Safer at Home – Limiting Risks from Domestic Workers

Protections and services from your household and personal staff

Best practices for virus safety in managing your household and personal staff

Hiring right, receiving productivity and ensuring your protection, health and privacy. Remember, safe measures need to be for both sides – you and your service team.

Interview with Stephen Candland, Partner of Private Staff Group.

Private Staff Group (“PSG”) is a boutique and specialized recruitment search firm serving the distinct staffing needs of exceptional clients for their household, estate, personal and business.

PSG clients typically have multiple homes, large homes, dynamic lifestyles and high expectations for service excellence. Continuation of safe domestic services is possible with proper and custom steps and attention to protections for both the family and the staff.

What are you seeing in safe practices in continuing to use household staff?

Hygiene can include changing of clothes before entering the home. For example, fresh laundered uniform clothing to change into for the domestic worker. Simple black pants/white shirt, etc. Wearing disposable gloves and face-mask is recommended.

Is Live-in an option?

Upscale doormen buildings are reluctant to let in outside domestic workers to the building. Often the workers traveled to the building via subway, etc. If you have a separate quarters or bedroom, could you accommodate a live-in situation. Vacation or second homes, sometimes have guest quarters, pool house, etc. Keeping your staff in your home and on property protects all. Everyone can share supplies, food and work together in a clean environment.

Clients have rented separate apartments or residences for staff quarters.

If I am not comfortable with current staff in my home?

Clients are placing staff on leave of absence (furlough)- typically with full or partial salary. Clients may decide to eliminate any and all outside persons, including vendors from entering the home during this time

How to handle help for relocations to vacation homes, yachts, etc.?

PSG clients have relocated to homes as far away as New Zealand. Most are taking private jets to second homes as an extra precaution. Extensive sanitary cleaning of jets, homes, cars, etc. is critical to peace of mind. We have seen clients send staff ahead to conduct cleaning, and then quarantine themselves (staff) for a couple weeks before joining the client in the home.

Chefs have been taken to second residences as they can handle all the kitchen, shopping, cooking, etc. with confidence as the chef is required to wear proper PPE outside and inside the home, thus reducing exposure risk for principals.

How can Private Staff Group be helpful to my needs?

We have partnered with clients to hire assistants who work virtually. We have recommended exceptional service staff who are willing to Live-in, travel to remote home locations, and be of multi-service such as cook, housekeeper, server, family assistant, etc. PSG finds the best candidates who are prepared to clean properly, be pleasant in the home and a trusted partner to keeping you as safe as possible and enabling a pleasant household environment.

We have wonderful candidates available for short interim situations. PSG and the client often work together to design and implement the right cleaning, orientation and training. Background checks and payroll are offered too.

Let’s work together to get you the hygiene and preventative measures which can be enhanced by your domestic staff. Help in the home can be completely safe and add to the enjoyment and manageability of this confined period.

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Hire a Domestic Couple: Traditional vs. Nontraditional

Hiring a domestic couple is a great option if you are looking for a team of two individuals to work together. Occasionally, you may be presented with a unique option in which a “couple” does not have a connection other than their professional background. In other words, they may present themselves as a couple and have willingness to work as one but not actually be a couple by definition – a nontraditional domestic couple.

Typically, a nontraditional couple is two people who have worked or lived closely with each other in the past, know they work very well together as a team, but are not actually life partners. When comparing a nontraditional domestic couple with a traditional one, there are advantages and disadvantages to both. Depending on your specific needs, you should consider what kind of couple would help you the most.

Benefits of a Traditional Domestic Couple:

  • A united team working towards a common goal
  • The ability to share living space
  • Having a shared past, experience problem solving, brainstorming, etc.
  • An understanding of how each other works – they can hit the ground running

Potential Challenges with a Traditional Domestic Couple:

  • If you need to let go of one employee, you may have to let go of both as they come as a team. (Sometimes, while they may both be talented candidates, their strengths and weaknesses don’t balance out to meet your needs. For example, they are both good cooks but neither of them are particularly skilled at working with children.)
  • Couples usually would like to take their vacation time together

Benefits of a Nontraditional Domestic Couple:

  • Are flexible to take separate vacation days
  • Are flexible to be separated if needed
  • Can work more independently of each other
  • Different backgrounds and sets of ideals may lead to more creative problem solving

Potential Challenges with a Nontraditional Domestic Couple:

  • May require more living space
  • May not have had too much experience in a similar position working very closely together

Every situation is unique and therefore requires its own distinct set of expectations as well as limitations. What can work in one situation may not work in another so it is best to take everything into consideration when deciding what kind of couple you would benefit from hiring.

About Private Staff Group

At Private Staff Group our technologies, our recruitment team and our candidate networks are second to none when it comes to finding the personal, private, and domestic professionals you can count on. If you want to hire a domestic couple, we can pair you with the right candidates. To learn more about what we can do we invite you to contact us today.