Home Staffing Network

Home Staffing Network - Welcome
Mutual Satisfaction Is Our Goal
A home is “where the heart is”, an expression of our personality and creativity, the place that ideally brings us peace and pleasure. Home can also be the aspect of your life which takes up too much personal time and energy. Finding people to assist you can be a challenge. The Home Staffing Network is at your service!

Our organization is an interconnected network of professionals involved in all types of personal service to families, individuals and boutique resorts. We maintain ongoing relationships throughout the USA with both those actively seeking employment and with working professionals. If you are involved in private service, we would like to know you and send you our free monthly electronic newsletter. If you are an employer of staff, here is a small sample of the talent that we represent.

Werner Leutert, Senior Consultant, was most recently the USA staffing representative for the International Guild of Professional Butlers.

From complex private estates to staffing situations of a lesser scale, we are ready to discuss your domestic needs and our services.

• Estate Managers
• Household Managers
• Butlers
• Housekeepers
• Housemen
• Caretakers
• Chefs
• Chauffeurs
• Personal Assistants
• Personal Trainers
• Companions
• Nannies
• Property Managers
• Persons with Special Talents

Home Staffing Network - Who We Are
Home Staffing Network is an umbrella organization for private service professionals who wish to network on a variety of projects. Our consulting assignments include working with clients to find top staff for their homes, estates and related holdings such as aircraft, yachts and equestrian centers. Our training projects include facilitating private residence education. We can bring together high quality service trainers with companies seeking to bring the personal service to their markets.

Werner Leutert
Werner Leutert is the senior consultant for Home Staffing network. He has had "hands on" responsibility in the management of private family homes, facilities, and staffing for more than 25 years.

With a degree in Restaurant and Hotel Administration from the University of Massachusetts, Werner and his wife, Christine, began their careers in service as Managers of the New York Irondequoit Club, developing an historic inn property for five years.

Seeking a more professional challenge, Werner moved on to become the Inside Manager and later General Manager of a private estate in Bradford, Pennsylvania named Glendorn from 1977 to 1995. Here Werner learned the intricacies of pleasing many people including various owner families while working closely with hundreds of employees over the years.

Glendorn Estate was associated with the oil industry, and events in the 90s caused the facility to be under-utilized. Werner assisted in the transition of the property to an exclusive public hide-away resort that can now be viewed here.

For the following three years, Werner was the Butler & House Administrator for a prominent and formal Naples, Florida family in a fully staffed residence.

In 1998, Werner joined the newly formed International Guild of Professional Butlers and became a founding member. After leaving his Naples position, he became the North American representative and staffing consultant of the Guild, utilizing his years of private service staffing experience to provide expert advice to clients and professionals in private service seeking new opportunities.

Mr. Leutert's standards of professionalism have always included honesty and integrity. He blends these character traits with skills in domestic arts and hard work to strike a balance that in the past has achieved respect from his own employers and co-workers. Now his expertise can provide valuable insights and assistance to employers and skilled individuals seeking to connect with each other via the Home Staffing Network.

Steven Ferry
Steven Ferry has worked both in the hospitality industry and in private service in England during the 1980s before training as a butler in England and then working as one in the United States. He established the International Guild of Traditional Butlers and wrote the basic manual on how to butle in the early 1990s. By the mid-1990s, had left private service to write a variety of books.

Drawing on his early years as an educator in England, he published three textbooks for the profession (The British Butlers Bible, Butlers and Household Managers, 21st Century Professionals, and Hotel Butlers, the Great Service Differentiators) and began to train butlers using these texts. He also consulted employers about their domestic needs and occasionally assisted with personnel procurement. He subsequently broadened his campaign to improve on service standards using the butler model by providing training and consulting services to the hospitality industry.

He currently trains butlers and other household and hospitality employees on the butler model of service in private households and estates, hotels, resorts, spas and private villas. He still occasionally assists with personnel procurement when time allows, and still offers consulting services. He also teaches at The International Butler Academy, of which he is an Executive member, and is on the Editorial Board of the Hotel Executive magazine. His latest contribution to the raising of service standards is spearheading the cross training of butlers and spa personnel so as to provide the ultimate spa experience for guests at hotels and resorts with spas.

Paul Hogan
Paul Hogan is a retired Australian diplomat, a butler/ estate manager with considerable USA and international experience. As a result of his experiences Paul has many interesting stories to weave into his teaching specialty of great hospitality service; the combination of attitude, skills and energy.

Paul has a wonderful way with people and is an excellent public speaker, educator and toastmaster. He possesses a sparkling personality that gets people’s attention. Paul is a true service professional. He moved to the USA in 1992, and recently gained some notoriety as “the butler” on the hit television reality show “Joe Millionaire.”

