Your Checklist for When You are Looking to Hire Household Staff

If you have a very large home, are really busy, have young children, do not like driving your own automobile, or all of these things, you might need to hire household staff. Employing one more people to help with things around your home, or you’re driving is a practice that has been popular for hundreds of years. Today, with our busy schedules, having extra help allows us to get all the things done that we need, and have some time to simply relax a bit.

 However locating and selecting household help can be very challenging. You have to find people who have special qualities. They must be trustworthy, loyal, hard-working, and willing to put you and your family’s needs in front of their own on a consistent basis.  

These types of individuals are uncommon and being lucky enough to stumble upon someone who fits this description is rare. Additionally, if you do not have the experience or expertise in assessing someone’s character and skills, you are at a clear disadvantage when looking for household staff. Someone might interview well, and turn out to be a really bad employee, or worse yet, dangerous. 

With these concerns in mind, here are some tips to help you select the right household staff. 

Always Use an Agency

The place to start when you want to find some household staff is with a reputable staffing agency. These companies have experience in selecting competent and seasoned professionals who understand the parameters and expectations of working in someone’s home, driving their automobile, or tending to their children.

 Reputable agencies screen all of their candidates including performing a detailed background check to make sure that the person does not have a criminal record or any other issues that might preclude them from being an acceptable employee. They also demand references from past employers and expect to get glowing reviews or that person will be rejected.

 Finally, they conduct interviews with the person so that they can ask detailed questions and get a sense of the person’s character and personality. All of this happens before you are presented with this person as an option for your household staff. This level of attention to detail will give you a sense of comfort and certainty that the person is both safe and capable of doing the job you require. 

Do a Very Strict Interview

The agency will present several people for you to consider and then ask you to conduct an interview with each. You should make this interview at your residence so that you can see the person on the job. You should also have prepared a series of questions that you need answered. When you ask the questions, remember that how they answer each question is as important as the answers they give. If it is a nanny you are interviewing, you want to be 100% sure that this is a person you can trust with your children and that your children will love and respect. If it is a chauffeur, you want to make sure that the person has a demeanor that exudes safety and caution. You should also conduct interviews with every candidate, no matter how much you may like the first or second one you interview. Continue until you seen all of the candidates and then make a decision. 

Have a Trial Period

No matter how much you love the person you hire, make it clear to that person and the agency that there will be a 30 day trial period where you can make sure that the fit between the person you hired and your family is good. You will only know that this is the case once the person is interacting with your family over a period of time. By calling it a trial period, you give yourself the option of creating a clean break from this person without any drama.

Also when hiring this person have a low tolerance for tardiness, bad behavior, and mistakes that are related to not paying attention or simply not caring. These are bad signs and things will probably not get better over time. If you notice any of them, you should call the agency and let them know you would like to hire a different person.