The Starkey International Institute has a rich lineage in the private service industry. In fact Starkey invented, coined, and began utilizing the majority of terminology that has spread all across the entire private service world.
This is why we sometime struggle with the title Placement Department at Starkey International. This department’s title has connotations to an employment agency, simply matching employers to employees. Maybe we should change the department within Starkey to the Mosaic Department. A mosaic is a breath-taking piece of art or decoration in composition, yet being made up of diverse elements. Starkey Certified Household Manager Alumni are the amazing colored pieces glass inlaid to become part of an astonishing whole.
Last week was very exciting for us in the Placement Department. We began on a path of discovery that examined our dedication to Starkey’s applicants, as they become graduates.
Our question was how to better support future students through the admissions process and into the placement phase. This led to a new “Education First” process. Launching this program has galvanized admissions and placement departments. This means that an applicant, thinking about enrolling at Starkey International, will have access to the placement department to ask any questions, outline the process, and begin a relationship with placement from their very first steps.
We are excited about this new project. Both the Admissions Department and the Placement Department are looking forward to hearing feedback from applicants, students, and Certified Household Manager graduates.
Starkey International has always led the way in leading edge Service Management Education and Placement. Starkey seeks those who desire the highest of standards in Service Delivery. Every school seeks a particular Style of Client for placement of their Graduates. Starkey has nourished their clientele, who are considered to be the overall high net worth community, for over 30 years. These employers typically have assets of $200 million or more. Their unique expectations continue to exceed those abilities of candidates who have not been educated in Private Service. Starkey’s clientele want the best of the best and are willing to pay well for high quality candidates. To learn more about the High Net Worth, read Richistan by Robert Frank, Senior Writer for The Wall Street Journal.
Starkey began placing within the Private Service Profession in 1981. Most placement agencies then, and still today, collect the resumes of potential candidates and randomly forward them to employer clientele seeking to hire. Today everything has changed. It was not until Starkey began to educate Household and Estate Managers in 1990 that we learned who a candidate has worked for is just a portion of the overall placement process. The accountability of what a candidate really knows technically and their service style must be identified and communicated. Further, most employers are new to service hiring and rarely understand what they are asking a potential staff member to accomplish. Employers are frustrated, as our industry has not settled upon consistent titles, terms or position descriptions; nor does it have generally accepted practices. Private Service continues to be new and somewhat unknown as a real profession. As a result, Starkey focuses on placing our Graduates, whom we know, by understanding exactly what management and technical skills they bring to the employment table. We also know their Service Management Style, which is essential knowledge in Private Service Placement.
Mrs. Starkey has created innovative techniques for qualifying and specifically placing her Graduates to support our high-net worth clientele. She states, “Our Graduates are our life blood and our ability to place them in the right position – the first time – has become an art form.” She and the placement team provide a variety of consulting services to our Employer Clients including our Site Visit Services, customizing the Employer’s Service Management Plan, and then matching the perfect Graduate to manage their household or service management team. Starkey also provides on-going services which include helping our clients to identify their service standards, zoning and customizing task sheets, helping outline and negotiate appropriate employment offers and salaries, and offering assessments in risk management and other management support as needed.
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Placement techniques in our Private Service profession have changed dramatically in the last few years.
