6 templates for small businesses hiring their first recruiting support: in-house, small business hybrid, high-volume, agency desk, remote, and part-time. With FLSA classification and pay benchmarks. Download as DOCX.
The first recruiting hire most small companies make is not a recruiter. It is the person who answers the applications inbox, books the interviews, and chases the reference that never came back. That job has a name, and almost every job description written for it online describes a different, more senior role at a much larger company.
The mismatch has a cost. Post a recruiter's responsibilities at an assistant's pay and you get two piles of wrong applicants: experienced recruiters who read the rate and vanish, and capable administrators who read the duties and self-reject. Then, six months in, you find out the role was classified wrong.
At FirstHR we write hiring templates for companies without a dedicated HR department. The six below cover an in-house support role, a small business hybrid, high-volume hourly hiring, an agency desk, a remote role, and a part-time or intern version, each with the classification note that generic templates leave out. Browse the rest in hiring templates.
TL;DR
A recruitment assistant runs the administrative half of hiring: postings, applicant replies, scheduling, checks, and records. The role applies criteria someone else sets, which makes it non-exempt under federal rules regardless of pay. Nearest BLS benchmark is $50,610 a year (HR assistants, May 2025). Six templates below, downloadable as DOCX.
What a Recruitment Assistant Actually Owns
A recruitment assistant owns the mechanics of hiring, not the decisions. Postings go out, applicants get answered, interviews get scheduled and confirmed, checks get run, and records stay current, all against criteria and terms that a recruiter, HR manager, or owner has already set.
That boundary is the whole job definition, and it is the thing most postings never state. Write it down and the role becomes coherent to everyone: the assistant applies the screening criteria, someone else writes them. The assistant prepares the offer, someone else approves it. The assistant runs the loop, the hiring manager decides the outcome.
Activity
Recruitment assistant
Recruiter or owner
Writing the job description
Formats and posts it
Decides the requirements and the pay
Screening applications
Applies the written minimum criteria
Sets the criteria and reviews edge cases
Sourcing passive candidates
Rarely, and only from a given list
Owns the strategy and the outreach
Interview scheduling
Owns it end to end
Shows up and interviews
Candidate communication
Owns routine updates and declines
Handles the difficult conversations
Reference and background checks
Initiates and tracks to completion
Interprets the result and decides
Offer
Prepares the paperwork
Sets the terms, negotiates, approves
Records and reporting
Owns accuracy and the tracker
Reads it and acts on it
Judge candidates for this role on organization rather than recruiting knowledge. A strong administrator picks up hiring in a month; a disorganized person with recruiting vocabulary does not become organized. Our guide to writing a job description covers the general structure this page applies to one specific role.
Four Versions of the Same Title
The title covers at least four different jobs, and the difference is not seniority but setting. An in-house assistant supports one recruiter, a small business version blends recruiting with HR administration, an agency version supports a whole desk, and a part-time version covers hiring that arrives in waves.
In-house support role
One recruiter, one assistant
The assistant owns scheduling, applicant communication, checks, and records while the recruiter owns sourcing and decisions. The split works because the boundary is written down: the assistant applies criteria, the recruiter sets them.
Small business hybrid
Recruiting plus HR admin
At a company without a dedicated HR person, the same hire covers hiring administration and onboarding paperwork. Write the split as a percentage in the posting so candidates know what the job really is.
Agency desk support
Serving several recruiters
In staffing, the assistant supports a desk rather than a hiring manager: formatting profiles, arranging client interviews, chasing compliance documents, and keeping the database searchable. Activity targets are normal here.
Part-time or intern
Hiring in waves
When hiring comes in bursts, a fixed part-time schedule covers the load without a full-time commitment. Paid, non-exempt, and on a written schedule, whatever the word intern implies.
