We Tried Using VA Hiring Agencies So That You Wouldn’t Have To

Do you want to hire a virtual assistant (VA)?

You’ve likely heard of Onlinejob.ph, UpWork, etc. But you’ve also probably heard of hiring agencies, who are agencies who will place a VA in your businesses for a charge, and then you pay the agency directly for keeping the VA in your business.

The selling point of VA hiring agencies is that you expect these agencies to study your standards and select these VA candidates based on the VAs ability to understand them and reduce iteration cycles for getting tasks completed.

Compare this to doom-scrolling Onlinejob.ph and the appeal is instant. Why waste time when you can have someone else do the busywork for you?

But as a business owner who wants to get stuff done, the question for you is: Are VA Hiring Agencies worth the hype? 

In the last 30 days, we’ve gone on an experiment to give you an answer, save you thousands of dollars, and reveal the truth behind VA Hiring Agencies.

The 3 VA Hiring Methods We Tried

1. VA Placement Agency

We hired two VAs through a placement agency. Placement agencies are like hiring agencies, but instead of paying a retainer directly to an agency, they charge a one-time fee for placing a VA in your business.

Eager to get started, I went ahead and hired two off the bat at $600/each.

I wish I could say everything worked out.

We expecting a smooth and efficient process. The promise? Pre-vetted, trained candidates who were ready to contribute immediately. The reality? Both VAs stopped responding within a week. The agency charged upfront fees, but the reliability we expected simply wasn’t there.

Here’s an example:

What’s surprising is that if the agency would have done their research (a 2 minute Google search for our existing published guidelines on how we hire), they would have known this.

Instead, we had VAs who wanted $6/hour who didn’t want to talk to us and wanted to be paid for “training”, which is like being paid to read a few critical articles without anything getting produced. It’s not like this was a mystery, either.

You can see in our initial emails with this agency what the expectations were.

Eventually and expectedly, the VAs quit once they realized the jig was up.

In doing this, here was the response from the owner of the agency.

Because the agency owner did the right thing and refunded us, we’re not going to mention the name of the company and agency owner.

We find that VA placement agencies might be more successful for solo-prenuers and freelancers, but not as much for agencies who have written standards and expectations. That’s because we’re not looking for executive assistants or to have someone do the bare minimum. We demand excellence.

2. VA Service Agencies

The next hiring model we tried was a VA service agency. This model offers VAs as a service, handling payroll and management on our behalf.

After getting a few referrals from friends of my who have agencies who’ve reached 7 figures, I decided I’d give this agency a shot as well.

The agency charged $1.5k/month for a VA and the agency immediately began their search for someone who was in their eyes, “qualified”.

Eventually, we found a VA and after interviewing her, decided she might be able to live up to our standards since she could practice active listening and seemed eager to do a good job.

But just two weeks later – she abruptly quit, telling the hiring agency before informing us directly.

This VA, while decent, simply didn’t complete work which lived up to our standards. 

The agency mentioned that BlitzMetrics has loads of negative reviews on job sites (which is normal for companies who have strict hiring standards), and that instead, we should consider paying $3,000/month for a VA who could be more competent.

What’s strange is that even 2 articles published a day is still a fraction of what I, and many of our team members, can do. So the excuse that this VA was “overworked” is non-sense.

This was Dennis’ response:

Because the agency also did the right thing and refunded us, we’re not publishing the name of the agency or the owner. But by now through these two examples, a clear pattern is emerging.

There’s a few problems with VA hiring agencies in general:

1. They hire and find the candidates for you, meaning you’re unsure if they initially live up to our standards and expectations.
2. They’re more loyal to the agency than to the business hiring them, which is why this VA reached out to them to quit before reaching out to us.
3. The pay is inflated, with the typical markup being 3x what the VA is being paid. Meaning if a VA agency charges $9/hour, the VA is often only being paid $3/hour.

All of this meant that for this experiment and in general, VA agencies almost never work.

3. Direct Hiring via OnlineJobs.ph and UpWork

Unlike agency models, direct hiring gives us complete control over the process.

We can instantly spot the three most common disqualifiers and avoid disastrous VAs. But we can also run them through our hiring guidelines to make sure any mistake disqualifies them. 

For example, one of our VA’s, Catherine, has been steadily improving since we hired her directly from OnlineJobs.ph.

You can see how she’s using our keyword (banana split) and being able to comprehend EEAT, which is core to the Content Factory.

Direct hiring eliminates the middle-man and allows us to qualify VAs based on competency and ability to get stuff done.

Why Direct Hiring Works Better for Us

Our success with direct hiring is largely due to our structured approach, powered by our training system. Instead of relying on external vetting, we ensure every VA is set up for success through:

• A Clear Hiring Process – Our structured job postings include expectations, skill requirements, and work culture insights. This also serves as an initial vetting process—if a candidate can’t follow basic instructions, they likely won’t be a valuable teammate.
• Skill-Based Screening – Every applicant must complete a test project before being considered. In our case, this means article repurposing, which makes up about 80% of their workload. This ensures they’re capable of the tasks they’ll be handling daily.
• Trial Periods – We implement a 30-day paid probationary period, allowing new hires to complete real tasks and integrate with the team before making a long-term commitment.
• Pre-Built Training Resources – Every VA gains access to our Content Factory training modules, helping them understand our workflows without requiring excessive hand-holding.

What Should You Do For Hiring VAs?

The good news is we’ve done all of this so you won’t have to. Here’s a few points you can use to increase the likelihood of hiring excellent VAs:

1. Control the hiring process – Having direct oversight over screening, onboarding, and management leads to better results.

For example, if you have to go through a middleman, there’s a high probability that the VA won’t live up to your standards.

2. Invest in structured training – Internal training ensures consistency and efficiency, unlike relying on agencies to vet candidates.

We have hundreds of hours of video training and hundreds of articles published for VAs to learn from. Almost any question they have, they can Google and find fairly easily. You should have something similar.

3. Test before committing – A trial period helps filter out candidates who aren’t the right fit before making a long-term investment.

If it takes more than 1 revision to complete a task which would live up to A Player standards, chances are this will continue. That’s why you should give them tests before offering them a role, even on a 30 day probationary period.

4. Set clear expectations early – Every VA should know their role, responsibilities, and success metrics from day one.

Whenever there’s confusion on work hours or commitment (like we saw from our VA Agency example), this makes it harder on our team to get work done.

Are We Too Harsh?

Many have told us that our standards are too high and that we can’t expect to find quality VAs. Our response – GOOD. We want a few killers instead of 50 VAs who work for an hour a day and call it quits.

The irony in doing this, is that finding a qualified and competent VA is like finding a needle in a haystack. From my podcast with Jon Jonas, we talked about how only 1/10 VAs are truly qualified for their position.

The best way forward is to have clear, measurable standards and don’t let anyone cross them. We’re not in the business of free private tutoring. We want to make our clients money, and to do that efficiently, we need quality people.

If your business is the same – don’t let a few incompetent VAs through the cracks.