Receptionist

The first person a visitor meets at your office is the receptionist. The first voice a caller hears is theirs too. The impression from those first two minutes often lasts until the meeting is over, so the role deserves someone calm, polished and quick.

At the front desk

• Greeting visitors, logging them and calling the right person
• Answering and transferring calls, taking full messages
• Receiving and distributing mail, documents and parcels
• Managing meeting room bookings
• Keeping the lobby and reception desk tidy
• Light admin such as data entry and filing

Office, clinic or showroom

In an office, the receptionist mostly deals with business visitors, couriers and the meeting room calendar. At a clinic, the job is managing the queue and patient registration, so patience with people who feel unwell matters a lot. A clinic receptionist handles registration paperwork, not medical care. At a showroom, they're often the first point of contact between a potential buyer and the sales team.

Skills you can ask for

Mention early on if you need English, comfort with email and spreadsheets, or experience with visitor management apps and queue systems. Candidates with foreign language skills are sourced subject to availability. If your office often gets visitors or calls from overseas, try chatting with the candidate in English for a few minutes during the interview.

Questions

Can the receptionist double as an admin?
For light admin work, yes. If the admin load is heavy, spell it out in the job scope so the front desk workload stays realistic.

What if the receptionist can't come in?
Decide from the start who covers the front desk, for example someone from the admin team, so visitors are still looked after.

We interview candidates and check their documents before putting them forward, and your company makes the decision after its own interview. Start with the partnership form, then read about placement fees and the guarantee in the FAQ.