Name the Version Before You Write a Word
Every argument about a recruitment assistant job description is really an argument about which version of the role you are hiring. Volume, systems, decision authority, and schedule all change between them, and a posting that averages the four describes none of them. Pick the setting first, then pick the template, then change only the bracketed fields. If your version is mostly interview logistics and candidate experience, the recruiting coordinator templates are the closer fit.
What Belongs in the Posting
A recruitment assistant posting does four jobs: it explains who the person supports, it filters out applicants who want a recruiting role, it protects you on classification and confidentiality, and it closes the candidate. Most postings only attempt the first.
The parts candidates read first
Who the role supports, by name of the job not the person
How many open roles run at once
Hourly rate or a good-faith range
Schedule, location, and whether it is remote
The parts that filter applicants
Scheduling volume stated as a number
Systems the person will actually use
Response time expectations for the applicant inbox
Whether the role includes HR administration too
The parts that protect you
FLSA classification stated on the posting
Confidentiality expectation written plainly
Essential functions, not a wish list
Equal opportunity statement
The parts that win the hire
A named path from assistant to recruiter, if one exists
Who trains the person in the first month
Overtime policy during hiring pushes
A named person and a real deadline to apply
The most valuable line in the posting is a number. How many open roles run at once, how many interviews get scheduled in a week, how many applications arrive per posting. Candidates for coordination roles are trying to picture the load, and vagueness reads as a company that has not measured its own process. If you track time to hire, put the current figure in and describe the target.
6 Recruitment Assistant Job Description Templates to Download
Download all six as one file or copy them individually. Each follows the same structure: company overview, position summary, key responsibilities, required qualifications, a classification note, an equal opportunity statement, and how to apply. The bracketed fields are the only parts you need to change.
Download All 6 Recruitment Assistant Job Description Templates
In-house standard, small business hybrid, high-volume hourly, staffing agency, remote, and part-time or intern. All in one download.
In-House Standard
Supports a recruiter
The general version: postings, applicant inbox, scheduling, checks, records, and offer paperwork prepared for someone else to sign.
Small Business Hybrid
Recruiting plus HR admin
For a company with no HR department, splitting the role between hiring administration and onboarding paperwork with the percentage stated.
High-Volume Hourly
Same-day response
For warehouse, retail, restaurant, and care hiring: response time targets, group session logistics, and daily pipeline numbers.
Staffing Agency Desk
Supports several recruiters
For an agency: profile formatting, client interview scheduling, compliance chasing, database hygiene, and weekly desk reporting.
Remote
Time zones and records
For distributed hiring: cross-time-zone scheduling, remote identity verification, and the multi-state employment note that comes with it.
Part-Time or Intern
Fixed weekly hours
For hiring that comes in waves, with a fixed schedule and an honest note on why an unpaid recruiting internship is a bad idea.
The general version, supporting a recruiter or HR manager: postings, applicant inbox, scheduling, checks, records, and offer paperwork prepared for someone else to sign.
FLSA status: Non-exempt (hourly, overtime-eligible; see classification note)
Compensation: $_ per hour
ABOUT [COMPANY NAME]
[Company Name] is a [industry] company in [City, State] with [team size
description]. We hire [number] people a year across [departments], and we are
adding a Recruitment Assistant to keep that process moving instead of letting it
stall between interviews.
