How to hire a social services specialist

How to hire a social services specialist, step by step

Here's a step-by-step social services 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 social services specialist job description
• Step 5: Post your job
• Step 6: Interview candidates
• Step 7: Send a job offer and onboard your new social services specialist
• Step 8: Go through the hiring process checklist

What does a social services specialist do?

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1. Identify your hiring needs

   First, determine the employments status of the social services specialist you need to hire. Certain social services specialist roles might require a full-time employee, whereas others can be done by part-time workers or contractors.

   Determine employee vs contractor status

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

   Yes

   No

   A social services specialist's background is also an important factor in determining whether they'll be a good fit for the position. For example, social services 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.

   This list presents social services specialist salaries for various positions.

   Type of Social Services Specialist	Description	Hourly rate
   Social Services 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.	$16-31
   Case Worker	Caseworkers are social workers who watch over the welfare of underprivileged individuals and at-risk families by counseling and providing them with assistance. Usually employed under the government or a local non-profit organization, a caseworker must conduct a thorough interview and house visits to determine the needs of the family... Show more	$14-26
   Advocate	An advocate is a voice for the voiceless. It is their responsibility to speak on behalf of an individual or a particular cause... Show more	$12-27

   Show more

2. Create an ideal candidate profile

   Common skills:

   • Social Work
   • Patients
   • Substance Abuse
   • Discharge Planning
   • Term Care
   • MDS
   • Community Resources
   • Social Service Agencies
   • Child Abuse
   • Child Care
   • Nursing Home
   • Social Service Programs
   • Foster Care
   • Crisis Intervention

   Check all skills

   Responsibilities:

   • Provide comprehensive case management to DCFS clients and their families to achieve case goals as outlined in the client service plan.
   • Provide supervision to social services assistant and MSW intern.
   • Retain potential clients base on the strength of their SSDI claim.
   • Participate in group staffing to discuss the best interest of children and families who have open cases with DSS.
   • Plan and execute case work activities to expedite safety first, permanence and well-being of child in DSS custody.
   • Develop working relationships with other DHS umbrella agencies.

   More social services specialist duties

3. Make a budget

   Including a salary range in your social services specialist job description is a great way to entice the best and brightest candidates. A social services specialist salary can vary based on several factors:

   • Location. For example, social services specialists' average salary in georgia is 39% less than in district of columbia.
   • Seniority. Entry-level social services specialists earn 46% less than senior-level social services specialists.
   • Certifications. A social services specialist with a few certifications under their belt will likely demand a higher salary.
   • Company. Working for a prestigious company or an exciting start-up can make a huge difference in a social services specialist's salary.

   Average social services specialist salary

   $48,359yearly

   $23.25 hourly rate

   ---

   Entry-level social services specialist salary

   $35,000 yearly salary

   Updated January 23, 2026

   Average social services specialist salary by state

   Rank	State	Avg. salary	Hourly rate
   1	District of Columbia	$59,927	$29
   2	Nevada	$55,032	$26
   3	New Jersey	$53,719	$26
   4	Connecticut	$53,014	$25
   5	California	$53,004	$25
   6	New York	$52,046	$25
   7	Washington	$50,497	$24
   8	North Dakota	$50,446	$24
   9	Oregon	$49,784	$24
   10	Florida	$49,489	$24
   11	Colorado	$49,252	$24
   12	Ohio	$47,728	$23
   13	Minnesota	$46,915	$23
   14	Iowa	$46,755	$22
   15	Texas	$46,665	$22
   16	Maryland	$46,229	$22
   17	Indiana	$41,189	$20
   18	Oklahoma	$39,744	$19
   19	Missouri	$38,599	$19
   20	Massachusetts	$37,107	$18

