MightyRecruiterIn order to attract the most qualified applicants to your organization’s open position, you need to carefully write your job description. Creating a specific posting that lists required qualifications and duties will minimize the number of inappropriate resumes and applications you have to sift through in order to find candidates to interview. It’s important to leave out unnecessary information, yet also include relevant and pertinent details. A well-crafted job description can screen out applicants who aren’t qualified for the position. To understand what a well-written recruitment ad looks like, check out the social worker job description sample below.
Social Worker Job Summary
As a Social Worker, your responsibilities will be to assess clients’ situations, help them set goals, and guide them toward services they need. You will be working with client groups that may include the elderly, children, and individuals with mental health challenges. Specific nature of the work will depend on the unit you are assigned to.
Social Worker Job Responsibilities and Duties
- Determine severity and needs in each client’s situation through face-to-face interviews.
- Assess psychological, emotional, medical, and social needs during on-site visits.
- Determine course of action after exploring options and setting goals with client.
- Interprets patterns of behavior and attitudes in order to determine adjustment, while pointing out new options and providing explanations, as necessary.
- Maintain documents and records of client’s actions and situation.
- Monitor outcomes with regular follow-up.
- Adhere to legal requirements of federal, state, and local municipalities; keep up with new legislation as it occurs.
- Keep client confidence by protecting sensitive and private information.
- Work with a team to accomplish goals and objectives.
Social Worker Skills and Qualifications
- Master’s degree in Social Work (MSW) is required
- Two years experience in a healthcare or clinical setting
- Knowledge of government and private insurance fundamentals
- Exceptional listening and verbal communication skills
- Ability to handle pressure
- Analytical skills
- Able to cope with traumatic events in a calm, professional manner
- Basic computer skills with spreadsheets and word document programs
Company Profile
Peaceful Clinic is a rehabilitation center that has been serving clients since 1995. Our healthcare organization maintains a community-first culture that provides treatment based on core values. The clinical outcomes rank higher than national averages. We employ skilled and compassionate professionals who are committed to patient care in a compassionate culture. We offer continuing education and train our team members to help them reach their potentials. It is our goal to provide topnotch care to our patients and reward our employees with performance incentives and comprehensive benefits and salary packages to enhance each employee’s future.
Writing a Job Description Best Practices
- The above social worker job description sample is just one way to write a posting. You’ll need to create your own recruitment ad based on your specific needs and requirements. Remember to abide by the following dos and don’ts and best practices.
- Do let the culture and personality of your organization shine through in your job description. You want to show potential candidates why they want to work for your organization. Is your place of employment casual or formal, fast-paced or laid back? Many applicants will use this information to decide whether a job site is the best place for them to apply.
- Don’t get too wordy in the job summary. It’s best to keep it concise, short, and clearly summarized in two to three sentences. Remember, applicants who are scanning job listings will mostly likely spend seconds skimming before deciding whether a job is a fit for their interests, qualification, and skills.
- Do list specific duties and clientele, so the applicants can picture what it’s like to work a day within your organization. A topnotch job description with action-based language will give candidates a snapshot of what it might be like if they are hired by you.
- Do provide clear contact details for the human resources department, hiring manager, or recruiter. Make submitting their resume and application a simple process.
- Don’t forget to check on company policy regulations to see if posting benefits and salary is proper protocol.
- Do be specific on job title, the department they will be working in, and whom they will be reporting to. All of these specifics matter.
Go over all the details in the above social worker job description sample to make sure you understand how to craft a comprehensive and informative ad to attract high caliber professionals. The time you put into your posting will make all the difference in the quality and quantity of applicants who apply.
Social Worker Job Responsibilities
It’s important to carefully select which job responsibilities to put in your social worker job description and to word them with an eye toward attracting the jobseekers you want. Positions in social work vary widely; the age and circumstances of clients, venue and caseload all depend on the specific position. If you clearly indicate each of these aspects in your list of social worker job responsibilities, you’ll help applicants self-select for people enthusiastic about the opportunity you’re offering.
Lay out the job responsibilities section in bullet points from most important to least important. Each should begin with a strong action verb. It’s good to mention whether it’s a more fast-paced or laid-back work environment; it’s even better to include concrete caseload numbers. Here are some examples of job responsibility bullets for a social worker job description:
- Provide counseling and other social services to students in a private academy environment
- Carry a caseload of 15–20 students with higher needs, in addition to one-off counseling sessions and other duties
- Respond in crisis situations as needed
- Cooperate with outside services to ensure students’ needs are being met both in school and at home
- Document work with students and maintain files to share with the other on-site social worker during absences
Social Worker Job Specifications
It’s often difficult to decide the minimum requirements to put into the job qualifications and skills section of a social worker job description. Ideally, you’ll be precise enough to weed out jobseekers who’d prefer other environments, while leaving space for enthusiastic, caring candidates with the right energy to apply, even if their social work experience is in a slightly different area from the position you’re offering.
Do include the minimum licensing and education requirements they’ll need in your social worker job specifications. If there are multiple levels of education and licensing that would fit, you may want to distinguish between minimum and preferred specifications, or even break up your list into two categories. There shouldn’t be more than 4-6 bullet points.
Read on for example specifications you may want to adjust and add to your own social worker job description:
- Licensed Advanced Social Worker or Licensed Independent Social Worker accreditation with the Washington State Department of Health
- At least 3 years of experience working a medium to high caseload required
- 2 years’ experience working with end-of-life patients and families preferred
- Candidates with second language skills strongly preferred: Spanish and Vietnamese are the areas of greatest need
- Master’s degree or higher required
- Comfortable with a high caseload and demonstrated history of adeptly managing low-need cases quickly to allocate more time for patients with greater needs
