Every family has different necessities, like different needs of private staff. Some families will need a housekeeper to come three times per week to help with general cleaning, while others will need a larger number of private staff to maintain all their properties to the highest level, e.g. a butler, a chef, a handyman and more. In this article, we will describe the different types of staff that families might require in a household.
A housekeeper is defined as a person who is in charge of cleanliness and looks after a house for its owner. Their main task is to keep everything tidy. For those families that are in need of only a housekeeper for their homes, the housekeeper will help with all the general cleaning, shopping, errands, picking up mail, cooking for the family, and looking after the pets and the garden.
Nannies provide that extra help that working parents need. They are child carers that will look after the most precious people in the house, the children, from new-borns to teenagers. Nannies are in great demand in the United Kingdom, due the flexibility they can give to parents. Families can find nannies looking to work full-time hours, perfect for those parents that need help with their babies and toddlers or part-time and after-school nannies for those that only need help for a few hours a day.
The most common tasks for nannies are washing and ironing the children’s clothes, preparing healthy meals and snacks, keeping the play area and child’s room clean and tidy, helping with the homework, driving the children, arranging play-dates and social schedules, and keeping the parents informed of developmental progress.
A Nanny-Housekeeper as household staff will look after the children and help with the cleanliness of the house. They should have excellent cooking and organisational skills to be able to cook for the family, assist with homework and domestic duties. Most of the families that live in the United Kingdom will search for a Nanny-Housekeeper, since they will do two roles.
A Nanny-Housekeeper may live with the family or live out and work part time, or five to six days per week, for 10 to 12 hours per day; they can work in a sole care position for working parents or alongside parents, depending on what the family is looking for. Many Nanny-Housekeepers will do PA duties also, like organising the household’s accounts, dealing with the bills, tradesmen, deliveries and shopping.
A Butler is known as the manager of the house, and is the head of the household in charge of keeping everything working properly and without a problem. Families with large properties will look to hire a butler to help to handle all the staff and make sure that everyone is doing their part. You can find two types of butlers: 1. Private Butler and 2. Household Butler; depending on the family’s needs, you will need to choose between one of these two options.
A Private Butler is someone who oversees all the family’s personal engagements, like house parties, business and social meetings, out-of-town holidays or international flights, and both informal and formal family appointments. They are in charge of maintaining the security and safety of the house, and also need to control the administration of the property.
A Household Butler is in charge of taking care of all the necessary errands and works around the household. They need to ensure a happy and harmonious environment for every household staff and see that they are doing well. They may be in charge of employment as well as their payroll and performance reviews.
In recent years, families have been caring more about their health and diets. For those families and individuals that are searching for the perfect support in the kitchen, a private chef is the best option. The advantage of having someone in your kitchen dealing with family members’ favourite dishes, preparing healthy meals, as well as taking into consideration the household’s allergies is usually what families look for the chef to handle. Personal chefs are not only a lifesaver, but are also there as an indulgence. Think about all the preparation you would have to do on days when you have guests over, special occasions and surprise parties; instead of fretting for hours over what to prepare or what good restaurant to pick, with private chefs, you are relaxed and certain to charm your guests with your professionally cooked meals.
Homes all around the United Kingdom and the world at some point will need repairs, such as a fence that is broken, water pipes that may be dropping, walls that need to be painted, or many things that will need to be repaired in the house. Most of the time, people think that they can easily fix any of these problems, when sometimes if they are not handled by a professional, the problem will get much worse. Families, instead of fixing these kinds of problems by themselves or having someone without experience trying to do it, will hire a professional handyman to take care of any problem that can come up in their properties. Having a skilled worker who can take care of all the maintenance duties and repair tasks for your home would be a godsend.
Some of the duties that a Handyman can do are repairing plumbing and electrical systems, conducting assessments to check the performance of appliances, such as stoves, ovens, refrigerators, painting walls and filling crevices, cleaning the facilities and managing maintenance repairs, performing repairs on appliances and equipment when needed, identifying, documenting and reporting maintenance and repair works, installing light bulbs and carpeting, suggesting additional repairs when identified, providing support and guidance on maintaining the equipment, doing minor HVAC repairs, repairing tiles in the bathroom or kitchen, repairing fences, regularly perform various landscaping tasks.
A Domestic Couple will be the perfect option for those families with large homes and estates who would like to engage with private staff that would perform the basic tasks for the whole household, since sometimes families are looking to have the minimum number of people at their home to keep privacy. These couples can perform as a Housekeeper and Gardener, or House Manager and Butler, or Nanny and Manny, or Nanny and Manny Housekeepers, or Private Cook and Driver, depending on the family’s requirements.
Hiring a domestic couple will bring to your home a harmonious environment; since both people working for the family will know each other before the employment, they will know how to work as a team, and they will support each other to do the best on each of the tasks.
A Personal Assistant will be your right- and left-hand person. Their main tasks are to make sure that your agenda is working perfectly and that every meeting and appointment scheduled will occur without problem. If your business is growing, and every day you are having more and more responsibilities added to your “to-do list”, maybe it is time to think that hiring a personal assistant.
As a businessperson, having someone to deal with all your agenda will save you time and stress; a personal assistant will be able to take over the administrative work, like your personal errands. They will make sure that you are always on top of every important meeting, like the business deal happening in just a few hours or the parents’ meeting in the evening.
Chauffeurs are professional drivers trained to give a luxury service to those individuals that are looking to have someone who will drive them to different destinations. They will be responsible for keeping their client safe while they are driving, saving you time and stress of being in a traffic jam or thinking of the best route when you are on your way to an important meeting. Many families around the United Kingdom will not only hire a chauffeur to drive them, but they will also hire them to drive the whole family.
The tasks and duties might be different for each employer, but a chauffeur must be able to perform the basic duties, including the following:
You will find that there are different ways to hire household staff. People can do it by themselves, they can ask friends and families if they know someone looking for a job as a chef or housekeeper, or they can use a professional agency. Choosing to use agencies, like Little Ones with over 15 years of experience in the field, will save you time and stress, their consultant will find the best candidates for each family, matching personalities and requirements.
Would you like to start your process of finding the perfect chef, chauffeur, housekeeper, nanny or personal assistance? Please feel free to contact our direct line 0207 183 0309 to talk with one of our professional consultants.
