At Grow Senior Care Marketing, I get to meet some incredible leaders in the home care industry, and recently, I had the pleasure of sitting down with Kat Villanueva, owner of Nest and Care and Olivia Virtual Assistance, on the Grow Senior Care Marketing Podcast. Kat’s story is inspiring, real, and full of practical lessons for home care agencies looking to grow smarter, not harder.

If you’re a home care agency owner wondering if hiring a virtual assistant is the right move, this blog is for you.

Why Home Care Agencies Should Strongly Consider Virtual Assistants

During our conversation, Kat shared how necessity led her to innovation.
When the pandemic hit, staffing became a challenge. Kat turned to virtual assistants (VAs), and it completely transformed her agency operations.

Top reasons Kat recommends hiring VAs:

• Boosts efficiency: Tasks like recruitment, scheduling support, and admin duties are easily handled virtually.
  
• Lowers administrative costs: Kat reduced her admin costs from 16% to around 11–12%.
• Builds a hybrid team: In-house team members handle client-facing tasks while VAs manage backend operations.

Hiring virtual assistants is not a temporary trend — it’s a long-term strategy to stabilize and grow your home care agency.

Watch how we grew an agency’s care hours by 400% (and how you can too)!

How to Hire Your First Virtual Assistant (and Avoid Common Pitfalls)

When you’re ready to bring on a VA, Kat outlined two major paths:

• DIY Hiring: Post jobs on platforms like LinkedIn, Upwork, or Facebook groups. But be prepared — her team screens thousands of applicants to find the right fit, with a hiring rate of just 0.9%!
• Partnering with Experts: Agencies like Olivia Virtual Assistance do the heavy lifting for you, ensuring you get top-tier candidates ready to integrate with your team.
  

Key steps if hiring yourself:

• Include application “easter eggs” like “what’s your favorite color” to screen applicants carefully.
• Conduct thorough video interviews and test tasks.
• Perform background and social media checks to validate authenticity.

Pro Tip: Virtual hiring can be tedious and time-consuming. Going through a trusted agency saves countless hours and headaches.

Building a Cohesive Hybrid Team: Virtual + In-Person Success

Creating a cohesive team isn’t just about hiring — it’s about building one culture, whether someone works across the hall or across the globe.

Kat’s tips for a cohesive hybrid team:

• Explain the “why” to your in-house staff before hiring VAs. Transparency builds trust.
• Daily team huddles: Include VAs in meetings to ensure alignment.
• Celebrate milestones: Acknowledge birthdays, wins, and contributions — virtually and in-person.
• Use communication tools: Slack, Discord, and VOIP systems help keep everyone connected seamlessly.

At Grow Senior Care Marketing, we also apply these strategies — and I can confirm, they make a huge difference in team morale and performance.

Download our ultimate home care SEO and website checklist

Scaling Beyond One or Two Virtual Assistants

As your virtual team grows beyond four or five people, managing them requires structure.

Kat’s approach to scaling VAs includes:

• Hiring a VA Manager to oversee daily operations.
• Assigning a point person within the in-office team for VAs to connect with.
  
• Creating clear communication protocols for escalation, feedback, and accountability.

When scaling, structure ensures success and reduces the chances of team members feeling isolated or unsupported.

First VA Role Recommendation: Start with Recruiting

If you’re wondering where to start, Kat was crystal clear: Recruitment is the easiest role to outsource.

Why recruitment?

• It’s process-driven and consistent across most agencies.
  
• It frees your time from sourcing, screening, and scheduling caregiver interviews.

Other ideal first roles:

• Admin support
  
• Scheduling (with proper training)
  
• Executive Assistant tasks for busy owners

Common Mistakes Home Care Agencies Make When Hiring VAs

Through managing over 100 agencies, Kat has spotted patterns.
Top 3 mistakes to avoid:

• Inadequate training: Even highly-vetted VAs need orientation into your specific workflows.
• Lack of feedback: Continuous communication is key to VA success and job satisfaction.
• Failure to integrate: Treat VAs as full team members, invite them to meetings, and publicly recognize their work.

Must-Have Tools for Managing Virtual Teams

Communication Tools:

• Slack or Discord
• VOIP messaging systems

Project Management Tools:

• Notion (Kat’s favorite for building dashboards and SOP libraries)
• Trello or Monday.com
• Asana for advanced task tracking
  

Knowledge Base Creation:

• Organize SOPs for recruiting, HR, billing, and scheduling inside Notion.
• Regularly update processes based on team feedback.

   

FAQs

1. Can a virtual assistant really handle caregiver recruitment for a home care agency?
   Yes! Recruiting is the easiest department to outsource because of its process-driven nature. Agencies like Olivia Virtual Assistance specialize in this.

    

2. How can I keep my virtual and in-person teams connected?
   Daily huddles, open communication channels, and treating virtual staff as part of the main team helps everyone feel united.

    

3. What project management tools work best for managing a home care hybrid team?
   Notion, Trello, and Monday.com are among the top tools for tracking tasks, SOPs, and building dashboards that keep teams aligned.

Why VAs Could Revolutionize Your Home Care Agency

Kat’s story — and the stories of over 100+ agencies she’s helped — show that virtual assistants are not just a temporary fix.

They are a long-term growth strategy.

If you’re ready to start scaling efficiently, improving your margins, and relieving your in-office team’s workload, now is the time to explore what VAs can do for your agency.

Visit Olivia Virtual Assistance to learn more about how they can support your home care growth journey.

And if you’re looking for strong marketing support to boost your agency’s online visibility, we at Grow Senior Care Marketing would love to help.
Explore Our Services Here

👉 Listen to the full podcast episode here: https://growseniorcaremarketing.com/home-care-podcast/

👉 Connect with me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeremy-fuller-marketing/

Hope you found this to be helpful, if you’re ready to take your agency to the next level schedule your free home care marketing session with us now:

Schedule Your Free Ultimate Home Care Marketing Session, And We Will:

A $500 Value – Yours For Free