How to Hire an Administrative Household Manager

Many wealthy American families and individuals engage the services of an administrative household manager to help ensure their homes and grounds are kept in order, supervise domestic staff and perform the daily activities associated with scheduling appointments, paying bills, shopping, etc. An administrative household manager is akin to the butler of Europe, and their employers rely on them to handle personal and household requests with professionalism and discretion. Because this individual will work closely with you and your family, the hiring process can be time-intensive and require you to gather a lot of information.

• 1

  Create a job description for your administrative household manager, listing your expectations for his general daily duties. Ask yourself what sort of things you expect the manager to handle (i.e., personal shopping, hiring domestic staff, household accounting) and which things you would like to take care of personally.

• 2

  Define educational and experience requirements for your administrative household manager based on the kind of duties you expect him to perform. For example, if you want him to handle the household accounting, he must have good math and organizational skills. You may wish to make a college degree a requirement. Additionally, it is important to consider the size of your home or homes, especially for experience requirements. An inexperienced manager may not be able to manage more than one home or may not be knowledgeable in the needs of larger homes or estates.

• 3

  Consult an agency that specializes in connecting families with domestic staff and follow through on its interview process, providing the agency with the information you outlined in steps 1 and 2. The agency will then provide you with a list of pre-screened candidates that have already undergone a background check, reference check and have met the educational and/or experience requirements you desire.

• 4

  Place an advertisement just as you would if hiring someone for any other job as an alternative to going through an agency. However, this is often more time-consuming as it requires you to screen candidates' backgrounds, verify education/experience, and call references yourself. You often will not have as large a pool to choose from since many professional domestic staff who are looking for employment utilize placement agencies.

• 5

  Begin interviewing candidates. Since you will be engaged in a close relationship with your administrative household manager, and this person will have almost as much access to your life as you do, make sure you are compatible. Trust your feelings about candidates.

• 6

  Call the candidate(s) you like for an additional interview. Spend time with the potential administrative household manager (i.e., touring the home, meeting existing staff, discussing terms and living arrangements, etc.) before making your selection. Once you've chosen the individual you'd like to hire and they've accepted your job offer, draw up an employment contract and stipulate a reasonable trial period, if desired.