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How To Hire A Receptionist

Complete with job descriptions, skill profiles, and interview templates. Use this Receptionist hiring guide to help you make the right decisions, fast.

Receptionist Recruitment Guide

What does a Receptionist do?

A Receptionist is the first point of contact of visitors and guests in an office or any premise. They greet and welcome visitors, assist them if they have concerns or questions, and provide drinks or food to them while they wait. They also provide administrative support including sorting mail and other correspondences, monitoring calendar of activities, and answering phone calls.

Day to day tasks of a Receptionist

Skills assessment

Receptionist definition

A Receptionist’s primary responsibility is to welcome and greet visitors or clients upon coming into the office or premise. Because of this, they require skills that will enable them to assist and attend to visitors in different situations.

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HIRING PROCESS

Receptionist Hiring Process

Step 1: Understand the role
Step 2: Source Applicants
Step 3: Skills Assessment
Step 4: Interview
Step 5: Hire

Build the Ideal Candidate Profile​

To find the best person for the role, you need to understand what the role involves. You can complete this with the hiring manager to define the role, its contribution, and the skills needed.

Write A Job Description Based On Skills

Once you understand the requirements for the role, you’ll need to understand the skills for success. You can then write an effective job description to promote your role.

Selecting The Ideal Candidate

See which applicants have the right skills for the role. Send all your applicants a Vervoe skills assessment from the expert library, or customize one for your organization.

Interview Top Performers

Your skills assessment results will identify top performers. Focus your time on interviewing those that have met or exceeded your requirements. Assessment results will also help guide which skill areas to focus on in the interview.

Making An Offer

Once you assess your candidates against these skills, you’re ready to offer the top performer(s). You should base your offer on the value that the candidate would bring to your team and your business as a whole. It is also important to ensure your compensation and benefits packages are competitive in the industry and help you attract and retain the top talent.
Build the ideal candidate profile

Skills needed for a Receptionist

A Receptionist must have good communication and interpersonal skills. Because a receptionist will be facing clients and visitors, they must have good customer service orientation to ensure a pleasant experience.

Pro Tip

For entry-level roles, you may receive more applications compared to a senior role. Ensure to highlight the skills and qualifications needed and provide an overview of what it’s like working for the company so that applicants can measure if they are a good fit.

WRITE A JOB DESCRIPTION BASED ON SKILLS

How to write a Receptionist job description

Once you’ve determined the skills required for the role, you can write the job description to advertise for your position. Here’s what to include in your Receptionist job description:

Job Title: What position are you hiring for?

Summary: What makes your company unique? What would it be like to work for you?

Responsibilities: An overview of the role’s day-to-day activities, and how the position contributes to the organization

Requirements: Skills a candidate must have to perform the job successfully

Benefits: Details of compensation, benefits, and any perks on offer

Pro Tip

In building your candidate profile, remember you’ve already identified what skills are needed to succeed in the role. Here’s where to list your “must-have” skills and maybe a couple of “nice-to-have” skills. For example, a Receptionist must have good rapport with customers, but it would also be nice to have a Calendly experience, or any calendar management tool.

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SELECTING THE IDEAL CANDIDATE

Sample skill tests for a Receptionist

Create a free account today to access the full assessment and more from our library

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Question 1

Multitasking

Question Type: Text

You just came back from holiday and had 3,000 unread emails and you could only answer 50 of them.
How do you choose which ones to answer?

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Question 2

Communication

Question Type: Audio

You are working as the Receptionist of a central city business tower, a group of associates has arrived for a meeting at one of the many companies within the tower.
Please record how you would greet them.

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Question 3

Initiative

Question Type: Text

If you are assigned a task which you are not familiar with, what will be your process of completing it?

INTERVIEW TOP PERFORMERS

How to interview a Receptionist

Once your Vervoe skills assessment has surfaced the most qualified people for your open role, you can focus on interviewing these candidates. The interview should focus on any skills that require development that were highlighted from the skills assessment.

Now you know that candidates can do the job, the interview becomes more of a relationship building exercise where you can get to know the candidate on a more personal level, understand their motivations, and how they would fit in with the team.

Making An Offer

How much does it cost to hire a Receptionist?

The US average for a Receptionist is $31,530 according to Glassdoor.com. Salary.com meanwhile, reports it at $36,329. The lowest reported salary is at $26,000, while the highest is at $119,000. Some employers offer additional pay including cash bonus, incentives, commissions, and sharing. The salaries being offered vary depending on the education, years of experience, and the location.

Receptionist Salary United States

Receptionists’ salaries in the United States range from $26,000 – $119,000 (USD), but the average falls between $31,000 – $36,000. Receptionists’ salaries vary depending on their years of experience, additional skills or niches they may have, industry of the company, and their location.

Receptionist Salary United Kingdom

Receptionists’ salaries in the United Kingdom range from £14,000 – £95,000 (GBP), but the average falls between £18,000 – £20,000 (GBP). Receptionists’ salaries vary depending on their years of experience, additional skills or niches they may have, industry of the company, and their location.

Receptionist Salary Australia

Receptionists’ salaries in Australia range from $36,000 – $65,000 (AUD) , but the average falls between $46,000 – $57,000 (AUD). Receptionists’ salaries vary depending on their years of experience, additional skills or niches they may have, industry of the company, and their location.