Managing household staff well comes down to four decisions: which roles you need, who has authority over whom, what is written down, and who looks after the team when you are not at home. In British Columbia there is a fifth: if someone lives in your residence and works for you, you are an employer with specific legal duties.
This guide walks through each decision in order. It covers how the common roles differ, how to onboard new staff, what BC law requires, and how to bring in temporary help without weakening privacy or standards.
TL;DR
- Match the role to the work: a cleaning service, a housekeeper, a house manager, a butler and a personal assistant solve different problems.
- Give every person one clear line of authority. Unclear authority is the most common source of friction in a private household.
- In BC, a live-in domestic worker needs a written contract and must be registered with the Employment Standards Branch within 30 days of hiring.
- Put privacy, photography and device rules in a written code of conduct before the first shift.
- If you travel often or own more than one home, a single accountable coordinator reduces the number of decisions that reach you.
Table of Contents
- Start with the work, not the job title
- Housekeeper or cleaning service?
- House manager, butler or personal assistant?
- Set one line of authority
- What BC law requires of you as an employer
- A practical onboarding sequence
- Privacy and the code of conduct
- Bringing in temporary household staff
- When the owner is away
- Our perspective
- How Veil can take the coordination off your desk
- FAQ
- Sources
Start with the work, not the job title
Most households do not need a large team. They need a small number of tasks done reliably, and someone accountable for noticing when they are not.
Before hiring or restructuring, list what actually happens in a normal month:
- Recurring tasks: cleaning, laundry, groceries, garden and exterior care.
- Periodic tasks: seasonal maintenance, HVAC servicing, window cleaning, vendor visits.
- Reactive tasks: a leak, an alarm call, a delivery that needs a signature, a guest arriving early.
- Coordination: who books the trades, who lets them in, who checks the work.
The fourth group is where households drift. Tasks one and two are easy to hire for. Task four is what turns individual hires into a managed household.
Housekeeper or cleaning service?
The difference is mostly scope and relationship. A cleaning service is a company that sends a team to follow a standard checklist at scheduled intervals, often weekly, every two weeks or monthly. A housekeeper is usually an individual hired directly, on a standing schedule, with a broader and more flexible brief: laundry, tidying, organizing, sometimes meal preparation. One US cleaning company's comparison describes the housekeeper role as broad rather than deep, which is a fair summary.
| Cleaning service | Housekeeper | |
|---|---|---|
| Employment | A company supplies the team | You hire the person directly |
| Scope | Defined checklist, deep cleaning | Broader, day-to-day upkeep |
| Frequency | Weekly, bi-weekly or monthly | Several days a week, or daily |
| Supervision | The company manages its staff | You or your house manager do |
| Employer duties | Sit with the company | Sit with you |
The last row matters most. Hiring directly gives you continuity and a person who learns the house. It also makes you responsible for contracts, hours, pay records and replacement cover when that person is ill or away. If the house is large or the schedule irregular, many owners use a direct hire for daily care and a service for periodic deep cleans.
For second homes, the schedule is a separate question: what needs doing while nobody is in residence is not the same as what needs doing when the family is there. Our housekeeping schedule for second homes sets out how that works.
House manager, butler or personal assistant?
These three roles are confused constantly, and the confusion costs households money when they hire for one and need another.
House manager. The house manager oversees the structure of the household: scheduling, vendor coordination, and usually hiring and supervising the rest of the team. Town & Country's interview with a butler-training association draws this distinction, describing the house manager as the person who oversees staff structure and typically handles hiring and firing. This is the operational link between you and everyone else.
Butler. A butler is about the service experience: receiving guests, serving, managing the table and the formal side of the house. A butler can work alongside a house manager, and in a smaller home one person may do both, though it is rare to find someone equally strong at each.
Personal assistant. A personal assistant works for you, not the house: your calendar, travel, correspondence, personal errands. They may touch household matters, but their focus is the principal, not the property.
| Role | Primary focus | Typically owns |
|---|---|---|
| House manager | The household as an operation | Staff scheduling, vendors, maintenance, budgets |
| Butler | Service and hospitality | Entertaining, guest care, the standard of service |
| Personal assistant | The principal | Calendar, travel, correspondence, personal errands |
A quick test: if the problem is "the house does not run without me," you need a house manager. If it is "I need my own time organized," you need a personal assistant. If it is "we entertain often and want it done properly," look at a butler. For a closer look at the first role, see our guide to house manager duties and when to hire one.
