Before You Engage a Household Staffing Agency: A Neutral Due-Diligence Checklist

This is a commercial and process checklist, not legal, tax, payroll, background-screening, or employment advice. Read the actual agreement and use qualified advisers where appropriate.

Hiring a household staffing agency is not only a question of whether an agency can locate candidates. It is also a question of what the engagement covers, when obligations begin, what information is exchanged, and what happens if the role or placement changes.

These questions are useful whether a family hires a specialist agency, another search provider, or no agency at all. The answers should be in writing or clearly identified as search-specific rather than assumed from a headline, a guarantee label, or a fee percentage.

1. What is the agency being engaged to do?

• Is the agency a referral/search firm, the candidate’s employer, a staffing employer, or a combination of these models?
• Which roles, locations, and search needs are within the engagement?
• Is the scope exclusive, nonexclusive, retained, contingent, or otherwise limited?
• Who at the household, estate, or family office is authorized to give direction and approve candidate introductions?
• What will the agency do before presenting a candidate, and what remains the client’s responsibility?

Why it matters: a family should know whether the agency is making introductions, employing temporary staff, coordinating a search, or assuming some other role before assigning employment, payroll, tax, or supervision responsibilities.

2. What will make the brief accurate enough to recruit well?

• Has the household described the real responsibilities, schedule, travel, housing, location, reporting, authority, compensation direction, and start timing?
• Does the brief distinguish hands-on work, management, care, administration, and personal-assistance duties?
• What information will candidates receive before they are asked to interview or authorize a presentation?
• If the search is confidential, who decides what can be disclosed, to whom, and at which stage?
• How will the agency flag a conflict between the requested title and the actual work?

Why it matters: an inaccurate brief can attract the wrong candidates, delay the search, and make a strong eventual candidate feel that the role changed after interest was expressed.

3. How is the fee calculated?

• Is there a registration, initiation, retainer, search, screening, or administrative fee? Is each amount refundable, creditable, or separate from any placement fee?
• Is the placement fee a fixed amount, a percentage, a salary multiple, or another formula?
• What compensation components are included in the calculation: wages, bonus, housing, benefits, overtime, travel allowance, or another item?
• Is the fee different for part-time, full-time, temporary, live-in, childcare, senior-management, or specialized roles?
• Which outside expenses, if any, can be billed separately?

Why it matters: a percentage alone does not explain the fee base, timing, or total obligation.

4. When does payment become due—and what is a trial?

• Is any amount due at engagement, candidate introduction, acceptance, first day, after a trial, or another stated point?
• Is a working trial optional? What is its maximum length and what event changes it into a placement for fee purposes?
• Who pays the candidate for trial work, reimburses expenses, and handles payroll or classification obligations?
• What schedule, duties, supervision, confidentiality expectations, feedback process, and decision timing must be agreed before a trial begins?
• What happens if the household extends a trial, changes the role during it, or decides not to hire?

Why it matters: a trial is an evaluation activity, not a substitute for written clarity about pay, work, authority, and the agency’s fee trigger.

5. What does a replacement commitment actually provide?

• Is the commitment a replacement search, a credit, a refund, a partial refund, or another remedy?
• How long does it last, when must the household notify the agency, and how many replacement searches are available?
• Does it apply to every role, work schedule, or departure reason?
• Which events void or change it—for example, a material role, compensation, schedule, location, or household change; late payment; a delayed request; or client conduct?
• If the replacement role pays more or has different scope, what additional fee may apply?
• If no suitable replacement is found, what does the agreement say happens next?

Why it matters: labels such as “guarantee” and “replacement” are not interchangeable with a refund or a promise of a successful hire.

6. What candidate work has actually been completed?

• What does the agency mean by interview, vetting, employment-history review, reference check, identity verification, background check, driving-record review, or skills evaluation?
• Which checks are done by the agency, the client, a third party, or not at all?
• At what stage are reference contacts made, and does the candidate authorize them?
• What limitations apply to reports, reference information, jurisdiction, timing, or available records?
• Will the client receive a summary, source document, confirmation of completion, or only the agency’s assessment?
• What remains for the client to verify or decide independently?

Why it matters: “screened” can describe very different work. A household should know the scope and limits without treating a report as a guarantee of future performance or safety.

7. How will privacy and confidentiality work for both sides?

• What client details may be used in a public posting, a discreet approach, a candidate brief, an interview, or a trial?
• When, if ever, will principal identity, exact location, household composition, travel expectations, or family-office information be disclosed?
• What candidate material may be shared, with whom, and only after what authorization?
• When is an NDA appropriate, and what information does it cover?
• Who has access to sensitive client and candidate records, and how are they handled after the search closes?

Why it matters: confidentiality should protect a private family without depriving a qualified candidate of the information needed to evaluate the job honestly.

8. What happens if the search changes, pauses, or stops?

• What counts as a material change in scope, schedule, compensation, location, or timing?
• Can the household pause or cancel? Is there a deadline, a remaining fee, a credit, or a new agreement required to resume?
• If a client hires an introduced candidate later, directly, or through another route, what does the agreement require?
• How is a candidate already known to the household handled, and what documentation is needed?
• What happens if the candidate withdraws, declines, or becomes unavailable?

Why it matters: the difficult issues in a search often arise after a role changes, not when the agreement is first signed.

9. Who owns the employment relationship after a hire?

• Who makes the final hiring decision and sets the employee’s duties, compensation, hours, benefits, supervision, and workplace rules?
• Who is responsible for the employment agreement, payroll, taxes, insurance, classification, and any required checks or agreements?
• Does the agency offer referrals to qualified outside specialists, and is that different from providing those services itself?
• What information does the household need before an offer, including final duties, authority, schedule, confidentiality, expense, travel, housing, and start-date terms?

Why it matters: a referral agency can provide meaningful search support without becoming the employer or the household’s lawyer, accountant, payroll provider, or security adviser.

10. What will communication and decision-making look like?

• Who is the day-to-day search contact, and who can approve a candidate’s next step?
• How will the agency present candidates and communicate strengths, limits, references, and unanswered questions?
• What feedback does the agency need after an interview or trial, and how quickly?
• Does the agreement promise a specific candidate count, search length, or successful outcome—or does it describe an effort and process instead?
• What should the household do if an important requirement changes mid-search?

Why it matters: a focused search needs clear feedback and authority. A promise of volume is not the same as a disciplined assessment of fit.

A short document request list

Before signing, ask for the current agreement, fee schedule or formula, replacement terms, description of any trial, privacy/confidentiality terms, scope of vetting, and any addendum that applies to the specific role. Keep the version reviewed, including date and attachments.

Closing principle

The useful question is not “Does this agency have a guarantee?” It is “What is the agency committing to do, what is the household committing to do, and what happens when the real search differs from the first plan?” A clear answer protects the family, the candidate, and the relationship with the agency.