Employing household staff can be an incredibly rewarding experience for both the employer and employee. Not only does it provide much-needed support to busy households, but it also allows employers to build relationships with people who have diverse backgrounds and experiences. That said, there are many things that employers should consider before they bring new staff into their homes. Let’s take a look at five of them.

1. Understand Your Legal Requirements
It is important to understand the legal requirements that come with employing household staff, such as tax payments, minimum wage requirements, and other applicable labor laws. This will ensure that you are compliant with all regulations and avoid any potential legal issues in the future. It is important to remember that each country or state has different laws regarding employment—so be sure to research the specific regulations in your area before hiring anyone.
2. Develop Clear Job Descriptions
Having a clear job description for each role you need filled is essential for ensuring your expectations are properly communicated from the start. This will help ensure that your employees understand what is expected of them from day one and provide clarity when managing their performance throughout their employment.
3. Provide Adequate Training
Providing adequate training for your employees is critical for ensuring they know how to perform their job duties safely and efficiently—especially if they are working in a potentially hazardous environment like a kitchen or around any type of machinery or tools. Depending on the specific role, you may need to get additional certifications or licenses in order for your employee to legally work in certain roles like childcare or medical caretaking positions.
4. Establish Boundaries
Establishing boundaries between yourself and your employees will help maintain professional relationships while still allowing everyone involved to have a comfortable working environment. It’s important to make sure that everyone understands what is acceptable behaviour while they are on the job so that there are no misunderstandings down the line about what is expected from both sides of the relationship.
5 . Review Their Performance Regularly
Regularly reviewing an employee’s performance can help keep them motivated and open up opportunities for improvement when needed—plus it gives employers an opportunity to recognise good work! Performance reviews also give employers insight into how their staff feels about certain aspects of their job so they can better address any issues that may arise over time.

Taking on household staff can be incredibly rewarding when done responsibly. By understanding your legal requirements, developing clear job descriptions, providing adequate training, establishing boundaries, and reviewing performance regularly, employers can ensure that both themselves and their employees have an enjoyable experience all around! Doing this will ultimately create positive relationships between employers and employees while helping both sides reach success in their respective fields!

For high net worth families, having an experienced and reliable personal assistant can be invaluable. From managing their daily activities to providing support for family members, personal assistants play an important role in helping their employers live a comfortable lifestyle. Here’s a look at the responsibilities of private family personal assistants.

Organizational Responsibilities
One of the primary duties of a private family personal assistant is to organize their employer’s day-to-day life. This includes managing calendars, scheduling appointments, making travel arrangements, and coordinating with other staff members. Assistants may also be responsible for filing paperwork, taking notes during meetings, and performing administrative tasks like data entry or document preparation. Any tasks that need to be completed on a regular basis should fall under the scope of this position.

Family Support
In addition to administrative duties, private family personal assistants are often tasked with providing support directly to family members. They may help monitor children’s educational progress or coordinate extracurricular activities for them. They may also run errands or take care of any other needs that arise within the household. It is important for these assistants to have excellent organizational skills as well as strong interpersonal communication abilities in order to effectively handle these kinds of tasks.

Other Duties
The exact duties of a private family’s personal assistant will vary depending on the specific needs of their employer’s household. In some cases they may be asked to manage household finances or oversee repairs and maintenance jobs around the home. They may also be responsible for handling vendors or contractors who work with the family on special projects or repairs as needed. In short, no two days are ever quite the same when it comes to being a personal assistant in a high net worth household!

A private family's personal assistant plays an important role in helping their employers maintain an orderly lifestyle while providing direct support to each member of the family when necessary. Responsibilities range from organizing daily activities and making travel arrangements to monitoring children's educational progress and handling vendors and contractors for home repairs or special projects. No matter what type of task is required, it is essential for private family personal assistants to have excellent organizational skills as well as strong interpersonal communication abilities in order to successfully carry out their duties on behalf of their employer's household.

Stress is a fact of life and in many cases, it can be beneficial. But when workplace stress becomes overwhelming, it can lead to decreased productivity, employee burnout, and even health issues. For private households, reducing staff stress is a key component of employee retention and job satisfaction. Here are five easy strategies for reducing stress in the workplace.

1. Establish Clear Expectations - One of the most common causes of workplace stress is not knowing what's expected of you. Establish clear expectations with your employees and make sure they understand exactly what their responsibilities are and how they're expected to perform them. That way there's no confusion or ambiguity, which can quickly lead to feelings of stress and anxiety. This is particularly important and often neglected in a private domestic staffing scenario. You may have expectations on how your home is run, but those expectations may not be clear or apparent to a new member of household staff.

2. Offer Flexible Scheduling - It's essential to strike a balance between providing enough structure so that work gets done efficiently but also giving employees enough freedom to manage their own time as needed without feeling micromanaged or overwhelmed by deadlines or expectations. Offering flexible scheduling options can help reduce stress levels significantly.