Set one line of authority
The most common cause of confusion among household staff is not poor performance. It is not knowing who decides. Staff need to know exactly who assigns tasks, who approves changes, and who handles an urgent disagreement.
A workable structure has three rules:
- One manager per person. Every staff member reports to one named individual, whether that is you, a house manager or a coordinator.
- Family requests go through the manager. If a family member asks the housekeeper for something outside the usual routine, it is passed to the manager rather than being quietly absorbed. This stops duties growing without anyone deciding they should.
- Emergencies have a written path. Who is called first, who has authority to approve an urgent repair, and what the spending limit is without sign-off.
The point is that you stay informed without being involved in every operational decision. A good house manager gives you a short summary, not a stream of questions.
If you own more than one property, the question of who is accountable for each one gets sharper. Our comparison of an estate manager and a property manager looks at where responsibilities, and insurance exposure, can fall between the two.
What BC law requires of you as an employer
When you hire someone to work in your home, you are an employer. In British Columbia, the Province's guidance on hiring domestic workers covers people who provide services such as child care, cooking and cleaning in a private residence. Check the page directly for current detail, because rules and amounts can change. These are the main points as published there:
- Registration. Employers must register a domestic worker with the Employment Standards Branch within 30 days of hiring.
- Written contract. Section 14 of the Employment Standards Act requires you to give the domestic a copy of the employment contract. It must be in writing and state duties, hours of work, wages, and any charges for room and board.
- Room and board. The Province's page sets a cap on what an employer may charge. Read the current figure there before putting any amount in a contract.
- Hours. Hours worked outside the terms of the contract still have to be paid, so keep an accurate record of actual hours rather than scheduled ones.
Failing to follow BC employment standards can bring penalties. The Province's page gives the current maximum fine, so check it rather than relying on a figure quoted second-hand.
Two practical notes. First, these rules are written around people employed in a private residence, and the definition has particular conditions, including whether the worker lives in. If you are unsure whether your arrangement is covered, ask the Employment Standards Branch or an employment lawyer in BC before the person starts. Second, general employment standards, such as minimum wage, vacation and statutory holidays, also apply to employees you hire. The Province's hiring employees page is the place to confirm them.
Hiring through a company changes this picture. When a service or agency employs the person, the company carries the employer duties. That is one reason owners who want flexibility choose managed arrangements over direct hires.
A practical onboarding sequence
Good onboarding is mostly about removing guesswork in the first two weeks. This sequence works for a housekeeper, a driver, a nanny or a house manager.
- Verify before access. Complete reference and background checks before giving keys, alarm codes or vehicle access. Our guide to household staff background checks explains how to match the depth of vetting to the level of access.
- Sign the paperwork. Contract, duties, hours, pay schedule, and, where it applies, the BC registration within 30 days.
- Issue the code of conduct. Walk through it in person and have it signed. See the next section.
- Hand over a house guide. Alarm and lock procedures, supplier contacts, cleaning products to use and avoid, delicate surfaces and artwork, pet and allergy notes, the emergency order of calls.
- Do a supervised first week. The manager, or you, shadows the new person through the full routine, correcting as you go instead of afterwards.
- Hold a thirty-day review. What is working, what is unclear, and whether the duties still match the contract.
Access should be staged. A new housekeeper does not need the safe room, the vehicle keys or the full alarm history on day one. Give access as trust and need develop, and record who holds what.
Privacy and the code of conduct
A code of conduct is not required by law, but experienced household professionals recommend one. Charles Macpherson's guidance compares it to an employee handbook for the home. It should cover honesty, respect, and above all privacy and non-disclosure, including a clear rule against taking photos or videos inside the residence.
A useful code covers:
- Confidentiality. What is seen and heard in the home stays there, including after employment ends.
- Photography and social media. No images of the home, the family or its contents, and no posts that could identify the property.
- Devices and networks. Which Wi-Fi, which cameras, and what personal devices may be used on site.
- Visitors. Nobody enters the home without prior approval.
- Keys and codes. Never shared, never copied, reported immediately if lost.
Written rules also protect staff. When expectations are documented, a disagreement is a conversation about a page, not about someone's character.