POSITION SUMMARY
The Recruitment Assistant supports the full hiring process: posting openings,
managing the candidate inbox, scheduling interviews, running reference and
background checks, and keeping candidate records accurate and current. This is a
coordination and administration role, not a role that decides who gets hired.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
•Post approved job openings to [job boards, careers page, social channels]
•Monitor the applications inbox and acknowledge every applicant within [X] days
•Screen incoming applications against the written minimum requirements for each
role and route qualified applicants to the hiring manager
•Schedule phone screens, interviews, and panel loops across calendars
•Book rooms, send video links, confirm attendance, and handle reschedules
•Prepare interview packets: resume, job description, scorecard, question set
•Collect scorecards after each interview and chase the ones that are missing
•Initiate reference checks and background checks through [vendor], and track
results to completion
•Maintain candidate records, notes, and status in [system], and keep the hiring
pipeline report current
•Prepare offer paperwork for [Recruiter / HR Manager] review and signature
•Hand off accepted candidates to onboarding with a complete file
•Support [career fairs, campus events, referral program administration]
REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS
•[High school diploma / associate degree / bachelor's degree: set your bar]
•[Number] years in an administrative, coordination, or customer-facing role
•Strong scheduling and calendar management skills across multiple stakeholders
•Clear, professional written communication with candidates and managers
•Comfort with spreadsheets and [applicant tracking or HR system]
•Discretion with confidential applicant and employee information
CLASSIFICATION NOTE (read before posting)
This role is written as non-exempt: hourly and entitled to overtime past 40
hours in a workweek. Federal regulation is explicit that personnel clerks who
screen applicants to obtain data regarding minimum qualifications and fitness
for employment generally do not meet the duties requirements for the
administrative exemption. Clearing the federal salary floor of $684 per week
does not change that, because the exemption also requires the exercise of
discretion and independent judgment on matters of significance. If the person
actually sets sourcing strategy, negotiates offers, or makes hiring decisions,
you are hiring a recruiter, not an assistant. Classify on duties, and track
hours. This is general information, not legal advice.
EEO STATEMENT
[Company Name] is an equal opportunity employer and provides reasonable
accommodations for the essential functions of this role.
COMPENSATION AND HOW TO APPLY
Compensation: $_ per hour, [benefits summary], [schedule]
To apply, email __ with your resume.
Template 2: Small Business, First Hiring Support Hire
For a company with no HR department, splitting the role between hiring administration and onboarding paperwork with the percentage stated up front. If the balance tips toward HR rather than hiring, use the HR assistant templates instead.
Recruitment Assistant Job Description (Small Business, First Hiring Support Hire)
•Collect pre-hire paperwork and [drug screen / background check] results
•Flag stalled requisitions to the Recruiting Manager the day they stall
•Hand off every accepted candidate to onboarding with a complete file
REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS
•[High school diploma or equivalent]
•Experience in a fast-paced coordination, scheduling, or service role
•Ability to work a consistent [shift] and support [weekend hiring events]
•Comfort making [number] outbound calls or texts a day
•Accuracy under volume: the records have to be right, not just fast
•[Bilingual in English and Spanish: required / preferred]
CLASSIFICATION NOTE
Non-exempt, and this is the version of the role where that matters most.
High-volume hiring runs in bursts around events and seasonal peaks, so overtime
is likely and must be paid at time and a half past 40 hours in a workweek. Time
spent at hiring events, in required training, and on after-hours candidate
follow-up is hours worked. Apply the same minimum criteria to every applicant in
the same order, and record what was applied, because consistency is your best
defense if a screening decision is ever questioned. This is general information,
not legal advice.
EEO STATEMENT
[Company Name] is an equal opportunity employer and provides reasonable
accommodations for the essential functions of this role.
COMPENSATION AND HOW TO APPLY
Compensation: $_ per hour, [shift differential], [event overtime]
To apply, email __ with your resume and availability.
Template 4: Staffing Agency Desk Support
For an agency: profile formatting, client interview scheduling, compliance document chasing, database hygiene, and weekly desk reporting. Pair it with the recruiter templates when you build out the desk itself.
•Keep the hiring tracker current enough that a status question never needs a
meeting
REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS
•[High school diploma / associate degree / bachelor's degree]
•[Number] years of coordination or administration experience, [remote preferred]
•Proven self-management: this role is measured on responsiveness, not presence
•Comfort with [video conferencing, shared calendars, HR systems]
•Reliable home internet and a private space for confidential calls
•Must reside in one of the following states: [list]
REMOTE WORK AND CLASSIFICATION NOTE
Non-exempt and remote is a combination that needs care. Hours worked must be
recorded accurately wherever the work happens, and answering candidate messages
after hours is work time. Set a written expectation about working hours and
require time to be logged. Employing someone in another state generally means
registering there and following that state's wage, sick leave, final paycheck,
and notice rules, and several states set a higher exempt salary threshold than
the federal one, so the state you hire into can change the answer. Confirm the
requirements for each state you hire in. This is general information, not legal
advice.
