How to hire a staff professional

How to hire a staff professional, step by step

Here's a step-by-step staff professional hiring guide:

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

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1. Identify your hiring needs

   Before you start hiring a staff professional, 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

   Hiring the perfect staff professional also involves considering the ideal background you'd like them to have. Depending on what industry or field they have experience in, they'll bring different skills to the job. It's also important to consider what levels of seniority and education the job requires and what kind of salary such a candidate would likely demand.

   This list presents staff professional salaries for various positions.

   Type of Staff Professional	Description	Hourly rate
   Staff Professional	Computer support specialists provide help and advice to people and organizations using computer software or equipment. Some, called computer network support specialists, support information technology (IT) employees within their organization... Show more	$23-58
   Registered Nurse Med/Surg	The job of registered medical-surgical nurses is to care for patients with either surgical or non-surgical conditions. They are responsible for aiding patients to cope with their illness, prevent diseases, and promote good health... Show more	$23-69
   Registered Nurse Supervisor	A Registered Nurse Supervisor oversees a team of registered nurses in a hospital or clinic, making sure that all operations are efficient and up to standard. Moreover, they are responsible for the daily management of nurses, such as when it comes to evaluation, development, and assigning schedules and patients... Show more	$25-49

   Show more

2. Create an ideal candidate profile

   Common skills:

   • Patients
   • Geotechnical
   • Asphalt
   • Vital Signs
   • Field Testing
   • Cost Estimates
   • Physical Checks
   • Professional Development
   • Data Analysis
   • Developmental Disabilities
   • Patient Participation
   • Financial Statements
   • Patient Care
   • Administrative Tasks

   Check all skills

   Responsibilities:

   • Organize and lead the development of the annual authorization bill for NASA and NOAA's satellite programs.
   • Assist in ADL's, cook, clean and laundry.
   • Provide research support to DoD staff.
   • Execute command line Unix and SQL scripts to detect these activities.
   • Promote spiritual life support, achievement of ADL's and independence for all residents.
   • Perform engineering calculations relate to soil, asphalt, concrete and and other construction materials.

   More staff professional duties

3. Make a budget

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

   • Location. For example, staff professionals' average salary in alaska is 46% less than in delaware.
   • Seniority. Entry-level staff professionals earn 60% less than senior-level staff professionals.
   • Certifications. A staff professional 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 staff professional's salary.

   Average staff professional salary

   $76,939yearly

   $36.99 hourly rate

   ---

   Entry-level staff professional salary

   $48,000 yearly salary

   Updated January 1, 2026

   Average staff professional salary by state

   Rank	State	Avg. salary	Hourly rate
   1	California	$95,091	$46
   2	Ohio	$89,649	$43
   3	New Jersey	$87,256	$42
   4	Washington	$85,741	$41
   5	New York	$84,879	$41
   6	District of Columbia	$84,000	$40
   7	Massachusetts	$82,870	$40
   8	Virginia	$82,456	$40
   9	Pennsylvania	$81,616	$39
   10	Texas	$75,884	$36
   11	Nevada	$70,094	$34
   12	North Carolina	$69,961	$34
   13	Indiana	$69,737	$34
   14	Illinois	$69,205	$33
   15	Utah	$67,402	$32
   16	Michigan	$66,912	$32
   17	South Carolina	$65,711	$32
   18	Colorado	$64,919	$31
   19	Florida	$64,177	$31
   20	Oklahoma	$62,736	$30

   Average staff professional salary by company

   Company

   Rank	Company	Average salary	Hourly rate	Job openings
   1	OpenX	$121,164	$58.25
   2	VMware	$106,908	$51.40
   3	GAMCO Investors	$105,223	$50.59
   4	Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice, Llp	$99,490	$47.83
   5	A123 Systems	$88,012	$42.31
   6	IBM	$87,662	$42.15	38
   7	Moss Adams	$86,213	$41.45
   8	ERM	$84,929	$40.83
   9	Physician Partners of America	$82,658	$39.74
   10	Deloitte	$82,460	$39.64	12
   11	Wood Group Mustang	$81,714	$39.29	2
   12	RMS Management	$81,368	$39.12
   13	The Earth Technology Corporation (USA)	$81,368	$39.12
   14	Bechtel Corporation	$78,981	$37.97
   15	Point	$78,784	$37.88
   16	Ernst & Young	$78,103	$37.55	94
   17	Bennett Thrasher	$77,711	$37.36
   18	Union University	$77,588	$37.30	2
   19	Universal Engineering Sciences	$76,906	$36.97	7
   20	WPC	$76,200	$36.63

4. Writing a staff professional job description

   A staff professional 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. Below, you can find an example of a staff professional job description:

   Staff professional job description example

   Every day, Global Payments makes it possible for millions of people to move money between buyers and sellers using our payments solutions for credit, debit, prepaid and merchant services. Our worldwide team helps over 3 million companies, more than 1,300 financial institutions and over 600 million cardholders grow with confidence and achieve amazing results. We are driven by our passion for success and we are proud to deliver best-in-class payment technology and software solutions. Join our dynamic team and make your mark on the payments technology landscape of tomorrow.
   Summary of This Role
   Provides help desk support to end-users for PC, server or mainframe applications, and hardware, through logging of issues into a client support application to help ensure accurate and timely technical assistance to maintain and improve the organization's customer relationships. May interact with network services, systems software analyst, and/or applications development to restore service and/or identify and correct core problems.
   
