Strategy

It is now common practice to consider the activity of selecting domestic staff as an activity isolated from any other context, autonomous and detached from other functions strictly related to the work context.

From a practical point of view, the critical issue in a selection of domestic staff isolated from the rest of the work context is the risk of complete unreliability of the decisions taken to select the candidate(s).

This means that many recruitment companies carry out the selection process for domestic staff and tend to select the best candidates, but not the ones best suited to the needs of the family or the business.

Xerendipity implements a comprehensive approach to evaluating domestic staff, whether they are personal butler, governesses, housekeepers, domestic couple, personal assistants, personal chef or chauffeurs.

In our view, the selection of domestic staff is a process that is very much part of the family context.

At each stage of the selection process, we maintain contact with the family and its members and, depending on their availability, arrange meetings to exchange information and discuss any issues that may arise during the selection process.

Xerendipity takes several important steps before starting to select:

• The first step is what is commonly known as a job analysis,
• Then we move on to the job study or position analysis.

In fact, the selection of domestic staff can be defined as a systematic activity of comparison between candidates and the job to be performed in the household or company.

The objectives to be achieved are:

• the strategic, operational and functional importance of the work in the family context, taking into account the type of communication in which the resource is embedded and the relationship with the family and its members; 
• the work to be done, which is the context, differentiated into tasks and duties with varying degrees of relevance to the specific activity;
• daily and weekly targets to be achieved by domestic workers and how they are to be achieved; 
• the degree of autonomy, responsibility, discretion and flexibility required of the domestic worker that characterises the job; and the degree of control exercised over the domestic worker by the family or company.

Once these elements have been defined, it is possible to formulate the professional profile to be sought and the personal qualities that the candidate must possess in order to fill the position sought by the family or company.

For the majority of domestic staff recruitment agencies, the greatest difficulty in identifying the right professional profile for the client arises when moving from the examination of technical-professional knowledge to the definition of subjective characteristics.

In fact, while professional knowledge is directly and logically linked to the tasks and duties to be performed in the house or villa, soft skills are much more nuanced and bring into play the particular likes and dislikes of each of us.

Specifically, we are referring to the future employer, i.e. the family and especially those who will have to deal with the domestic helper on a daily basis, in most cases the landlady.

Given that the professional profile of the domestic help sought by the family will essentially constitute the operational guide for the managers and recruiters who will carry out the various recruitment and selection activities, it is advisable to discuss each and every aspect of the subjective profile in depth with the family in order to carry out a series of subsequent and integrative selection actions.

For this reason, when it comes to the search and selection of your domestic staff, Xerendipity is the right partner.

Not only do we listen to your needs and start the selection process by following the procedures outlined above, but we also carry out regular analyses and reviews of the position and the professional profile in order to quickly identify any changes in the family’s or company’s needs, as well as any changes in the content of the tasks originally requested.

At Xerendipity, we define recruitment as the initial phase of the selection process, during which a certain number of applications are collected, with the aim of having a pool of professionals available for selection that already tends to meet the basic requirements requested by the client.

Recruitment begins with a series of spontaneous applications that Xerendipity receives on a weekly basis; in addition, a series of activities are carried out, also using social networks, in order to get in touch with the best human resources to be placed with client families and companies.

For the recruitment of domestic staff, aimed at young people with a few months or at most a few years of experience, Xerendipity uses a number of “reliable” contacts who already work with us and therefore enjoy our utmost respect and trust.

Xerendipity considers recruitment to be the moment when we gather possible candidates based on operational criteria derived from the analysis of the positions and professional profiles.

Xerendipity’s domestic staff recruitment and selection process is based on a corporate policy and a well-defined communication strategy, but is also flexible and adaptable to the different professionals sought in a given timeframe and geographical area.