3. Allow Breaks During the Day - Taking regular breaks throughout the day helps employees recharge their batteries and stay focused on their tasks at hand. Encourage your employees to take short breaks during the day—even if only for five minutes—to help them relax and refocus before getting back to work again refreshed and ready to tackle whatever tasks come their way.

4. Provide Supportive Resources - If an employee feels like they're struggling with their workload or unable to complete tasks effectively due to lack of resources or support from supervisors, it can be incredibly stressful for both parties involved. Providing supportive resources such as additional training opportunities or access to helpful tools can give employees the confidence they need to succeed without feeling overwhelmed by too much responsibility being placed on their shoulders alone.

5. Encourage Self-Care Practices - Last but not least, encourage your team members to practice self-care in order to reduce workplace stress levels overall. Self-care could include anything from regular exercise routines and healthy eating habits, taking time off for leisure activities or simply taking a few minutes each day for quiet contemplation or mindfulness practices like meditation or yoga. Allowing your team members the space and support necessary for self-care can have a huge impact on overall workplace morale and productivity levels too!

Reducing stress in the workplace should be top priority for any employer of household staff looking to foster positive working relationships with their employees while maintaining high performance standards at the same time. Implementing these five strategies—establishing clear expectations; offering flexible scheduling; allowing regular breaks; providing supportive resources; encouraging self-care practices—can go a long way towards creating an environment where everyone is able work productively without being weighed down by excessive amounts of pressure or expectation overloads!

Recruiting private household staff now often involves conducting initial interviews over a video call. The pandemic has made most of us reasonably proficient and familiar with various video calling applications such as Zoom, Teams and FaceTime.

The benefits to this in recruitment are clear. It saves both the client and candidate a great deal of time as well as potentially unnecessary costs. This is particularly relevant if the candidate and client reside in different countries.

That being said, interviewing is a skill in of itself and doing this over video adds another layer to this perishable skill set. Some people are more comfortable than others when it comes to attending a video interview. We have put together some tips and helpful information to help you navigate this process successfully.

The first thing that we recommend is to practice. You may want to try recording yourself a few times to assess how you appear on camera. Are you coming across clearly? This can really help with refining your delivery and may even benefit your face to face interview technique.

The next thing that is vitally important is to prepare ahead of time. Things to consider will relate mostly to the device you intend to use. Make sure to think about the following:

Internet connection. Is it stable and fast enough to conduct an effective call? Is anyone else in the house using the internet in a way that could affect your call or slow down the connection?

Which software will you be using? There are many platforms available but once you know which one is being used for the interview, make sure you are familiar with it. Conduct a test call with a friend of family member ahead or time and become familiar with the process of joining and ending the meeting.

Think about location. This will affect both the way you sound and look. When making a test call, check things like the sound levels of the microphone, the camera angle and the lighting. These things are all very important in a video interview. Can the interviewer ckearly see and hear you?

Avoid conducing the interview in a noisy or busy environment which will affect sound quality of the call.

Have a neutral background to avoid any unnecessary distractions.

Consider what to wear. This is just as important as attending a face to face interview and a video call should not be an invitation to let these standards fall by the wayside. Look smart and well presented as if you were attending in person. Avoid wearing overly bright or dark colours as these can affect the camera exposure. Toned down colours work best.

Think about the camera angle and position. Adjust your seating so that you are not too high or low in the camera frame.

When interviewing over video there are other benefits that may not have been possible in a face to face interview. Have a copy of your CV in front of you so that you can easily recall information about your work history. You can also have a list of the key points or questions you would like to remember to address or discuss. Have these off camera where they are easily viewable to you.

The same fundamentals for face to face meetings still apply. Be engaged and make eye contact. Come prepared with questions about the role to illustrate your interest in the position you are applying for. Keep your answers to the point and think about what you want to say ahead of time.

We hope that this information will help you in successfully conducting a stress free interview and wish you all the best with your next one!

If you are interested in viewing some of the domestic household staff vacancies we have available, be sure to visit our Job Board here.

The Housekeeper is at the centre of all staffed houses. Whether it be part of a domestic couple, or part of a team in a formal household. Perhaps they operate in a combined role of Housekeeper/Nanny or Housekeeper/Cook. In any private household employing domestic staff, this particular category of staff is integral.

Finding the right housekeeper for the right job can be a challenge. A housekeeper needs a lot of skills and qualities in order to really succeed in the role. Whether you have an informal family home and only someone for a couple of days a week, or you have a larger more formal setup and you want a dedicated staff member on hand at all times, using an agency that specialises in household staff will significantly ease the process.

Choosing the right housekeeper can take some time, and you need a recruitment agency that can provide you with the best possible candidates. A housekeeper can perform a wide range of duties, from laundry and cooking to running errands, organising the home and supervising other staff if required.
Our consultants have a good understanding of how difficult it can be to find the right person for the role. Whether you’d like to hire a housekeeper, a chauffeur, an estate manager, chef or a cleaner, the team at Marshall Harber will be happy to assist you finding the right candidate for your needs and your environment.

If you are looking for your next Housekeeping job, please visit our Job Board to view all currently available vacancies.