EEO STATEMENT
[Company Name] is an equal opportunity employer and provides reasonable
accommodations for the essential functions of this role.
COMPENSATION AND HOW TO APPLY
Compensation: $_ per hour, [benefits summary], [equipment stipend]
To apply, email __ with your resume.
Template 6: Part-Time or Intern Recruitment Assistant
For hiring that comes in waves, with a fixed weekly schedule and an honest note on why an unpaid recruiting internship at a for-profit company is a bad idea. When the role grows past support, the junior recruiter templates take over.
[Company Name] hires in waves rather than continuously, so a full-time
recruiting hire is not justified yet. This part-time role covers the
administrative load during hiring pushes and gives someone building an HR career
real exposure to how a hiring process actually runs.
POSITION SUMMARY
The Recruitment Assistant works [number] hours per week supporting active
openings: posting roles, replying to applicants, scheduling interviews, and
keeping candidate records current.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
•Post openings to [job boards and careers page]
•Reply to applicants and keep response times within [X] days
•Screen applications against the written minimum requirements for each role
•Schedule interviews and send confirmations and reminders
•Update candidate status and notes in [system] after every step
•Prepare interview packets and collect scorecards afterward
•Support [career fair / campus event] logistics
•Keep the shared hiring tracker current
REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS
•[Current enrollment in a degree program / high school diploma: set your bar]
•Reliable availability on a fixed weekly schedule of [days and hours]
•Organized and responsive; comfortable chasing people politely
•Clear written communication with candidates
•Discretion with confidential applicant information
CLASSIFICATION AND INTERN NOTE
Non-exempt and paid. If you call this role an internship, it is still almost
certainly an employment relationship. The Department of Labor applies a primary
beneficiary test to unpaid internships at for-profit employers, and an intern
doing the work your business needs done is the beneficiary you have to justify.
Real recruiting administration is your work, not a training exercise, so pay at
least minimum wage and overtime past 40 hours in a workweek. Part-time status
changes hours, not classification, and hours worked over 40 in a single week
still trigger overtime even for a part-time employee. Confirm your state's rules
on minor employment if you hire a student under 18. This is general information,
not legal advice.
EEO STATEMENT
[Company Name] is an equal opportunity employer and provides reasonable
accommodations for the essential functions of this role.
COMPENSATION AND HOW TO APPLY
Compensation: $_ per hour, [schedule], [term length]
To apply, email __ with your resume and weekly availability.
Why the Role Is Almost Always Non-Exempt
A recruitment assistant is non-exempt in nearly every case: hourly, and owed overtime past forty hours in a workweek. The reason is in the regulation itself, not in the pay level, and it names this exact job.
The federal rule listing examples of the administrative exemption says that human resources managers who formulate, interpret, or implement employment policies generally satisfy the duties test, but that personnel clerks who screen applicants for minimum qualifications generally do not. Applying criteria someone else wrote is not the exercise of discretion and independent judgment on matters of significance, which is what the Department of Labor administrative exemption fact sheet requires.
Screening applicants is clerical work under the regulation
The federal regulation that lists administrative exemption examples addresses this role directly. It says that human resources managers who formulate, interpret, or implement employment policies generally meet the administrative duties test, but that personnel clerks who screen applicants to obtain data regarding their minimum qualifications and fitness for employment generally do not. That is the recruitment assistant job described almost word for word. Applying criteria that somebody else wrote is not the exercise of discretion and independent judgment on matters of significance, no matter how much judgment it takes to do it well. Write the posting as non-exempt from the start rather than discovering the problem in a back pay calculation.
