Contracts, Monitoring, and Honesty: Ethical Issues in Philippine Virtual Assistant Start-up Agencies

Virtual assistant (VA) agencies are small businesses that recruit Filipino workers, train them, and match them with clients abroad. They are easy to start, but there are few rules made for them. This study describes the ethical issues that owners and managers of new VA agencies in the Philippines report, the people they ask for advice when they are unsure what is right, and the policies they use. A descriptive design was used. Fifteen owners, co-owners, and operations managers of VA agencies that had operated for five years or less answered an online questionnaire in October 2026. Data were analyzed using frequencies and percentages, and the few written answers were reported as given. Most agencies were less than two years old (80.0%), and most respondents were former VAs themselves (80.0%). The issues reported most often were VA benefits and contracts (66.7%), monitoring of VAs (53.3%), and honesty with clients about VA skills (40.0%). Most respondents asked a lawyer or accountant for advice (80.0%), followed by other agency owners and online groups (53.3% each). Only three respondents answered the open-ended questions, so the findings on how owners make decisions are limited. The results give new agency owners, VA groups, and government offices a first picture of the ethical concerns in this growing business.