Front-desk judgement
Balances welcome, identity, access, urgency, privacy, and clear direction.
Allows familiarity or pressure to bypass visitor controls.
Administration, Customer Service & Hospitality
Receptionist Job Description
A Receptionist creates a clear and secure first point of contact by welcoming visitors, routing calls and requests, maintaining reception records, and escalating concerns.
Define visitors, call volume, site access, hours, security, bookings, administrative duties, and emergency procedures.
Candidate-facing template
Edit the description for your organisation
Replace bracketed details, remove anything that is not genuinely required, and obtain the appropriate internal approval before advertising.
Ready-to-edit job description
Copying excludes all recruiter notes below.
Receptionist
- Location
- [Location or working arrangement]
- Employment type
- [Full-time, part-time, temporary, or shift-based]
- Reports to
- [Office Manager, Front Office Manager, or Administration Lead]
About the role
[Organisation name] is hiring a Receptionist for [site]. You will welcome and direct visitors, answer and route enquiries, maintain access and reception records, support bookings and deliveries, and follow privacy, safety, and emergency procedures.
What you will be responsible for
- Welcome visitors, verify appointments or access authority, issue approved passes, and contact hosts.
- Answer, screen, route, and record calls, messages, enquiries, mail, deliveries, and room requests.
- Maintain a tidy, accessible reception and escalate security, safeguarding, medical, or facilities concerns.
What success looks like
- Visitors and callers understand the next step and reach the correct person or service.
- Access, message, parcel, booking, and incident records are accurate and appropriately protected.
Essential qualifications
- Reception, customer service, hospitality, administration, or comparable public-contact experience.
- Clear communication, calm prioritisation, accurate records, and professional judgement.
- Ability to apply identity, privacy, access, safeguarding, and emergency procedures.
Preferred qualifications
- Experience with [setting, visitor volume, switchboard, language, access, or booking system].
- Locally relevant first-aid, safeguarding, security, or customer-service training.
Tools and working knowledge
- Visitor, access, room, and reception-management systems
- Switchboard, email, calendar, messaging, and video tools
- Mail, delivery, document, payment, and incident platforms
Compensation: [Add approved hourly or salary range, currency, shift, weekend, overtime, uniform, and benefits.]
[Organisation name] will discuss reasonable adjustments for communication, standing, shift work, assessment, and the workplace.
How to apply
Apply through [method] with an example of a busy or sensitive front-desk situation.
Performance expectations
What good performance looks like
Use these outcomes to replace vague activity lists with the evidence the hiring manager expects to see after the person joins.
Reception remains welcoming while identity, access, privacy, and safety controls are followed.
Messages include correct contact, purpose, urgency, time, and agreed follow-up.
Hiring-manager intake
Questions to settle before advertising
Record specific answers so sourcing, screening, and interview decisions use the same definition of the role.
- 1
Which visitors, callers, sites, languages, volumes, hours, and security levels apply?
- 2
What access, parcel, room, payment, travel, administration, and emergency duties are included?
- 3
What standing, uniform, shift, weekend, lone-working, aggression, and physical conditions apply?
Evaluation criteria
Evidence to use in a Receptionist scorecard
Agree the criteria before interviews begin, then score examples against the same evidence standard.
Communication accuracy
Clarifies the request, records essential detail, routes correctly, and confirms next steps.
Transfers calls quickly without understanding purpose or urgency.
Structured interview
Receptionist interview questions and strong signals
Ask the same core questions in the same order, then use follow-ups to understand the candidate’s individual contribution.
1
How would you handle an unlisted visitor insisting they know a senior employee?
Strong answer signal
Remains courteous, follows access rules, contacts an authorised host, and does not disclose location.
2
Tell me about several reception demands arriving at once.
Strong answer signal
Prioritises immediate safety and people present while acknowledging, recording, and routing other needs.
Related titles
Check the scope behind the title
Front Desk Coordinator — may include more bookings, administration, and site coordination.
Switchboard Operator — focuses more narrowly on calls and message routing.
Common hiring mistakes
Problems to remove before publishing
Describing the role as simple greeting while expecting security and emergency judgement.
Hiding shift, standing, lone-working, aggression, and public-contact conditions.
Continue the hiring workflow
Related roles and recruiter resources
Related job descriptions
Helpful recruiter resources
Source and review notes
How this template was prepared
- Language
- International English
- Prepared by
- ATZ CRM Editorial Team
- Review
- ATZ CRM Recruitment Editorial Review
- Last reviewed
- 2026-08-05
O*NET: Receptionists and Information Clerks
Reference for occupation tasks, knowledge, skills, abilities, and work activities.
ESCO: occupations and skills
Reference for internationally recognised occupation and skills terminology.
Qualifications, compensation, licences, working conditions, and equal-opportunity wording must be checked for the role and location before use.
Recruiter questions
Receptionist job description FAQs
What should a Receptionist job description include?
State setting, visitors, calls, hours, access, security, messages, bookings, emergencies, systems, physical conditions, and shifts.
What skills matter most for a Receptionist?
Clear communication, calm prioritisation, accurate records, privacy, access judgement, accessibility awareness, and dependable follow-through.