Clearing the salary floor does not create an exemption
The federal salary threshold for the white-collar exemptions is $684 per week, which works out to $35,568 a year, and the highly compensated employee threshold is $107,432. A recruitment assistant paid at the national median for the nearest occupation clears the weekly floor comfortably, and that fact means nothing on its own. The exemption is a two-part test: salary and duties. Failing the duties test makes the role non-exempt at any salary. The reverse trap is just as common: paying a real recruiter a salary above the floor does not automatically make that person exempt either, if the day is scheduling and data entry. Several states also set a higher exempt salary threshold than the federal one, so check the state you employ in.
Overtime is likely, so plan for it
Hiring is not a steady workload. It arrives in bursts around a new location, a seasonal peak, a resignation wave, or a hiring event, and the assistant absorbs the burst. Because the role is non-exempt, hours past 40 in a workweek are owed at time and a half. That includes evening and weekend candidate follow-up, time at career fairs and open interview days, and required training. Two practical consequences: record hours properly rather than trusting a salary to cover everything, and include any non-discretionary bonus in the regular rate when you calculate the overtime premium. Most production or activity-linked bonuses are non-discretionary, whatever the offer letter calls them. Budget the overtime into the role instead of pretending the peaks will not come.
The role sits on records with legal retention periods
A recruitment assistant handles applications, resumes, interview notes, scorecards, reference results, and background check reports, which are exactly the records an agency asks for when a complaint arrives. Under the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission rules, employers must keep all personnel or employment records for one year, and for an involuntarily terminated employee for one year from the termination date. Payroll records run three years under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act. Once a charge of discrimination is filed, relevant records must be preserved until the final disposition of the charge or any lawsuit based on it. Build the retention rule into how the assistant files things on day one, because reconstructing a candidate file after the fact is where small employers lose.
If you are working through this for the first time, our breakdown of exempt versus non-exempt classification walks the tests in order, and the guide to overtime pay covers how the regular rate is calculated once a bonus is involved. FirstHR is an onboarding and HR platform, not a payroll provider, so pair it with whatever runs your payroll.
The Records the Role Will Keep
A recruitment assistant becomes the custodian of the exact documents an agency asks for when a complaint lands: applications, resumes, interview notes, scorecards, reference results, and background check reports. Retention rules apply to all of them from the moment they exist.
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission recordkeeping requirements set the baseline: keep all personnel and employment records for one year, and for an involuntarily terminated employee, one year from the termination date. Payroll records run three years under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act. Once a charge of discrimination is filed, relevant records must be preserved until the final disposition of the charge or any lawsuit based on it.
Record
Who creates it
Why it matters later
Job posting as published
Assistant
Shows the criteria in force when the decision was made
Application and resume
Candidate
Personnel record subject to the one-year retention rule
Screening notes against criteria
Assistant
Evidence that the same standard was applied to everyone
Interview scorecards
Interviewers
Only useful if collected; assistant owns the chasing
Reference check results
Assistant
Attach to the candidate file, not to an inbox thread
Background check report and notices
Assistant or vendor
Carries its own disclosure and adverse action steps
Offer letter and acceptance
Recruiter or owner
The bridge from candidate file to employee record
Decline communications
Assistant
Proof that candidates were answered and when
Two practical rules make this manageable at a small company. Apply the same screening criteria in the same order to every applicant for a role, and write down what was applied. Then keep candidate records in one place with a retention date attached, rather than across an inbox, a drive folder, and someone's notebook. Our guide to running a background check covers the disclosure and adverse action sequence the assistant will be executing.
The Assistant Executes Adverse Action, So Train It Before Day One
Background check work is where an administrative role touches a legally sequenced process. Pre-authorization disclosure, written consent, the pre-adverse action notice with a copy of the report, a reasonable waiting period, then the final notice. A recruitment assistant will run that sequence dozens of times, and skipping a step is a documented, dated mistake rather than a judgment call. Write the sequence into the onboarding for this role and keep a checklist next to it. Assume nothing was learned at a previous employer.
