Luxury service and falling wages - can you rectify the two?
2020 Has taught the working world that despite planning for the future, you can’t prepare for everything.
In the luxury market the trappings of wealth have insulated many, but not all, from the worst of the pandemic, but that’s not to say there haven’t been huge changes in household operations, especially in staffing numbers and talent attraction.
Almost all high-net-worth personalities and business owners have had to meet the challenge of disruption to staffing both in their businesses and homes due to COVID-19. As such, Principles have had to reckon with the new normal that includes an imbalancing of the luxury job seekers market.
Simply put, there are more people looking for work than ever, and when more people are looking for work, there are more people applying for work, which increases recruitment administration and wages become depressed as more and more staff compromise on their take home salary to remain in employment.
How does this affect household staffing?
Wage pressures are, of course, not just specific to any one industry and have been reflected in the household and estate staffing industries too.
Typically, this form of candidate-rich talent pool is called a “client-driven market” – clients, in our industry HNW individuals looking for skilled household staff, chefs, operations, chiefs of staff and estate managers, have a larger pool of candidates to choose staff from, and as such can lower wages knowing the weight of influence and impetus is on the client’s side.
Although not illegal, it’s a depressing reality that with client-driven markets comes depressed wages and your candidate will know they are potentially stepping into a role where the wages are being lowered to weed out those who don’t want to compromise their salary for a job.
The quality of your hire, especially at management level, has an enormous amount of impact in the quality of management in your home, the running and operations of your estate, your family’s safety, and the future of your household.
Compromise is one thing, but hiring undervalued and underpaid staff creates short termism, unhappy staff members and a race to the provincial bottom.
Happy staff, happy household.
Your staff are the ones who make a house a home – from the discreet day to day operation of the home, to integral management of your estate, landscaping, fleet maintenance and travel and security. You want your staff to be engaged, happy, eager to work and flexible with their skills.
Hiring executive household staff is not a race to the bottom, nor should it ever be. If you focus on the wage bill as indicative of their ability to compromise to do your role, we urge you to reassess your values:
- What do you want from your staff?
- Do you want them to be a diligent worker for the long term, growing and building a career as they support your home?
- Or are you looking for a stop gap staffer who will, at the offer of a new role for more money, jump ship immediately, knowing full well their market value was not being met?
Client market with candidate focus.
Good recruitment is offering timely advice and building fact based and effective relationships. The fact is the client-led market will not last forever, and in our arm of the premium staffing market, we can afford to give due care and attention to our candidates who are joining your homes.
Good talent deserves competitive pay, and by that we mean above median pay in the current climate.
This sets an inclusive tone of employment focussed on internal staff development, as much as the smooth running and development of your home. Your team will feel more valued, more included and more respected for their role. As such, you will retain and attract the best in class, rather than have to deal with high turnover of staff as the market settles and pay starts to rise.
