How to hire a community support specialist

How to hire a community support specialist, step by step

Here's a step-by-step community support specialist hiring guide:

• Step 1: Identify your hiring needs
• Step 2: Create an ideal candidate profile
• Step 3: Make a budget
• Step 4: Write a community support specialist job description
• Step 5: Post your job
• Step 6: Interview candidates
• Step 7: Send a job offer and onboard your new community support specialist
• Step 8: Go through the hiring process checklist

What does a community support specialist do?

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1. Identify your hiring needs

   Before you start hiring a community support specialist, identify what type of worker you actually need. Certain positions might call for a full-time employee, while others can be done by a part-time worker or contractor.

   Determine employee vs contractor status

   Is the person you're thinking of hiring a US citizen or green card holder?

   Yes

   No

   A community support specialist's background is also an important factor in determining whether they'll be a good fit for the position. For example, community support specialists from different industries or fields will have radically different experiences and will bring different viewpoints to the role. You also need to consider the candidate's previous level of experience to make sure they'll be comfortable with the job's level of seniority.

   The following list breaks down different types of community support specialists and their corresponding salaries.

   Type of Community Support Specialist	Description	Hourly rate
   Community Support Specialist	Social and human service assistants provide client services, including support for families, in a wide variety of fields, such as psychology, rehabilitation, and social work. They assist other workers, such as social workers, and they help clients find benefits or community services.	$12-26
   Service Worker	A service worker is responsible for assisting the community welfare development by providing social services to an organization or specific individual groups, supporting their needs, and addressing their community concerns. Service workers also offer counseling services to their clients to guide them on how they manage their life crises, developing community activities and job opportunities to help citizens with their financial needs by consulting local organizations... Show more	$10-19
   Residential Counselor	A residential counselor is responsible for guiding and providing the residents with their basic needs and other resources to support them in their daily living. Residential counselors' duties include maintaining the safety of the community by enforcing safety guidelines and procedures for the residents' compliance, organizing productive and engaging community activities, updating the residents of any changes and policies in the community, and resolving conflicts by counseling and understanding each resident's differences... Show more	$12-20

   Show more

2. Create an ideal candidate profile

   Common skills:

   • Social Work
   • Mental Health
   • Rehabilitation
   • Community Resources
   • Independent Living
   • Substance Abuse
   • Developmental Disabilities
   • Direct Services
   • Direct Care
   • Severe Mental Illness
   • CPR
   • Social Services
   • Crisis Intervention
   • Medicaid

   Check all skills

   Responsibilities:

   • Provide PSR services to clients with mental illness in order to help them achieve the highest standard of living possible.
   • Review notes complete by other community support workers to assess progression towards individualize goals for patients on caseload.
   • Complete CPR and first aid training.
   • Participate in IEP meetings and academic action plans.
   • Develop new techniques to engage teenage males with autism in focuse areas of activity.
   • Provide direction to the program's register nurse and ensure compliance with OPWDD regulations.

   More community support specialist duties

3. Make a budget

   Including a salary range in the community support specialist job description is a good way to get more applicants. A community support specialist salary can be affected by several factors, such as the location of the job, the level of experience, education, certifications, and the employer's prestige.

   For example, the average salary for a community support specialist in New Mexico may be lower than in Alaska, and an entry-level engineer typically earns less than a senior-level community support specialist. Additionally, a community support specialist with lots of experience in the field may command a higher salary as a result.

   Average community support specialist salary

   $39,320yearly

   $18.90 hourly rate

   ---

   Entry-level community support specialist salary

   $27,000 yearly salary

   Updated January 22, 2026

   Average community support specialist salary by state

   Rank	State	Avg. salary	Hourly rate
   1	District of Columbia	$61,572	$30
   2	California	$56,738	$27
   3	New York	$54,969	$26
   4	Illinois	$49,408	$24
   5	Virginia	$48,699	$23
   6	Washington	$48,458	$23
   7	Delaware	$47,356	$23
   8	Wisconsin	$47,078	$23
   9	Texas	$46,196	$22
   10	Oregon	$45,178	$22
   11	Pennsylvania	$44,684	$21
   12	North Carolina	$41,744	$20
   13	Colorado	$41,158	$20
   14	Massachusetts	$40,749	$20
   15	Minnesota	$38,841	$19
   16	Florida	$37,275	$18
   17	Michigan	$35,533	$17
   18	South Carolina	$35,470	$17
   19	Missouri	$35,366	$17
   20	Georgia	$34,616	$17

   Average community support specialist salary by company

   Company

   Rank	Company	Average salary	Hourly rate	Job openings
   1	Meta	$100,250	$48.20	50
   2	Boulder County	$53,468	$25.71
   3	University of Colorado Boulder	$49,400	$23.75	1
   4	Vitaver and Associates	$46,228	$22.23
   5	Highland Rivers Health	$46,199	$22.21	1
   6	Outagamie County	$44,747	$21.51	1
   7	West Central Behavioral Health	$44,232	$21.27	3
   8	Heartland Center For Behavioral Change	$43,441	$20.89	2
   9	Volunteers of America Greater Baton Rouge	$43,378	$20.85
   10	Telecare	$42,840	$20.60	35
   11	Frederick County	$42,829	$20.59	2
   12	Community Connections Inc.	$42,530	$20.45	3
   13	The Opportunity Alliance	$42,423	$20.40	1
   14	Intercept Health	$41,939	$20.16	42
   15	Community Human Services	$41,677	$20.04	2
   16	Community Living Alliance	$41,156	$19.79	1
   17	Thresholds	$41,142	$19.78	36
   18	Youth Villages	$41,013	$19.72	23
   19	Netflix	$40,730	$19.58	6
   20	Wikimedia Foundation	$40,509	$19.48

