Post job

How to hire a health care assistant

Health care assistant hiring summary. Here are some key points about hiring health care assistants in the United States:

  • The median cost to hire a health care assistant is $1,633.
  • It takes between 36 and 42 days to fill the average role in the US.
  • HR departments typically allocate 15% of their budget towards recruitment efforts.
  • Small businesses spend $1,105 per health care assistant on training each year, while large companies spend $658.
  • It takes approximately 12 weeks for a new employee to reach full productivity levels.
  • There are a total of 74,932 health care assistants in the US, and there are currently 242,669 job openings in this field.
  • Salt Lake City, UT, has the highest demand for health care assistants, with 32 job openings.

How to hire a health care assistant, step by step

To hire a health care assistant, you should clearly understand the skills and experience you are looking for in a candidate, and allocate a budget for the position. You will also need to post and promote the job opening to reach potential candidates. Here's a step-by-step guide on how to hire a health care assistant:

Here's a step-by-step health care assistant hiring guide:

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

What does a health care assistant do?

A health care assistant primarily performs support tasks to help nurses in providing care and assistance to patients. Their duties usually include assisting patients with their daily hygienic tasks such as bathing, going to the toilet, dressing, and brushing their teeth. They may also prepare meals according to protocols and guidelines, feed patients, assist them when walking, and run other errands as necessary. Most importantly, a health care assistant monitors the patients' condition and their treatment progress, coordinating with the nurses and physicians regularly.

Learn more about the specifics of what a health care assistant does
jobs
Post a health care assistant job for free, promote it for a fee
  1. Identify your hiring needs

    Before you post your health care assistant job, you should take the time to determine what type of worker your business needs. While certain jobs definitely require a full-time employee, it's sometimes better to find a health care assistant for hire on a part-time basis or as a contractor.

    Determine employee vs contractor status
    Is the person you're thinking of hiring a US citizen or green card holder?

    You should also consider the ideal background you'd like them a health care assistant to have before you start to hire. For example, what industry or field would you like them to have experience in, what level of seniority or education does the job require, and how much it'll cost to hire a health care assistant that fits the bill.

    Here's a comparison of health care assistant salaries for various roles:

    Type of Health Care AssistantDescriptionHourly rate
    Health Care AssistantHome health aides help people with disabilities, chronic illness, or cognitive impairment with activities of daily living. They often help older adults who need assistance... Show more$12-22
    Health AideA health aide is responsible for providing care and assistance to patients in medical facilities, care centers, and even at home. They typically help patients by administering medicines, monitoring their blood pressure and vital signs, facilitating exercises, preparing meals, providing emotional support, and assisting them in performing hygienic tasks such as bathing, dressing, brushing teeth, and going to the toilet... Show more$11-18
    Home Health AidHome health aides provide care and assistance to patients who have chronic illnesses, injuries, disabilities, or age-related challenges inside the patient's home. They monitor the patient's condition and help them in any activity they may need assistance in... Show more$9-17
  2. Create an ideal candidate profile

    Common skills:
    • Patients
    • Customer Service
    • Healthcare
    • Patient Appointments
    • Direct Patient Care
    • Medical Equipment
    • Compassion
    • Vital Signs
    • CPR
    • Home Health
    • PET
    • EHR
    • EKG
    • Blood Pressure
    Check all skills
    Responsibilities:
    • Monitor / enforce OSHA standards and coordinate / lead daily, weekly, and monthly safety meetings to educate staff.
    • Manage ventilator settings, suction tracheostomy, tube-feeding assistance.
    • Facilitate physical therapy exercises, positional rotation, monitor medication compliance and effects, provide companionship, carry out ADL's.
    • care professional, extremely competent, providing guidance and counseling for rehabilitation of mentally disturb patients.
    • Process consults requests for electrophysiology, EKG and other services.
    • Assist train staff in the event of cardiac arrest and actively participate in CPR.
    More health care assistant duties
  3. Make a budget

    Including a salary range in the health care assistant job description is a good way to get more applicants. A health care assistant 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 health care assistant in Georgia may be lower than in Alaska, and an entry-level engineer typically earns less than a senior-level health care assistant. Additionally, a health care assistant with lots of experience in the field may command a higher salary as a result.

    Average health care assistant salary

    $16.77hourly

    $34,892 yearly

    Entry-level health care assistant salary
    $25,000 yearly salary
    Updated December 5, 2025

    Average health care assistant salary by state

    RankStateAvg. salaryHourly rate
    1California$42,108$20
    2Washington$41,603$20
    3Oregon$40,988$20
    4New Hampshire$39,168$19
    5Massachusetts$38,822$19
    6New Jersey$37,997$18
    7Maine$36,961$18
    8Minnesota$36,957$18
    9New York$36,395$18
    10Vermont$36,043$17
    11Utah$34,776$17
    12Illinois$34,662$17
    13Wisconsin$33,189$16
    14Arizona$32,013$15
    15Michigan$31,792$15
    16Texas$30,379$15
    17Missouri$30,055$14
    18Virginia$29,836$14
    19South Carolina$29,782$14
    20North Carolina$29,373$14

    Average health care assistant salary by company

  4. Writing a health care assistant job description

    A job description for a health care assistant 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 health care assistant job description:

    Health care assistant job description example

    • Your work day will start around 6 or 7 in the morning.
    • Earn a $1,400 retention bonus.
    • Opportunities for overtime pay.
    • Take home a paycheck every Friday!
    • Be recognized and appreciated with cook-outs, giveaways and drawings.
    • You'll be offered full health, dental and vision insurance.
    • Regardless of medical plan you'll receive a FREE $25,000 life insurance policy.
    • Use our purchasing program to finance everything from a bed, to a TV to a diamond!
    • You deserve a break, we'll reward you with paid time off.
    • Be a part of a Family Oriented Company that offers so much more!!

