What does a service worker do?
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. A service worker must have strong leadership and communication skills, as well as deep engagement with the community to assess the client's situation properly.
Service worker responsibilities
Here are examples of responsibilities from real service worker resumes:
- Manage a caseload of over one hundr TANF cases.
- Assist in managing inventory for student and staff culinary and scholastic supplies.
- Receive specialized training on CPR, human rights and history of individuals with intellectual disabilities.
- Implement HIPAA standards within the facility.
- Copy patient medical records when request within HIPPA regulations.
- Used scrubbers, mops, and seal and wax floors.
- Maintain OSHA standards and properly dispose of bio hazardous materials.
- Provide prevocational services, crisis respite, and many family relate services.
- Review accounts, verify HIPAA, document each call meeting the quality requirements.
- Confirm and validate third party liability and, probate and beneficiary asset research.
- Prepare appropriate cover letters, claims & affidavits to send to probate court/personal representatives.
- Provide emergency response including crisis management, first aid, and CPR and fire response as needed.
- Perform a variety of tasks, which include any combination of the following: sod laying, mowing and trimming.
- Provide student services with inquiries to the culinary programs, student testing and meeting the needs of all enroll students.
- Verify employment and medicaid for applicants.
Service worker skills and personality traits
We calculated that 20% of Service Workers are proficient in Customer Service, Cleanliness, and Patients. They’re also known for soft skills such as Compassion, Time-management skills, and Communication skills.
We break down the percentage of Service Workers that have these skills listed on their resume here:
- Customer Service, 20%
Demonstrated continuous effort to improve operations, and work cooperatively and jointly to provide quality seamless customer service.
- Cleanliness, 10%
Provide pertinent information (i.e., nutrition, cleanliness and household safety/activities) to elderly/child disabled consumers.
- Patients, 7%
Recognized risk factors quickly, collaborated with interdisciplinary team, nurtured positive relationships with patients through consistency and modeling healthy boundaries.
- Rehabilitation, 7%
Practiced motivational interviewing techniques to assist individuals in identifying personal hurdles in order to set goals and work towards rehabilitation.
- Excellent Interpersonal, 6%
Position requires excellent interpersonal communication and multidisciplinary team participation.
- Crisis Intervention, 5%
Provide crisis intervention counseling to children and families to assist them in understanding and assuming responsibility to increase child safety.
Common skills that a service worker uses to do their job include "customer service," "cleanliness," and "patients." You can find details on the most important service worker responsibilities below.
Compassion. One of the key soft skills for a service worker to have is compassion. You can see how this relates to what service workers do because "social and human service assistants often work with people who are in stressful and difficult situations." Additionally, a service worker resume shows how service workers use compassion: "position required excellent work ethics and decision making, compassion, supportive, encouragement and teamwork skills. "
Time-management skills. Many service worker duties rely on time-management skills. "social and human service assistants often work with many clients," so a service worker will need this skill often in their role. This resume example is just one of many ways service worker responsibilities rely on time-management skills: "ensured the highest standard of airline cleanliness while meeting strict deadlines. "
Communication skills. Another skill that relates to the job responsibilities of service workers is communication skills. This skill is critical to many everyday service worker duties, as "social and human service assistants talk with clients about the challenges in their lives and assist them in getting help." This example from a resume shows how this skill is used: "maintained communications with the court system and law enforcement agencies. "
Organizational skills. For certain service worker responsibilities to be completed, the job requires competence in "organizational skills." The day-to-day duties of a service worker rely on this skill, as "social and human service assistants must often complete lots of paperwork and work with many different clients." For example, this snippet was taken directly from a resume about how this skill applies to what service workers do: "provided case specific court testimony crisis intervention skills used verbal skills organizational skills time management skills crisis intervention skills. "
Interpersonal skills. A commonly-found skill in service worker job descriptions, "interpersonal skills" is essential to what service workers do. Service worker responsibilities rely on this skill because "social and human service assistants must make their clients feel comfortable discussing sensitive issues." You can also see how service worker duties rely on interpersonal skills in this resume example: "exhibited excellent interpersonal skills with employees, supervisors, and customers. "
Problem-solving skills. Another skill commonly found on service worker job descriptions is "problem-solving skills." It can come up quite often in service worker duties, since "social and human service assistants help clients find solutions to their problems." Here's an example from a resume of how this skill fits into day-to-day service worker responsibilities: "assist in providing solutions for financial assistance, discharge planning, referrals to community agencies, and legal matters. "
The three companies that hire the most service workers are:
- Aramark1,094 service workers jobs
- Sodexo Management, Inc.208 service workers jobs
- Advocates75 service workers jobs
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Compare different service workers
Service worker vs. Human service specialist
Human services specialists provide a range of social services with the purpose of improving the quality of life of people they serve. They can work for organizations, including housing associations, mental health facilities, rehabilitation centers, residential care homes, and food banks. Most of their duties involve interacting with people and conduct counseling. This job also requires active listening skills to comprehend your clients easily and understand their needs to provide care for people in difficult circumstances.