4. Writing a community support specialist job description

   A job description for a community support specialist role includes a summary of the job's main responsibilities, required skills, and preferred background experience. Including a salary range can also go a long way in attracting more candidates to apply, and showing the first name of the hiring manager can also make applicants more comfortable. As an example, here's a community support specialist job description:

   Community support specialist job description example

   Provides direct client services to individuals diagnosed with serious mental illnesses and/or addiction issues who reside in the agency residential facilities.
   HIGHLIGHTS OF ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES : • Supervise/monitor client activities • Prepare, distribute, and document medications accurately • Provide support staff respite coverage as needed at various facilities • Maintain a safe physical plant • Light/heavy housekeeping • Physical plant maintenance • Cooking • Inventory control • Report writing/completion of required paperwork • Driving duties may include client transport, facility shopping, recreational outings, medication distribution.
   EDUCATION and/or EXPERIENCE: High school diploma/equivalency preferred and at least one-year experience working with serious mentally ill. Combination of education/experience that demonstrates the ability to perform the duties outlined for this position may be considered.
   **Salary Range is a "step progression" system - Typically, wage for new hires, based on education/skills/experience, is set using the start of the range to mid-range.
   
   We offer excellent benefits to all eligible employees. Medical/Dental/Vision, 90% employer paid HMO option - Part Time employee option as well. Other benefits offered include $30,000 Employer paid Life/ADD, voluntary life for employee/spouse/children, FSA, retirement 43(b) and Roth IRA with up to 3 percent employer match for eligible employees, generous paid time off and 10 paid holidays yearly!
   
   CCMH COMPENSATION PHILOSOPHY STATEMENT
   
   Columbia Community Mental Health seeks to recruit and retain highly qualified and motivated employees who will strive to support the agency’s mission, vision and values.
   It is the goal of Columbia Community Mental Health to provide a compensation structure that is fair, reasonable, transparent and consistent with compensation structures of comparable non-profit agencies with like positions of complexity and responsibility, while also providing a structure that will motivate, recognize and reward excellent performance.
   
   Our company makes reasonable accommodations for individuals with disabilities who are otherwise qualified to perform a job unless such accommodations would impose an undue business hardship. Please let us know if you need an accommodation to participate in the application process.
   Columbia Community Mental Health is an Equal Opportunity Employer, committed to building a culturally diverse workplace. As such, all qualified applicants are encouraged to apply and all will receive equal consideration without regard to race, color, religion, gender, national origin, age, veteran/reserve/national guard, disability, or any other similarly protected status.
   CCMH is a drug free work place. Proof of COVID vaccination required prior to employment.

   Copy this example

   

5. Post your job

   To find community support specialists for your business, try out a few different recruiting strategies:

   • Consider internal talent. One of the most important talent pools for any company is its current employees.
   • Ask for referrals. Reach out to friends, family members, and your current work to ask if they know any community support specialists they would recommend.
   • Recruit at local colleges. Attend job fairs at local colleges to recruit entry-level community support specialists with the right educational background.
   • Social media platforms. LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter have more than 3.5 billion users, and they're a great place for company branding and reaching potential job candidates.

   Post your job online:

   • Post your community support specialist job on Zippia to find and recruit community support specialist candidates who meet your exact specifications.
   • Use field-specific websites.
   • Post a job on free websites.

6. Interview candidates

   Recruiting community support specialists requires you to bring your A-game to the interview process. The first interview should introduce the company and the role to the candidate as much as they present their background experience and reasons for applying for the job. During later interviews, you can go into more detail about the technical details of the job and ask behavioral questions to gauge how they'd fit into your current company culture.

   It's also good to ask about candidates' unique skills and talents to see if they match your ideal candidate profile. If you think a candidate is good enough for the next step, you can move on to the technical interview.

   The right interview questions can help you assess a candidate's hard skills, behavioral intelligence, and soft skills.

7. Send a job offer and onboard your new community support specialist

   Once you have selected a candidate for the community support specialist position, it is time to create an offer letter. In addition to salary, the offer letter should include details about benefits and perks that are available to the employee. Ensuring your offer is competitive is vital, as qualified candidates may be considering other job opportunities. The candidate may wish to negotiate the terms of the offer, and it is important to be open to discussion and reach a mutually beneficial agreement. After the offer has been accepted, it is a good idea to formalize the agreement with a contract.

   You should also follow up with applicants who don't get the job with an email letting them know that you've filled the position.

   To prepare for the new employee's start date, you can create an onboarding schedule and complete any necessary paperwork, such as employee action forms and onboarding documents like I-9 forms, benefits enrollment, and federal and state tax forms. Human Resources should also ensure that a new employee file is created.

8. Go through the hiring process checklist

   • Determine employee type (full-time, part-time, contractor, etc.)
   • Submit a job requisition form to the HR department
   • Define job responsibilities and requirements
   • Establish budget and timeline
   • Determine hiring decision makers for the role
   • Write job description
   • Post job on job boards, company website, etc.
   • Promote the job internally
   • Process applications through applicant tracking system
   • Review resumes and cover letters
   • Shortlist candidates for screening
   • Hold phone/virtual interview screening with first round of candidates
   • Conduct in-person interviews with top candidates from first round
   • Score candidates based on weighted criteria (e.g., experience, education, background, cultural fit, skill set, etc.)
   • Conduct background checks on top candidates
   • Check references of top candidates
   • Consult with HR and hiring decision makers on job offer specifics
   • Extend offer to top candidate(s)
   • Receive formal job offer acceptance and signed employment contract
   • Inform other candidates that the position has been filled
   • Set and communicate onboarding schedule to new hire(s)
   • Complete new hire paperwork (i9, benefits enrollment, tax forms, etc.)

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How much does it cost to hire a community support specialist?