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How to hire a staff specialist

Staff specialist hiring summary. Here are some key points about hiring staff specialists in the United States:

  • The median cost to hire a staff specialist 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 staff specialist 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 30,941 staff specialists in the US, and there are currently 132,417 job openings in this field.
  • Durham, NC, has the highest demand for staff specialists, with 12 job openings.

How to hire a staff specialist, step by step

To hire a staff specialist, you need to identify the specific skills and experience you want in a candidate, allocate a budget for the position, and advertise the job opening to attract potential candidates. To hire a staff specialist, you should follow these steps:

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

What does a staff specialist do?

The duties of a staff specialist depend on their line of work or industry of employment. Typically, their responsibilities revolve around performing support tasks such as preparing and processing documents, answering calls and correspondence, arranging appointments and meetings, and maintaining records of all transactions. There are also instances where they must liaise with clients, offer products and services, close sales, participate in the hiring and training procedures, and develop strategies to optimize business performance. Furthermore, as a staff specialist, it is essential to maintain an active communication line with fellow staff, coordinating to ensure an efficient workflow.

Learn more about the specifics of what a staff specialist does
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  1. Identify your hiring needs

    Before you start hiring a staff 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?

    Hiring the perfect staff specialist 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 specialist salaries for various positions.

    Type of Staff SpecialistDescriptionHourly rate
    Staff Specialist$25-64
  2. Create an ideal candidate profile

    Common skills:
    • Patients
    • PowerPoint
    • Data Entry
    • HR
    • ISO
    • Financial Statements
    • Management System
    • Payroll
    • Duke
    • Alumni
    • Data Analysis
    • Technical Assistance
    • Administrative Tasks
    • Data Collection
    Check all skills
    Responsibilities:
    • Manage multiple imaging-relate projects across both radiology and cardiology service lines, both inpatient and outpatient, to completion.
    • Develop an in-depth knowledge of Microsoft SharePoint administration and front-end SharePoint development and deployment skills working towards full certification.
    • Administer SharePoint document and system access rights and revision control to ensure security of system and integrity of master documents.
    • Extract data from a variety of relational databases, manipulate, explore data using quantitative, statistical and visualization tools.
    • Support NY/NJ dealer market with inventory orders, equipment training and marketing POS.
    • Create, update, and implement safety training program for all employees and maintain training database using AS400 and PeopleSoft programs.
    More staff specialist duties
  3. Make a budget

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

    Average staff specialist salary

    $84,247yearly

    $40.50 hourly rate

    Entry-level staff specialist salary
    $52,000 yearly salary
    Updated December 16, 2025

    Average staff specialist salary by state

    RankStateAvg. salaryHourly rate
    1California$98,740$47
    2District of Columbia$98,346$47
    3Massachusetts$94,590$45
    4Michigan$93,625$45
    5New York$90,109$43
    6Virginia$87,229$42
    7Texas$87,227$42
    8Pennsylvania$87,100$42
    9Oregon$84,993$41
    10Maine$82,636$40
    11Alaska$81,949$39
    12Washington$75,863$36
    13Maryland$75,831$36
    14North Carolina$69,674$34
    15Colorado$68,815$33
    16Florida$63,558$31
    17Utah$59,189$28

    Average staff specialist salary by company

    RankCompanyAverage salaryHourly rateJob openings
    1Brookhaven National Laboratory$119,814$57.60
    2Brigham and Women's Hospital$114,900$55.2422
    3BASF$114,600$55.10
    4BMC Software$105,013$50.49
    5ERM$104,377$50.1821
    6Infineon Technologies$103,961$49.9813
    7Rady Children's Hospital And Health Center$102,040$49.064
    8Tesla$101,759$48.926
    9Technip USA Corporation$101,329$48.72
    10Alliance HealthCare Services$100,172$48.161
    11Northrop Grumman$98,255$47.24129
    12Harvard University$97,325$46.79
    13Emdeon Business Services LLC$97,237$46.75
    14General Dynamics$88,052$42.3338
    15TalentBurst$86,928$41.79
    16Cypress Semiconductor$86,035$41.36
    17University of Michigan$84,643$40.698
    18Burns & McDonnell$84,310$40.5364
    19New York University$83,483$40.141
    20The University of Texas at San Antonio$82,658$39.749
  4. Writing a staff specialist job description

