Professional butlers have long been members of the household staff. Still, the role of a modern butler has changed in recent years and this article serves to answer the question; what do modern butlers do? The traditional butler makes people think of Downton Abbey. However, the modern-day butler looks a lot more like a house manager.
Hotel butlers may be more common nowadays, but estate butler services have never stopped; they are just becoming less known to everyday people. While they are more common in the United Kingdom, professional butlers are everywhere. Keep reading to find out exactly what a personal butler does.
The Role of a Modern Butler
Estate butlers have a vague job description, but we can specify the details within the estate manual. They wear many hats, but their primary function is to make their boss’ life more manageable. Like a household manager, the head butler is typically in charge of the household staff and the personal matters of the clients.
One of the most valued duties of a professional butler is managing the wine cellar. Butlers complete various tasks, including greeting all guests and answering all phone calls.
Butlers function in multiple leadership roles from personal assistants, and household managers, to executive housekeepers. Their duties are to the whole family and not a single person. They oversee the rest of the household staff and typically train new employees. Butlers are often close to the family they serve and live in-house.
Modern Butler Responsibilities
While butlers do not act in the same manner as they did in the last century, they still function professionally and similarly. Butlers are the head of the house staff, ensuring the house is running smoothly, whether it is finances, food, hosting, chauffeuring, or chores like laundry and cleaning.
They oversee a variety of people. Butlers are often in charge of guaranteeing the house works so well that the family does not have to get involved.
Oversee Maintenance and Cleaning
While butlers only take part in light housekeeping, they manage the upkeep of the home. If a household task needs to be accomplished, butlers take care of it. Sometimes butlers oversee the housekeeping and grounds staff, while they address responsibilities themselves at other times.
Butlers maintain the cleanliness and upkeep of the house. When the estate is not pristine, families may hold the butler accountable. Butlers will call or set up any repair needed to the estate or any of the grounds.
Greet Guests
Butlers are the first faces guests encounter. Butlers are the greeters who open the door, which is part of the job description. They also work as filters, choosing who can and cannot enter the home. No one should come through the door without first encountering the butler.
Answering the House Phone and Calling Out
Butlers answer any call to the household telephone, even when the family is not home. They write messages and make necessary calls when the family asks them to. When the family wants reservations for dinner, the butler will call out to make said reservation.
Processing staff payroll budget planning for the household
Butlers control most of the finances. They take care of paying all the staff and ensuring that everyone gets a fair wage, though all major decisions must go through the boss first. Butlers will make up budgets and provide spending reports to the boss, similar to how a steward oversees an account.
Butlers run any important financial decisions by the boss before making them. However, day-to-day finances fall under the supervision of the butler, so the client does not have to worry about it.
Attending to the needs of the house
The house can have a variety of needs. The work of an excellent butler can meet most, if not all, of them. Beyond housekeeping and ensuring the grounds are up to par, butlers meet the needs of the family they serve.
Some odds and ends do not fall under any umbrella, yet butlers still care for them. Butlers can tutor or teach foreign languages to the children of the house. The butler can provide almost any domestic responsibility the family needs.
Planning events, making travel arrangements and reservations
It does not matter where or when a butler will take care of any necessary travel arrangements. They reserve hotels and book flights. Of course, they will require a little heads-up but typically can get reservations or tickets on the same day.
Butlers help remove the whole headache of planning vacations or business trips. They will pack, and if they come along, unpack. Butlers often act as personal valets, an almost interchangeable term.
Management Of Security
As an agency that works with UHNW families, security is always a concern. Whether it is taking care of employing the security or being the security themselves, butlers are there to protect the clients.
Our estate staffing agency expects butlers to stay up to date on current cyber security measures and systems, which ensure the safety of their employers. Most butlers also have some training in protective measures.
Paying Household Bills and Expenses, Grocery Shopping, and Running Errands
While butlers oversee the large-scale fiscal resorts and planning, they also take care of less expensive spending endeavors. Butlers often will either go out and buy the groceries themself or supervise the staff that does.
Like groceries, butlers run errands for their bosses, whether as simple as picking up dry cleaning or something more challenging, such as paying bills or going to the bank. Butlers take care of the bills and everyday expenses.
The Characteristics of a Modern Butler
The modern butler is much more than an employee. Often synonymous with the chief of staff, house manager, or other similar titles, a butler is the glue keeping a busy family together. They allow the family to get things done without worrying about stuff back home.
While butlers manage the other household staff, they also serve as managers over the rest of the employees. Butlers today are not entirely different from what they were in the past. The only thing that changed about them is they have modernized to be the most effective.
Professional butlers do not have to be male. A female butler is just as competent and experienced as a male if she has gone to the proper international butler academy or a similar institution.
Modern Butler Qualifications
Butlers need to have a wide range of skills and even connections. Communication skills are essential to succeed in life as a butler. They need to be organized and good at planning, problem-solving, and managing others and events.
The modern butler provides modern solutions to all the issues someone could have. Butlers must understand all the etiquette and topics their children or boss could need them to teach.
Butlers typically need to have a few years of experience under their belts. They have to be trustworthy and respectable. Their resumes must be top-of-the-line and professional.
Butler Placement Services
As the uptick in clients who need domestic butler services grows, services arise accordingly. There are many domestic positions beyond that of a butler, but it is a classic position that demands respect. Contact us today if you are interested in butler services or are considering hiring staff to help manage household duties.
As a full-service domestic staffing agency, place more than butlers, such as personal chefs, personal assistants, housekeepers, and even house managers. Not all positions are live-in, but many require a full-service commitment.