Household and Estate Staff
Household and estate staff keep private homes running the way the owners want.
They cook, clean, drive, manage properties, look after children, and take care of the people who live there.
These roles exist in all kinds of settings. A city apartment might need a housekeeper and a personal assistant.Â
A country estate might need a full team, a house manager, gardener, chauffeur, chef, and more. Some families have two or three staff. Others have twenty.
What connects all these roles is the setting: a private home, not a hotel or a restaurant. The standards are high, the work is personal, and discretion matters in every position.
How to Build a Household Team
Every household is different, so there is no single formula for staffing one. But we have noticed that most private homes follow the same sort of pattern as they grow.
A housekeeper is usually the first hire. They take care of running of the home, cleaning, laundry, organisation, and sometimes do some cooking.
For many families we work with, a good housekeeper is the foundation that everything else builds on.
As a household grows, there are more properties, more travel, children, entertaining, then new roles get added.
A family will hire a nanny for childcare. Or they will hire a private chef for daily meals and events.
When they find they need to free up some time getting around they will speak to a chauffeur agency to find a driver .
Then they might need a gardener for the grounds.
At a certain point, someone needs to coordinate all of it. That is where it becomes sensible to hire a house manager. They manage the other staff, schedules, handle suppliers, and make sure the household runs as it should.
For larger or estates or where there are lots of properties, an estate manager can be needed, looking after budgets, maintenance, renovations, security, and sometimes multiple teams in different locations.
Not every home needs every role. The right setup depends on the size of the property, the family’s lifestyle, and how much of the work the family wants to handle themselves.
We work with clients at every level, from a single placement to building out a full household team.
The Private Household
and Estate Staff we recruit
We provide fully tailored recruitment services for every household and estate role,
including:
A butler manages formal service, hospitality, and runs a home day to day. A modern butler can do a bit of everything.
A housekeeper keeps a property clean, organized, and running smoothly. They can often be the first and most essential hire.
A house manager coordinates all household staff, manages schedules and suppliers and keeps everything running as it should.
A domestic couple live on-site and share household jobs. they cover things like housekeeping, cooking and driving.
A caregiver looks after a person who needs care ether medically or who needs some kind of help in day to day life.
A private gardener manages the gardens of a property, keeping them maintained and looking good.
A property caretaker maintains a property, which can often be when the family is away, handling its upkeep.
An estate manager looks after multiple properties, budgets, maintenance, and renovations.
We are committed to placing the right staff member with you from the start which is why we have such a rigorous selection process. Because of this we have a strong reputation in the industry and have been asked by governments and high profile figures to recruit for them.
Why work with Morgan & Mallet?
We are a household staffing agency with offices in New York, Los Angeles, Miami, London, Dubai, and Switzerland.
Private household recruitment is all we do.
200,000+ candidates worldwide in our database. Only one in four applicants makes it into our database.Â
Our international network helps us recruit better because we have a much larger choice of staff and can staff your homes internationally.
90-minute interviews. We test technical skills, check references, and assess personality. Our experience is so important in knowing who will fit a particular role.
Personality fit comes first. Your staff are inside your private life. A perfect CV means nothing if the personality is wrong.
96% placement success rate. We get this by being honest with both sides. If a salary is below market levels or a job description is unrealistic, we tell you.
Three-month guarantee. If a placement doesn’t work out, we replace them at no extra fee. We check in at 10 days and regularly throughout the first three months to see how it’s going.
Top Role Insights
We place thousands of household staff every year. Here is what we have learned about the roles that matter most.
Caregiver
Demand for private caregivers is growing, as the population ages.
The typical profile is someone who started in hospitals or care homes and moved into private households.
Around 80% are female. Clients usually need specific medical experience.
What makes this role different is that the caregiver often has the longest relationship with the household.
They might have been there for years before other staff arrive, which can create tension if new hires are not introduced carefully.
Butler
We still have clients want to hire a traditional butler but now most want someone far more flexible.
A modern butler might manage the home's technology, coordinate travel, run errands, drive the car, and manage other staff in the same day.
What makes a good butler hard to find is not a lack of candidates.Â
A butler needs to be present but almost invisible, available at any time, but never there when they are not wanted.
Salaries in the US: $90,000–$180,000.
House Manager
Once you get to the stage of having three to five people working in your home, someone needs to hold it all together.
That is what a house manager does. Making sure the house runs well.
A good house manager knows everything about the property. They also step in when needed, doing jobs that might not be part of their job description.
US salaries: $70,000–$150,000, and rising.
Housekeeper
There is a genuine global shortage of experienced housekeepers.
We have more requests for this role than any other, and not enough candidates to fill them.
The challenge is finding someone who meets the standards of a luxury household, attention to detail, specialist knowledge, and discretion.
Some housekeepers who prove themselves, move into different roles over time.
Salaries increase if that's the case.
US salaries for housekeeper/nanny roles are $90,000–$100,000 for example.
Looking for a role?
If you are an experienced household or estate professional, we would really like to hear from you.
Register with us and your profile reaches recruiters in New York, Los Angeles, Miami, Dubai, London, Geneva, Paris and Monaco. One application, eight markets.
Have a look at our jobs board below for our latest live roles.