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

    Staff specialist job description example

    Now offering a $500 Sign On Bonus and Overnight Differential Pay


    Liberty Resources has 4 Crisis Respite locations with 3-8 beds in Syracuse, Oneida, Oswego, and Auburn. The respite homes are community based residential programs that provide a therapeutic environment for adults experiencing a mental health crisis. The program provides Peer Support Services utilizing individuals with a history of mental illness and a willingness to share their story as well as Crisis Support Staff who have extensive experience in the field. The staff provides services including but not limited to health and wellness coaching, relapse prevention planning, wellness activities, family support, conflict resolution, and referrals and linkage services. The goal is to stabilize crisis to support a guest's safe return to their community and to provide preventive measures for reducing un-necessary emergency department visits and hospitalizations.

    Our employees have passion around the services they provide and our corporate values of excellence and staff support. We pride ourselves on high quality, integrated, community-based services that meet the evolving needs of our communities. We're committed to building a diverse workforce that values contributions of all team members and work to recognize cultural beliefs, values, traditions, language preferences, and health practices of the communities that we serve and how they apply to provision of positive health outcomes.

    Locations: Oneida

    Hours: Days, Evenings, Weekends, and Overnights available. Variety of hours offered in 8 or 4 hour shifts. Shift examples include 8am-4pm, 4pm-12am and 12am-8am.

    What We Offer:

    Home like setting

    Relaxed atmosphere

    Flexible work hours (see hours above)

    Mentorship/Entry level experience - Ability for growth within the agency

    Offers Peer Certification hours

    Job Responsibilities:

    • Teach guests to look at crisis differently and utilize wellness tools to prevent future crises or to decrease the intensity of personal crisis.
    • Work closely with Health Homes programs, hospitals, and other treatment providers to develop an integrated plan of care including mental health, physical health, substance use, and community support services necessary for individuals to succeed in the community.
    • Provide advocacy, supportive counseling, and referral linkage services for program residents as needed and as assigned by the Program Director. For Peer Specialist, use shared experience to support the clients.
    • Provide recovery oriented services incorporating Intentional Peer Support and Motivational Interviewing.
    • Provide coverage for the program as reflected in the staffing plan including overnights as required.
    • Rotate warm line (on-call) responsibilities with other staff and/or make follow up calls.


    Qualifications:

    • High School Diploma or GED
    • 1-3 years' volunteer or work experience in the Behavioral Healthcare field OR Bachelor's degree preferably in a related field.
    • A respect for and high level of comfort around people experiencing psychiatric crisis.
    • Ability to utilize critical thinking, problem-solving and de-escalation skills to assist with creating and maintaining an environment that promotes recovery.

    Peer Specialist must meet the below additional qualifications:

    • Have personal experience as a recipient of mental health services with a willingness to share personal and practical experience, knowledge, and first-hand insight to benefit program guests.
    • Certified by the Office of Mental Health (OMH) as a Certified Peer Specialist or Office of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse (OASAS) as a Certified Peer Recovery Advocate or willingness to become certified within six months of hire

    Liberty Resources is committed to creating a diverse inclusive environment and is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. Liberty Resources offers equal employment opportunities to all persons without regard to race, color, ethnicity, religion, sex, sexual orientation, national origin, age, marital status, physical or mental disability, parental status, housing status, source of income or military status, in accordance with applicable federal, state and local EEO laws.

  5. Post your job

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

    Recruiting staff 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. You can move on to the technical interview if a candidate is good enough for the next step.

    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 specialist

    Once you've selected the best staff specialist 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.

    Once that's done, you can draft an onboarding schedule for the new staff 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.)
    Sign up to download full list

How much does it cost to hire a staff specialist?

Before you start to hire staff specialists, it pays to consider both the one-off costs like recruitment, job promotion, and onboarding, as well as the ongoing costs of an employee's salary and benefits. While most companies that hire staff specialists pay close attention to the initial cost of hiring, ongoing costs are much more significant in the long run.

Staff specialists earn a median yearly salary is $84,247 a year in the US. However, if you're looking to find staff specialists for hire on a contract or per-project basis, hourly rates typically range between $25 and $64.

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