   What Part Will You Play?
   
   Receives escalated (non-)routine client issues through multiple sources (via phone, Client Support Help Desk (CSHD), Client Portal, email, etc.); reviews information to define issues and determines the ultimate impact. Documents and/ or generates a CSHD ticket, classify severity (1-Critical, 2-High, 3-Medium, 4-Low Impact), and notifies appropriate business or technical resource to solve non-routine internal/ external client issues. Leads all efforts to facilitate appropriate resolution tasks to provide service or assistance required. Is the primary contact for Severity 1 or Critical Impact issues (e.g., critical system availability issues, critical access failures, critical service level failures, etc.), coordinates all relevant groups to initiate and ensure prompt issue resolution.Provides the highest level of technical support (level three) handling the most difficult or escalated issues related to desktop, Personal Computer, or merchant terminals; creates/ programs custom terminal files for higher level merchants based on merchant system selection. Provides Subject Matter Expert (SME) advice to level one and two tier support personnel and researches and develops solutions to new or previously unknown issues. Reviews CSHD tickets and assesses the time already spent with the client so that the work is prioritized, time management is sufficiently utilized, and ensures compliance with client Service Level Agreements (SLA)/ service contracts. Displays SME proficiency of company systems/ client operating systems to include company module/ system enhancements while facilitating external/ internal client meetings.Verifies systems during and after scheduled outages/ maintenance including ad-hoc validation and authorization of screens, web sites and other company managed data for clients. Monitors critical path processing to confirm that benchmarks are met and notifies clients on any missed deliverables. As the informal leader, provides client communication for disaster recovery and system outages.Directs and assists with orientation, training, and mentoring others as outlined by management.
   
   What Are We Looking For in This Role?
   Minimum Qualifications
   
   High School Diploma or EquivalentTypically Minimum 6+ Years Relevant ExpHelp desk; POS Terminal experience
   Preferred Qualifications
   Bachelor's DegreeComputer science or technical field Typically Minimum 8+ Years Relevant ExpHelp desk; POS Terminal experience
   
   What Are Our Desired Skills and Capabilities?
   
   Skills / Knowledge - As a highly skilled specialist, contributes to the development of concepts and techniques. Completes complex tasks in creative and effective ways. Ensures tasks of team are competed in a timely manner.Job Complexity - Consistently works on complex assignments requiring some independent action and a high degree of initiative to resolve issues. Makes recommendations for new procedures. Oversees a team and coordinates daily work covering multiple assignments.Supervision - Determine methods and procedures on new assignments with some independence. Often acts as a facilitator for group. Is formal team leader.Communication Skills - Excellent communication skills Problem Solving Skills - Must be able resolve merchant issues or coordinate issue resolution Analytical Skills - Must be able to analyze problem as it is described over the phone and determine best solution
   Global Payments Inc. is an equal opportunity employer.
   Global Payments provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy), national origin, ancestry, age, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, disability, veteran status, genetic information or any other basis protected by law. Those applicants requiring reasonable accommodation to the application and/or interview process should notify a representative of the Human Resources Department.

   Copy this example

   

5. Post your job

   There are a few common ways to find staff professionals for your business:

   • Promoting internally or recruiting from your existing workforce.
   • Ask for referrals from friends, family members, and current employees.
   • Attend job fairs at local colleges to meet candidates with the right educational background.
   • Use social media platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter to recruit passive job-seekers.

   Post your job online:

   • Post your staff professional job on Zippia to find and recruit staff professional candidates who meet your exact specifications.
   • Use field-specific websites such as dice, engineering.com, stack overflow, it job pro.
   • Post a job on free websites.

6. Interview candidates

   Your first interview with staff professional candidates should focus on their interest in the role and background experience. As the hiring process goes on, you can learn more about how they'd fit into the company culture in later rounds of interviews.

   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.

   While interviews are great, you will only sometimes learn enough from a conversation with a staff professional applicant. In those cases, having candidates complete a test project can go a long way in figuring out who's the most likely to succeed in the role. If you aren't a technical person and don't know how to design an appropriate test, you can ask someone else on the team to create it or take a look at these websites to get a few ideas:

   • TestDome
   • CodeSignal
   • Testlify
   • BarRaiser
   • Coderbyte

   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 staff professional

   Once you've selected the best staff professional candidate for the job, it's time to write an offer letter. In addition to salary, this letter should include details about the benefits and perks you offer the candidate. Ensuring that your offer is competitive is essential, as qualified candidates may be considering other job opportunities. The candidate may wish to negotiate the terms of the offer, and you should be open to discussion. After you reach an agreement, the final step is formalizing the agreement with a contract.

   It's equally important to follow up with applicants who don't get the job with an email letting them know that the position has been filled.

   After that, you can create an onboarding schedule for a new staff professional. Human Resources and the hiring manager should complete Employee Action Forms. Human Resources should also ensure that onboarding paperwork is completed, including I-9s, benefits enrollment, federal and state tax forms, etc., and that new employee files are 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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