What to Pay a Recruitment Assistant
There is no Recruitment Assistant occupation in federal wage data, so benchmark against the classifications on either side of it. The nearest match is Human Resources Assistants, Except Payroll and Timekeeping, and the ceiling you are deliberately not paying for is Human Resources Specialists, which is where recruiters sit.
Nearest Federal Wage Benchmarks
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey (May 2025), Human Resources Assistants, Except Payroll and Timekeeping earned a national median of $50,610 a year ($24.33 hourly), with the tenth percentile at $37,340 and the ninetieth at $68,280. Human Resources Specialists, the classification covering recruiters, earned a median of $75,940, and Secretaries and Administrative Assistants $47,540 (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, OEWS national estimates).
Nearest classification
National median (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
How to use it
Receptionists and information clerks
$38,010 per year
Floor reference for a purely clerical version of the role
Office clerks, general
$45,010 per year
Where a part-time or entry version tends to start
Secretaries and administrative assistants
$47,540 per year
Closest match when the job is scheduling and paperwork
Human resources assistants, except payroll
$50,610 per year
The primary benchmark for this role
Human resources specialists
$75,940 per year
Recruiters sit here; the ceiling you are not paying for
Compensation and benefits specialists
$78,210 per year
Reference if the role drifts into benefits administration
Human resources managers
$149,280 per year
Context only; a different job entirely
Two adjustments to the national figure. Metro cost of labor moves it more than experience does at this level, so check the state and metro estimates for your area rather than applying the national median directly. And publish a good-faith range where pay transparency laws apply, which is now a growing share of states and several major cities.
Because the role is hourly, quote it hourly. A $50,610 annual figure translates to roughly $24.33 an hour at 2,080 hours, and candidates for coordination roles compare hourly rates against other hourly offers. State the overtime policy for hiring pushes in the same breath, because that is real money for a role whose workload arrives in bursts. Weigh it against the cost of your current hiring process before deciding the budget.
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Pick the title that matches the decision authority you are actually granting, because candidates read titles as a statement about scope and career path. Assistant signals support, coordinator signals process ownership, and junior recruiter signals a path into full recruiting with sourcing and offers attached.
Getting this wrong costs you applicants in both directions. An ambitious candidate skips an assistant posting that would have suited them; an experienced administrator skips a junior recruiter posting they would have been excellent at. The title is free to change before you post and expensive to change afterward.
Title
Owns
Does not own
Typical setting
Recruitment assistant
Administration, scheduling, records, checks
Screening criteria, offers, decisions
Small company or agency desk support
Recruiting coordinator
Interview process and candidate experience
Sourcing strategy and offer terms
Larger talent team, specialist role
HR assistant
HR administration, files, onboarding paperwork
Hiring pipeline ownership
Company with an HR function but no HR admin
Junior recruiter
A small requisition load end to end
Comp strategy and headcount planning
Company building a recruiting team
Recruitment specialist
Full cycle for defined roles or a business unit
Team leadership and budget
Established in-house recruiting function
If the role you have in mind sits above support but below a full desk, compare against the recruitment specialist templates before deciding. Getting the title right at the posting stage prevents the awkward conversation at the six-month mark where the person you hired as an assistant has quietly been doing full cycle recruiting.
Hiring a Recruitment Assistant Without an HR Department
The failures here are predictable. The posting describes one job and the pay describes another, nobody can say where a candidate stands without a meeting, and the moment someone accepts the paperwork starts over from nothing. Each has a fix that costs an hour up front.
