information. Under UK GDPR, you remain the data controller and must ensure appropriate safeguards are in place:
Reputable agencies have these agreements and protocols already in place. If you hire a freelancer, you will need to set them up yourself.
If you have read this far, you already know the difference between a VA who simply completes tasks and an executive assistant who transforms how you work. The question is no longer whether to hire – it is whether to manage the process yourself or let an agency handle it.
DonnaPro provides dedicated, European-based executive virtual assistants to CEOs, founders and senior leaders across the UK. Every assistant is AI-trained, fully managed, and backed by the agency – so if anything changes, your operations do not skip a beat.
Book a free consultation to discuss your requirements, or explore how DonnaPro works.
Explore more guides to help you hire, work with, and get the most from your executive assistant.
