No matter where you live, offering comprehensive benefits to your team of household staff is important. But when employing staff in a city environment, there are some things to keep in mind when crafting your benefits package.
Why? Because urban roles come with different challenges and your benefit offerings should reflect that reality. With the right combination of wages and benefits tailored toward city living, you’ll attract and retain the most experienced professional candidates.
Keep reading for tips on what type of benefits to consider offering.
What to Offer Your Employee
Transportation Benefits
Whether it’s parking reimbursement, paying for the bus or subway, ride share reimbursement, or sending your private driver to pick your employee up, commuter benefits are huge for staff who live and work in the city. Another option is to provide flexible scheduling so they can avoid rush hour or long commutes.
Meal Provisions
Consider providing meal provisions during your employee’s shifts. That might mean reimbursing them for meals they order for delivery or take out, or having a private chef in your home include them in their weekly meal planning and meal service.
Access to Amenities
Does your home, family office, or city apartment/condo building have amenities that you can include your staff in? Whether it’s a gym, pool, concierge perks, or other building or home specific amenities, consider how providing access to these can benefit your team.
Professional Development
Continuing education stipends such as CPR renewal, certifications, or other role-related courses are a huge benefit for domestic staffing professionals. Many individuals in these roles attend conferences or other training related to their careers, so providing benefits that cover travel costs or conference registration fees can be a great way to show them you care about their professional growth.
Live-In Specific Options
Live-in roles are very common in the domestic staffing industry. Household employers often provide private, comfortable living quarters for their staff, with paid utilities and wi-fi included. If you choose to do this, it’s important to establish policies around this, which means guest policies and other privacy parameters that are unique to your home or family situation.
Housing Stipend
If you don’t want to offer a live-in situation, consider offering a housing stipend or providing off-site housing. This is especially valuable in high-cost cities and can be a great way to retain the highest quality employees.
Wellness Benefits
In addition to health insurance that includes medical, dental, and vision coverage, many household employers choose to go above and beyond with their health and wellness packages. This might mean covering mental health services such as paid therapy or providing therapy stipends.
Others choose to provide gym memberships in their benefits packages or include additional paid sick days that go well above the minimum.
Time Off
All employees – whether they live in the city or not – require time off to rest and relax. Most household employers provide two to four weeks of paid vacation, provide paid holidays that include major federal holidays, and personal days to use at the employee’s discretion. Paid family leave – above what is legally required – is also important to understand and consider.
Additional Thoughts
Holiday gifts, year-end bonuses, birthdays, and work anniversaries are great opportunities to provide monetary bonuses. This type of recognition goes a long way in showing appreciation.
The right combination of thoughtful and competitive benefits can make a huge difference when hiring and retaining exceptional household staff in a city environment.
Beyond generous compensation, benefits that support health, work-life balance, professional growth, and daily living expenses, building a culture of respect for employees will also foster long-term loyalty. The result is a team of outstanding, long-term employees.