The posting describes a recruiter and pays for an assistant
This is the most common failure, and it is expensive twice. You attract experienced recruiters who read the pay and disappear, and you attract assistants who read the responsibilities and decide they are underqualified. The fix is a boundary written in the posting: the assistant applies the screening criteria, the recruiter or owner writes them; the assistant prepares the offer, someone else approves it; the assistant schedules the loop, the hiring manager decides the outcome. Once that line exists on paper, the pay makes sense to everybody reading it, and the person you hire knows on day one which decisions are theirs. If you genuinely need someone to own sourcing and offers, post a recruiter role and pay for one.
Nobody can answer where a candidate stands without a meeting
Small companies run hiring across an inbox, a spreadsheet, and three calendars, and the state of the pipeline lives in one person’s head. That is fine until that person is out, and then a strong candidate goes cold for a week. The recruitment assistant only pays for themselves if the process becomes visible: one tracker, one status field per candidate, updated after every step, readable by the owner without asking. Make that an explicit responsibility in the job description rather than an assumption. The number to watch is your response time to a new application, because it is the first thing a candidate experiences and the easiest thing to lose during a busy week.
The moment a candidate accepts, the paperwork starts from scratch
Hiring administration and onboarding administration are the same job done twice at most small companies, because nothing carries over from the candidate file to the employee record. FirstHR was built to close that gap for teams without a dedicated HR person. The onboarding wizard runs the same sequence for every new hire, e-signature handles offer acknowledgments and policy sign-offs, document management stores background check results and certifications against the employee profile with renewal dates attached, and the employee database gives the assistant one place to look instead of four. Applicant tracking is coming soon to FirstHR. Note that FirstHR is an onboarding and HR platform, not a payroll provider.
Once the role is filled, the value shows up in two numbers: how fast a new application gets answered, and how much of the hiring load leaves the owner's calendar. Set both as expectations in the first week rather than at the first review, and hand the new hire a working onboarding checklist to run for everyone who comes after them.
Key Takeaways
A recruitment assistant owns the mechanics of hiring and not the decisions: they apply screening criteria, prepare offers, and run the loop, while the recruiter or owner sets criteria, terms, and outcomes.
The role is non-exempt in almost every case, because federal regulation states that personnel clerks who screen applicants for minimum qualifications generally fail the administrative exemption duties test.
Clearing the $684 per week federal salary floor does not create an exemption, since the test has a duties half that this role fails at any pay level.
Nearest federal wage benchmarks (BLS OEWS, May 2025) run from $47,540 for administrative assistants to $50,610 for human resources assistants, against $75,940 for the specialist classification that covers recruiters.
The role becomes custodian of records with real retention periods: one year for personnel records, three years for payroll, and preservation until final disposition once a charge is filed.
Pick the title deliberately, because assistant, coordinator, and junior recruiter describe different decision authority and attract different candidates.
The handoff from accepted candidate to new employee is where small companies lose the file. FirstHR runs the same onboarding sequence for every hire, with e-signature for offer acknowledgments and policies, document storage for check results and certifications, and renewal dates tracked so nothing expires quietly. Applicant tracking is coming soon to FirstHR.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does a recruitment assistant do?
A recruitment assistant runs the administrative half of hiring so that a recruiter, HR manager, or owner can spend time on candidates and decisions. The core duties are posting approved openings, monitoring the applications inbox and replying to every applicant, screening applications against written minimum requirements, scheduling phone screens and interview loops across calendars, preparing interview packets and collecting scorecards afterward, initiating reference and background checks, keeping candidate records and pipeline status current, and preparing offer paperwork for someone else to approve. The boundary that defines the role is decision authority: the assistant applies criteria that somebody else set, and does not decide who advances or what an offer looks like. When those decisions do move to the same person, you no longer have an assistant, you have a recruiter, and the pay and classification both change.
Is a recruitment assistant exempt or non-exempt?