Contact Home Staffing Network for further information about Paul Hogan’s available training programs.

Home Staffing Network - How We Work
Philosophy
The philosophy at Home Staffing Network is to provide courteous and prompt attention to our clients and candidates. Both parties are highly valued.
The best business is a result of referrals from employers who have found great staff with our assistance, benefited from unbiased advice or are pleased with our training seminars.

Excellent candidates often find us by referrals from other domestic professionals who have had a good experience with us.

Our business standard is to conduct ourselves with honesty and integrity at all times. 

Our Method-Staffing
A careful understanding of the employer’s needs is the first step in finding a suitable candidate. While a personal interview is best, most employers opt for a telephone discussion of their situation and expectations. This generates a job description and candidate profile from us for the employer’s approval. This document can then be used to explain the position to pre-qualified candidates in our data base.

Our candidates are likewise interviewed to better understand their background and their expectations in a new position. I often assist candidates in preparing a professional presentation that honestly conveys who they are. We encourage resumes and supporting documents to be emailed to us. All candidates are advised that a professional background check will be part of the pre-hire process. In the interim, all candidates respond to our due diligence questionnaire asking them to reveal any issues; legal, driving and credit. We often check references at this point.

Candidates are advised of job opportunities through our job board or directly. Not all jobs are posted because prescreened candidates may already be in our data base. If the appropriate candidate is interested and available for consideration, his or her profile is sent on to the client who ultimately decides who will be interviewed. Finalists have their background investigated by Castle Branch and results are generally available in 3 days. Meanwhile we confer with both parties and prepare a job agreement which puts the terms of employment into written form. Even after the hire or training, we are available to both client and candidate for analysis and advice on how to handle situations and solidify the relationship.

Our Method-Training
Teaching and / or reinforcing the proper mindset and attitude of the professional service persona is the first half of our training approach. It is a truism that in order to do something effectively and with conviction, one has to be fully able to be in the role that one is playing. This aspect of our training and has proven the most valuable and popular with clients, students and, ultimately, employers and guests.

The second half of the training consists of reviewing, refining and practicing the skills and standard operating procedures (SOP’s) that are required of the job and location with the instructor providing on-the-spot quality control.

Private Home Curriculum
Each residence and owner is unique and so our training in the private home is organized and presented after close consultation and planning with the employer. Typically our training focus is on the art of fine professional service in the areas of:

1. Protocols and best procedures involved in the specific staff position involved.
2. Focus on areas of employer / staff interest that have been identified prior to training such as table setting and table service, housekeeping standards and procedures, laundry and ironing, staff organization, household service systems and other requested subjects.
3. Flexible real time and on site consultation with employers and staff to follow-up on various areas of interest that would benefit for the trainers expertise and the opportunity that a training session provides to resolve issues and enhance the homes service delivery systems.

Hotel, Resort, Spa and Private Villa Butler Curriculum
Here is the general scope of instruction, which upon discussion with the client is refined in advance, into a focused program for the individual property.

1.  What is a butler: heritage, rationale, different types of butler, behavior, philosophy, ethics.
2.  Communication skills for the butler
3.  How to care for guests
4.  How to deal with difficult guests and situations smoothly
5.  How to deal with demanding or overbearing guests
6.  Telephone and door protocol
7.  Dealing with arriving and departing guests
8.  Establishing the administration and communication channels to service guests efficiently
9.  Pre-arrival interviewing of guests for their needs and wants.
10. Building the butler’s book
11. Stocking the Butler’s pantry
12. Butlers day in life/schedule/flow chart
13. Adapting existing SOPs or making new SOPs for all butler’s duties
14. Being an ideal employee
15. Building the butler team, responsibility and ethics.
16. The morning wake up service
17. How to serve at table, including butler service and synchronized service.
18. How to provide a full and formal English tea.
19. How to orchestrate other events, such as picnics, BBQs, etc.
20. How to valet for guests, including packing/unpacking of suitcases; storage and lay-out of clothing; basic cleaning, mending and ironing.
21. Care and service of fine wines and cigars
22. Security, safety and hygiene
23. Tools of the trade
24. Working with housekeeping
25. Amenities, turndown service
26. Dealing with whatever issues the trainees bring up about the difficulties or disagreements they have with their current work
27. Trainee familiarization with the specials features and services of their hotel so they can promote them
28. Building rapport with their guests, contacting them to return.
29. Listing out all contact points in the hotel and any vendors, and introducing the butlers to them to establish lines, procedures, needs and wants for all concerned

Fees
The professional fee for our services will depend on the assignment. Our fees are fair and competitive with other professionals and agencies. Our proposal / service agreement will propose our fees and outline our guarantee.

To learn more about the Home Staffing Network click here