These skill sets are where the common ground ends though. The responsibilities of a service worker are more likely to require skills like "customer service," "cleanliness," "excellent interpersonal," and "team-oriented environment." On the other hand, a job as a human service specialist requires skills like "program eligibility," "medicaid," "human services," and "child support." As you can see, what employees do in each career varies considerably.
Human service specialists earn the highest salaries when working in the government industry, with an average yearly salary of $49,059. On the other hand, service workers are paid more in the government industry with an average salary of $36,743.The education levels that human service specialists earn slightly differ from service workers. In particular, human service specialists are 6.1% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree than a service worker. Additionally, they're 0.2% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Service worker vs. Community service coordinator
The community service coordinator is someone who works with a community for its betterment. The community service coordinator brings all welfare services to the community and connects people who need welfare to receive benefits. The community service coordinator is also tasked to collect records of people in need of welfare and other services. It is also important for this person to have interpersonal skills to talk with people and educate them of all the benefits and services they can receive.
In addition to the difference in salary, there are some other key differences worth noting. For example, service worker responsibilities are more likely to require skills like "customer service," "cleanliness," "patients," and "rehabilitation." Meanwhile, a community service coordinator has duties that require skills in areas such as "community outreach," "support services," "technical assistance," and "direct supervision." These differences highlight just how different the day-to-day in each role looks.
Community service coordinators may earn a higher salary than service workers, but community service coordinators earn the most pay in the education industry with an average salary of $42,855. On the other hand, service workers receive higher pay in the government industry, where they earn an average salary of $36,743.community service coordinators earn higher levels of education than service workers in general. They're 6.4% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree and 0.2% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.What technology do you think will become more important and prevalent for service workers in the next 3-5 years?
Virginia Schwindt
MSW Field Director/Associate Professor, Union University
Service worker vs. Youth worker
Youth workers specialize in handling and providing support to young individuals with behavioral difficulties. They are primarily responsible for devising recreational projects, handling the budget, producing progress reports, managing intervention programs, and counseling troubled youth while keeping their information confidential. There may be instances where one must also search for opportunities and apply for funding or sponsorship. Furthermore, as a youth worker, it is vital to assess an individual's condition to determine their needs and ensure that they will receive the proper treatment.
Some important key differences between the two careers include a few of the skills necessary to fulfill the responsibilities of each. Some examples from service worker resumes include skills like "customer service," "cleanliness," "patients," and "rehabilitation," whereas a youth worker is more likely to list skills in "direct supervision," "at-risk youth," "youth development," and "role model. "
Youth workers make a very good living in the education industry with an average annual salary of $32,651. On the other hand, service workers are paid the highest salary in the government industry, with average annual pay of $36,743.Most youth workers achieve a similar degree level compared to service workers. For example, they're 2.0% less likely to graduate with a Master's Degree, and 0.0% less likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Service worker vs. Social service coordinator
A social service coordinator is responsible for assisting the essential needs of the citizens within a community by providing them financial assistance, employment services, and social provisions through coordinating with various organizations and social institutions. Social service coordinators conduct counseling to assess social needs and processing referral services for particular purposes. They also perform administrative and clerical duties as needed, responding to the citizens' inquiries and concerns, collecting their documents, and coordinating with the community office on planning livelihood programs and activities for social benefits.
Even though a few skill sets overlap between service workers and social service coordinators, there are some differences that are important to note. For one, a service worker might have more use for skills like "customer service," "cleanliness," "excellent interpersonal," and "team-oriented environment." Meanwhile, some responsibilities of social service coordinators require skills like "social service programs," "medicare," "medicaid," and "local agencies. "
The professional industry tends to pay the highest salaries for social service coordinators, with average annual pay of $42,652. Comparatively, the highest service worker annual salary comes from the government industry.In general, social service coordinators hold higher degree levels compared to service workers. Social service coordinators are 14.7% more likely to earn their Master's Degree and 0.4% more likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.Types of service worker
Updated January 8, 2025