For owners with several properties, the same discipline applies to records. Keeping vendor contacts, warranties and maintenance schedules in one place is easier with dedicated second home management tools, and fewer people need to hold copies of sensitive information.
Bringing in temporary household staff
Temporary help is common: a chef for a dinner party, extra housekeeping before guests arrive, a driver for a visiting family, cover during a regular employee's leave, or seasonal help at a Whistler chalet.
The risk is that temporary people receive access without the vetting and briefing a permanent hire would get. Three habits prevent that:
- Use one intake route. All temporary requests go through the manager or coordinator, not through individual family members.
- Brief in writing. A one-page version of the house guide and the confidentiality rules, acknowledged before arrival.
- Limit access and record it. Time-limited codes, escorted entry where appropriate, and a note of who was in the home and when. Our guide to smart lock guest access covers how time-limited entry works in practice.
When the work is a one-off, such as an event or a pre-arrival preparation, hiring through an operator who already carries the employment relationship is usually simpler than creating a short-term employment arrangement yourself. Our piece on guest house preparation shows how owners structure that kind of turnover.
When the owner is away
Staff management is hardest when you are not there to see it. Absentee owners, second-home owners and executives who travel weekly all share a pattern: the household keeps running, but nobody is looking at the whole of it.
What helps is documentation. Scheduled visits with a log, photographs of condition, a record of which vendor attended and when, and a short report that reaches you without your asking. Without that, you find out about a problem when it has already become expensive. Our absentee homeowner services guide for Vancouver outlines what that oversight looks like locally.
Our perspective
We see the same pattern in households that struggle. They rarely have too few people. They have too many people reporting to the owner, and nobody holding the full picture.
Our view is that household staff management is a coordination job first and a hiring job second. A good housekeeper, driver or chef is only as effective as the structure around them: a clear brief, a named point of contact, documented visits and a way to escalate. When that structure is missing, the owner becomes the manager by default, and that is rarely what a busy professional or an absentee homeowner wants.
We work as a single trusted point of contact for owners across Vancouver, the Lower Mainland and Whistler, coordinating through a vetted network of local operators. We would rather help an owner build the right-sized arrangement, whether that is a direct hire, a managed service or a mix, than sell more than the household needs. Discretion is part of the work, not an extra: access is limited to what each person needs, and what we see in a home stays in it.
— Veil
How Veil can take the coordination off your desk
If you would rather not supervise cleaners, trades, drivers and chefs yourself, Veil coordinates them through one contact. Our concierge and home management services cover property oversight, housekeeping, trades coordination, vehicle checks, mail and package management, private chefs and more. You can see the range on our concierge services page, or compare ongoing arrangements on our membership packages. Pricing is not published for the packages, so contact us for details.
FAQ
What is the difference between a house manager and a butler?
A house manager runs the household as an operation: scheduling staff, coordinating vendors and usually hiring and supervising the team. A butler focuses on the service experience, such as hospitality, guests and the formal side of the home. In a smaller household one person may combine parts of both roles.
Is a house manager the same as a personal assistant?
No. A personal assistant works for you personally, handling your calendar, travel and correspondence. A house manager works for the home, handling staff, maintenance and vendors. Some households hire one person to bridge both, but the workload usually grows until the two need to be separated.
Do I have to register household staff in BC?
If you employ a domestic worker, meaning someone who provides services such as cooking, cleaning or child care in your private residence, BC requires you to register them with the Employment Standards Branch within 30 days of hiring. You must also provide a written contract. Confirm whether your arrangement qualifies on the Province's page or with an employment lawyer.
Should I hire a housekeeper or use a cleaning service?
Choose a housekeeper if you want a consistent person with a broad brief and a regular schedule, and you are prepared to act as the employer. Choose a cleaning service for scheduled, defined cleaning where the company handles staffing and cover. Many owners combine the two.
How do I onboard new household staff?
Verify references and background first, then sign the contract and a code of conduct before giving access. Provide a written house guide, supervise the first week, and review at thirty days. Stage access so new staff receive keys, codes and vehicle access only as they need them.
Sources
- Hiring domestic workers, Province of British Columbia
- Employment Standards Act, BC Laws
- Hiring employees, Province of British Columbia
- How to Craft a Household Staff Code of Conduct
- What's the Difference Between a Butler and a House Manager, Anyway?, Town & Country
- Housekeeper vs Cleaning Service: Which Is Right for You?