When assessing your needs for domestic staff, you may realize you need a little bit of help here and there, but don’t need a full-time person for anything specific. You may wonder if there is a “catch all” person who can manage all the things you require assistance with, whose tasks would add up to a single full-time individual.

You can think up a number of combinations such as Housekeeper/Cook, Executive Housekeeper/House Manager, Nanny/Housekeeper, Butler/Chauffeur that many individuals may be interested in. It is, in fact, feasible to combine roles when hiring household staff, so long as you are willing to take the pros with the cons:

Pros:

• One dedicated person who understands all of your needs and particulars
• One person to communicate with
• A single, trusted advisor

Cons:

• Person is not specialized in one role
• Staff person can be spread too thin
• Schedules may overlap
• Demands may conflict (For example, picking up the children at practice at 6:00pm and having dinner hot and served at 6:15pm may be an impossibility)

Things To Consider

While hiring one household employee who is responsible for multiple tasks may seem like the ideal option for you, keep in mind that your demands must be realistic. If one individual has full-charge for multiple children, it may be difficult for them to prepare a gourmet-style meal for dinner, or to handle deep cleaning responsibilities, as their priority is the safety of the children. However, if the children are in school during the day, your employee may be able to clean during the day and then pick the children up in the afternoon. However, even in this case, they most likely will not be able to accomplish as much in a single day as a dedicated full-time Housekeeper.

Keep in mind that while you are saving yourself the cost of several, separate full-time employees, someone who has multiple specialties and will be required to seamlessly execute multiple conflicting demands has an added value. A typical Housekeeper may be paid $60,000 per year, however, adding childcare and meal preparation may bring the annual expected salary up to $80,000.

If your household has very particular needs or has a multitude of time-consuming demands, it may not be realistic to combine roles. An experienced recruiter can help you sort through your hiring needs. They will be honest and give you thoughtful suggestions on what household staff you will need to best divide and conquer all of your requirements most effectively.