   Average social services specialist salary by company

   Company

   Rank	Company	Average salary	Hourly rate	Job openings
   1	McKinsey & Company Inc	$70,401	$33.85	26
   2	City of Jacksonville	$65,569	$31.52
   3	Edelman Financial Engines	$64,644	$31.08	1
   4	Mission Regional Medical Center	$62,257	$29.93	70
   5	Wayne County, Michigan	$61,206	$29.43	4
   6	King County	$60,777	$29.22	2
   7	Catchafire	$60,397	$29.04
   8	Careerstaff Unlimited - A Genesis Healthcare Company	$59,351	$28.53
   9	Wellpath	$56,757	$27.29	39
   10	Travis County	$55,658	$26.76	1
   11	Prime Healthcare	$55,492	$26.68	57
   12	St. Charles Health System	$55,272	$26.57	11
   13	Washington State University	$54,783	$26.34	1
   14	BayCare Health System	$54,429	$26.17	34
   15	Delaware State Government	$52,505	$25.24	8
   16	Lighthouse	$51,764	$24.89	15
   17	Archdiocese Of San Antonio	$51,332	$24.68	44
   18	Parkview Community Hospital Medical Center, Inc.	$51,061	$24.55
   19	City of Baltimore	$50,724	$24.39	5
   20	East Central Georgia Regional Library	$49,929	$24.00

4. Writing a social services specialist job description

   A social services specialist job description should include a summary of the role, required skills, and a list of responsibilities. It's also good to include a salary range and the first name of the hiring manager. To help get you started, here's an example of a social services specialist job description:

   Social services specialist job description example

   Union is a creative & performance marketing agency that creates omni-channel campaigns, unleashing creativity on a data-driven world, helping brands produce memorable, measurable and repeatable results.
   
   We're looking for a Paid Social Specialist with proven experience in digital marketing using paid media. Preferred experience in the following platforms: Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter, and Pinterest. Professional experience on TikTok and Snapchat is a plus. Candidates should have 2+ years of industry experience and at minimum 1 year of Paid Social experience. Candidates should be authorized to work in the U.S. at this time.
   
   The ideal candidate will have both a collaborative mentality and a data-driven mindset that can drive positive ROI through paid social channels. This person will be responsible for owning paid social marketing operations across a variety of clients from strategy execution, planning, campaign structure management, campaign optimization, bidding strategies, and measurement. Your daily responsibilities will also include tracking and steering the paid social campaigns towards the client's KPIs whilst also providing insight into performance in the form of weekly status updates, monthly reporting and quarterly business reviews.
   Requirements
   
   What we're looking for:
   
   Over the years, Union has built an open and fun environment around our six core values; Creativity, Innovation, Collaboration, Kindness, Passion, and Hard Work. Therefore, regardless of the position, we are looking for people to join the team that have:
   
   Keen understanding of how the digital medium is consumed by the general population
   
   Up-to-date knowledge of current paid social marketing trends
   
   Excellent interpersonal and communication skills
   
   Experience managing and executing high budget paid media digital campaigns across channels
   
   Deep knowledge of analytics platforms
   
   Self-motivated with the ability to juggle multiple projects
   
   Ability to work effectively within a team to develop solutions that emerge from a strategic foundation
   
   Meticulous attention to detail and overall product quality
   
   Confidence in presenting work and ability to interact comfortably with the team and clients
   
   Ability to conceive and develop solutions individually as well as in a collaborative environment
   
   Commitment not to just fulfilling an assignment, but in adding value, pushing the boundaries and creating work that makes a difference
   
   Team player (those great personality types that people love to work with)
   
   Benefits
   
   Tight Knit Team
   Inspiring Work
   Matching 401K
   Third Thursdays
   Paid Time Off
   Profit Sharing
   Studiodays
   Health Benefits
   Professional Development

   Copy this example

   

5. Post your job

   To find the right social services specialist 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 social services specialists they would recommend.
   • Recruit at local colleges. Attend job fairs at local colleges to recruit social services specialists 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 social services specialist job on Zippia to find and recruit social services specialist candidates who meet your exact specifications.
   • Use field-specific websites.
   • Post a job on free websites.

6. Interview candidates

   Recruiting social services 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.

   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 social services specialist

   Once you've found the social services specialist candidate you'd like to hire, it's time to write an offer letter. This should include an explicit job offer that includes the salary and the details of any other perks. Qualified candidates might be looking at multiple positions, so your offer must be competitive if you like the candidate. Also, be prepared for a negotiation stage, as candidates may way want to tweak the details of your initial offer. Once you've settled on these details, you can draft a contract to formalize your agreement.

   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.

   Once that's done, you can draft an onboarding schedule for the new social services specialist. Human Resources should complete Employee Action Forms and ensure that onboarding paperwork is completed, including I-9s, benefits enrollment, federal and state tax forms, etc. They should also ensure that new employee files are created for internal recordkeeping.

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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