Why Hire a Domestic Agency?
Don’t you ever wish you had an extra pair of hands? Hands that have been sourced and screened for criminal and credit verification, ensuring that you have a quality person sharing your sanctuary- someone you are comfortable being around, someone you can trust your kids and senior family members with, ensuring that an event goes off smoothly, and that your home or homes are maintained to the standard you want and expect.
Agencies spend hours, even days, screening candidates. The process involves initially finding the right candidates, screening of 30 plus applicants for a position, getting to the top three, calling and verifying their employment history, verifying their employment backgrounds, and ensuring there is no criminal history. An experienced agency will know what to look for in placing a candidate.
Who Needs to Engage a Domestic Agency?
Often high-profile professionals, celebrities, and pro-athletes engage domestic agencies to ensure their lives and households are managed in a manner beneficial to each person’s lifestyles. Those who need home management, calendar management, travel assistance, chef and dietary planning, and the assistance of maintaining the household and supervising children will often hire professionals through a domestic agency to ensure they are able to maintain a balanced, fulfilling, and healthy lifestyle. However, anyone who leads a busy, successful lifestyle may benefit from the support that a domestic staff member provides.
The Benefits of Engaging an Agency
Contracting a domestic agency provides many benefits. It takes the burden of excessive legwork in searching, screening, and hiring personnel off the client. Agencies have access to industry databases and a professional network to ensure each client finds a great fit for their family and home. Agencies take care of the paperwork, legal documents, communicating with candidates, complete the interview process, and walk the clients through each step of the hiring process from start to finish. Agencies are here to ensure that the on-boarding process is as easy for the client as possible.
Household Employees V Independent Contractors
It is important that anyone who is interested in hiring a domestic service professional understands the difference between a household employee and an independent contractor. Often times, those who hire any type of household support will avoid payroll by “contracting” the work. However, the IRS has specific designations that differentiate household employees and independent contractors. If the employer decides the terms of service such as location (their home), what service will be provided and how, and when the service will be provided then the staff member must be treated as an employee and receive a W-2.This often includes domestic staff such as housekeepers, personal or family assistants, and nannies. Other household staff that control their schedules and how they operate may be considered independent contractors. This includes positions like weekly lawn maintenance or contracting a private chef to develop a menu for special occasions.
Why is Engaging a Fulltime Employee to Work in a Home Often a Cost-effective Measure?
Living in the 21st century, everyone is so busy and having someone who they can trust in their home is a luxury.
There are so many options, and independent housekeeping agencies offer a wide variety of cleaning staff who can come daily, weekly, or monthly. This can be a wonderful option provided you have the same cleaning staff visiting weekly or monthly. Cleaning services with a turnover in staff can create a lack of consistency and that goes for any service in the home or office. Having a consistent staff member that is familiar with your routines, likes and dislikes, and the fixtures of your home creates efficiency and allows you the ability to gain a rapport with your housekeeper. Efficiency and consistency create more bang for your buck and save you time and money by providing dependable support.
By using our agency, we eliminate the need to source, screen and vet staff. We offer on-boarding and guidance. You might ask what on-boarding is. Well, it’s when an experienced specialist in a given field trains a candidate on trial. We do all of the leg work to keep the hiring process as smooth and worry-free as possible for our clients. With decades of experience and affiliates worldwide, we know the industry standards and exceed them by sourcing the most qualified candidates throughout the country, and even internationally.
International Domestic Consulting places a variety of roles such as nanny, housekeeper, private chef, chauffeur, butler and majordomo, estate and house manager, executive and personal assistant, and caregiver. We serve clients in major cities such as Atlanta, Jacksonville, Palm Beach, and Dallas. Please call 404-400-4300 to find out more about how a domestic staff member can assist you!