    What you'll be doing..

    • You will provide first aid and treat injuries to team members in need of assistance.
    • You'll provide follow up care and monitor their aftercare.
    • With the utmost confidentiality, you will complete and maintain medical records.
    • Review and document updated physician ordered restrictions for occupational injuries.
    • Maintain workers compensation information for claims, schedule doctor visits, and transportation.
    • Conduct pre-employment physicals and drug screening.
    • Conduct random drug /alcohol screening.
    • Consult with off-site plant nurse.
    • All other relevant duties to the job.

    What you'll bring to the team...

    • You must have a EMT Certification or Medical Assistant diploma
    • Previous occupational health experience
    • Strong communication skills - English/Spanish highly desirable
    • Flexible on some overtime and occasional Saturday coverage
    • Strong time management skills desired

    The environment to expect...

    • You will be working in a poultry manufacturing plant.
    • You will have a private office space in order to assist team members with confidentiality.

    All the rest...

    Benefits and incentives are available after probationary period of employment. Team members must meet eligibility requirements to earn incentives and bonuses.

    This job description in no way states or implies that these are the only duties to be performed by an employee occupying this position. Employees may be required to perform other related duties as assigned, to ensure workload coverage. This job description does NOT constitute an employment agreement between the employer and employee, and is subject to change by the employer as the organizational needs and requirements of the job change.

    Koch Foods participates in the E-Verify system and uses all tools made available by the federal government to confirm the employment eligibility of all employees. All applicants are required to provide documentation proving their employment eligibility, and all offers of employment are contingent upon successful completion of the E-Verify process. U.S. law requires companies to employ only individuals who may legally work in the United States - either U.S. citizens, or foreign citizens who have the necessary authorization.

    Koch Foods is an Equal Opportunity Employer committed to hiring a diverse workforce and sustaining an inclusive culture. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, national origin, disability status, protected veteran status or any other characteristic protected by law.

  5. Post your job

    To find the right health care assistant for your business, consider trying out a few different recruiting strategies:

    • Consider internal talent. One of the most important sources of talent for any company is its existing workforce.
    • Ask for referrals. Reach out to friends, family members, and current employees and ask if they know or have worked with health care assistants they would recommend.
    • Recruit at local colleges. Attend job fairs at local colleges to recruit health care assistants who meet your education requirements.
    • Social media platforms. LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter now have more than 3.5 billion users, and you can use social media to reach potential job candidates.
    Post your job online:
    • Post your health care assistant job on Zippia to find and attract quality health care assistant candidates.
    • Use niche websites such as healthcarejobsite, health jobs nationwide, hospitalcareers, medreps.com.
    • Post a job on free websites.
  6. Interview candidates

    To successfully recruit health care assistants, your first interview needs to engage with candidates to learn about their interest in the role and experience in the field. You can go into more detail about the company, the role, and the responsibilities during follow-up interviews.

    You should also ask about candidates' unique skills and talents to see if they match the ideal candidate profile you developed earlier. Candidates good enough for the next step can complete 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 health care assistant

    Once you've decided on a perfect health care assistant candidate, it's time to write an offer letter. In addition to salary, it should include benefits and perks available to the employee. Qualified candidates may be considered for other positions, so make sure your offer is competitive. Candidates may wish to negotiate. Once you've settled on the details, formalize your agreement with a contract.

    It's also important to follow up with applicants who do not get the job with an email letting them know that the position is filled.

    To prepare for the new health care assistant first day, you should share an onboarding schedule with them that covers their first period on the job. You should also quickly complete any necessary paperwork, such as employee action forms and onboarding documents like I-9, benefits enrollment, and federal and state tax forms. Finally, Human Resources must ensure a new employee file is created for internal record keeping.

  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.)
    Sign up to download full list

How much does it cost to hire a health care assistant?

Hiring a health care assistant comes with both the one-time cost per hire and ongoing costs. The cost of recruiting health care assistants involves promoting the job and spending time conducting interviews. Ongoing costs include employee salary, training, benefits, insurance, and equipment. It is essential to consider the cost of health care assistant recruiting as well the ongoing costs of maintaining the new employee.

You can expect to pay around $34,892 per year for a health care assistant, as this is the median yearly salary nationally. This can vary depending on what state or city you're hiring in. If you're hiring for contract work or on a per-project basis, hourly rates for health care assistants in the US typically range between $12 and $22 an hour.

Find better health care assistants in less time
Post a job on Zippia and hire the best from over 7 million monthly job seekers.

Hiring health care assistants FAQs

Search for health care assistant jobs

Ready to start hiring?

Browse healthcare support jobs