Non-exempt in almost every case, meaning hourly and entitled to overtime past forty hours in a workweek. The federal regulation listing administrative exemption examples says directly that personnel clerks who screen applicants to obtain data regarding their minimum qualifications and fitness for employment generally do not meet the duties requirements for the administrative exemption. Applying screening criteria that someone else wrote is not the exercise of discretion and independent judgment on matters of significance, which the exemption requires. Pay level does not rescue it: the federal salary threshold of $684 per week, or $35,568 a year, is only half of a two-part test, and failing the duties half makes the role non-exempt at any salary. Track hours, budget for overtime during hiring pushes, and include non-discretionary bonuses in the regular rate when you calculate the overtime premium. This is general information, not legal advice.
How much does a recruitment assistant make?
The Bureau of Labor Statistics does not publish a Recruitment Assistant occupation, so benchmark against the nearest classifications. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey (May 2025), Human Resources Assistants, Except Payroll and Timekeeping earned a national median of $50,610 a year, or $24.33 an hour, with the tenth percentile at $37,340 and the ninetieth at $68,280. Secretaries and Administrative Assistants earned a median of $47,540 and General Office Clerks $45,010, which bracket the administrative floor of the role. Human Resources Specialists, the classification that covers recruiters, earned a median of $75,940, which is the ceiling you are not paying for. Most in-house recruitment assistant roles land between the administrative and HR assistant bands, with agency and high-volume roles adding a bonus or shift premium rather than base.
What is the difference between a recruitment assistant and a recruiting coordinator?
The difference is ownership rather than task list, and the two overlap heavily in practice. A recruiting coordinator typically owns the candidate experience and the interview process end to end: scheduling, communication, interviewer training, and the metrics that describe how the process performs. A recruitment assistant is defined more broadly as support to a recruiter or an owner, which often includes coordination but can also stretch into HR administration, database maintenance, event logistics, and paperwork. In a large talent team the coordinator is a specialist role with a career path into recruiting. At a small company the assistant is usually the only hiring support person and the title is chosen for breadth. Both are non-exempt. Pick the title that matches how you will actually use the person, and state the split in the posting.
What skills should a recruitment assistant have?
Scheduling under pressure, written communication, and accuracy with records, in that order. Scheduling is the daily reality of the job: reconciling several calendars, handling reschedules without losing the thread, and keeping interview loops from stretching across weeks. Written communication matters because this person is the company’s voice to every applicant, including the ones you decline, and that experience shapes your reputation in a local labor market. Accuracy matters because candidate records carry legal retention obligations and because a wrong status field costs a hire. Below those three, look for discretion with confidential pay and applicant information, comfort learning new systems, and the willingness to chase people politely and repeatedly. Formal recruiting experience is optional. A strong administrator learns hiring quickly; a weak administrator with recruiting knowledge does not become organized.
Do I need a recruitment assistant or should I hire a recruiter?
Hire an assistant when the bottleneck is administration and hire a recruiter when the bottleneck is candidates. If your open roles attract enough qualified applicants but interviews take three weeks to schedule and half your applicants never hear back, the problem is coordination and an assistant fixes it at roughly two thirds of the cost. If your postings attract nobody worth interviewing, an assistant will schedule an empty pipeline faster and the problem stays. A useful test is to look at where candidates drop out: losses between application and first interview point to administration, while a shortage of applications points to sourcing. Small companies often need both eventually and can only afford one, which is why the small business hybrid template on this page splits the role between hiring administration and onboarding paperwork.
What software does a recruitment assistant need?
Less than most vendors suggest, and more than a shared inbox. At minimum the role needs a shared calendar with visibility into interviewer availability, one place where every candidate has a status, a document store where signed paperwork and check results live, and an email setup that does not depend on one person’s personal inbox. A spreadsheet plus a calendar genuinely works for a company hiring a handful of people a year, provided one person owns the tracker and updates it after every step. The failure mode is not the absence of specialist software, it is having four half-updated systems and no single answer to where a candidate stands. Applicant tracking is coming soon to FirstHR. In the meantime FirstHR covers the part that starts the moment a candidate accepts: onboarding sequences, e-signature, document storage with renewal dates, and employee records.
