Private Service Recruitment: A Product or Service-based Business

Recruiters: Are we Delivering a Product, a Service, or a bit of both?

I have written before about recruiting private service staff and how the business model doesn't fit neatly into any single box. Are Domestic Staff Recruiters delivering a product or a service? For me the clue is to be found in the profession's semantics, specifically in the word "service."

Some might argue that recruiting is a product / service hybrid field with the recruiter providing a service leading to delivery of a product. I get the argument, but I have always found the idea of an applicant as a "product" to be dehumanizing. I also believe it lays an unhealthy foundation for some of the worst business practises to be found in the recruiting world. Basically, I've never thought of my candidates as "products" which provides professional guardrails so they are respected as human beings with hopes, dreams, and feelings.

Recruiting in the world of the UHNW and looking for Private Service Professionals is highly rarefied, idiosyncratic, and unlike other recruiting fields. I think this simple fact reinforces the argument that Private Service Recruiting falls into the service business model. Allow me to share my thoughts.

The Core Focus: Human expertise, relationship building, an extremely high degree of trust, and tailored solutions built to accommodate client "quirks."

Key Industry Characteristics:

• Labour-Intensive Process: Private Service Recruiters invest time in understanding clients’ needs, sourcing candidates, conducting interviews, and negotiating offers. Success hinges on soft skills like C-level communication ability, intuition, and Private Service knowledge.

• Customization: Each client (e.g., a young family new to wealth vs. a mature and established household) requires unique recruitment strategies.

• Relationship Dependency: Trust and reputation are critical. Clients tend to stick with recruiters they trust, who consistently deliver expert service resulting in high quality talent. At Portico Inc., we strive to cultivate relationships with our clients and candidates through genuine and organically-driven communication leading to all-important trust.

• Why It’s Service-First: The value lies in human judgement. A recruiter’s ability to assess “cultural fit” or negotiate terms can’t be fully automated or standardized. I believe that Private Service Recruiting will, for now, be AI resistant in many areas and much has to do with the successful recruiter's emotional intelligence and ability to authentically connect with clients and candidates. While other recruiters drive for speed and efficiency with AI as a critical tool, UHNW families may want speed and efficiency also, but expect a recruiter to "get them" and understand their "ouch factor."

• But is it Service only? All service-oriented businesses rely on product-based elements to improve service delivery. I am not dismissing the role of AI. Its role is real and becoming more entrenched by the day. There are other product-based factors in recruiting, but they can be understood as supporting the service of Domestic Staff recruiting.

Here are a few:

• Technology Platforms:

  • Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS)

  • AI Matching Tools

  • SEO Job Boards

  • Talent-identifying recruiting software.

• Temporary Staffing as a "Productized Service":

  • Some staffing agencies provide temp / contract workers on demand, akin to “renting” talent, as well as offering bulk staffing solutions. The model has the look and feel of product delivery. While some of these firms do work in the UHNW market, there are not many of them, which is understandable to those familiar with the signature traits of UHNW clients.

4. Why the Distinction Matters

Comprehending that, as a Private Service Staff Recruiters working for the UHNW, we are delivering an elite service as opposed to a luxury product helps us to:

• Understand the nuances of our niche offering.

• Craft effective, micro-targeted elevator pitches that message 360-service delivery.

• Position the recruiter to understand the need to invest time in understanding clients’ needs, careful and creative sourcing of candidates, understanding candidates' objectives, conducting deep dive interviews that identify both hard and soft skills, determining the character traits of the candidate and evaluating if they are aligned with the household culture of the client, and negotiating offers that are tailored to UHNWs and the people who work for them.

• Reinforces the need for communication skills that are at an elite C-level.

• A robust knowledge base about private service roles, jurisdictional labor laws (without requiring recruiters to act as employment lawyers), and an informed willingness to share candid insights with clients—even when the feedback is unwelcome—are all key differentiators.

• The distinction assists in defining a workflow rooted in best practices, due diligence, respect, full-spectrum communication, relationship building, and everything else that goes into cultivating trust.

Conclusion

Recruiting is inherently service-based because its core value—connecting the right talent to the right opportunity—relies on human insight, negotiation, and customization. However, modern recruiting increasingly incorporates product-based elements (e.g., software platforms AI, etc.) to automate tasks, scale operations, and diversify revenue.

I can’t speak for everyone, but I like that Portico Inc. operates as a service-based business. Having spent most of my career in the luxury service sector, it’s logical to me that a company focused on the private service industry would adopt a service-oriented framework.

Scott Munden is President of Portico Inc., specializing in household staffing for ultra-high-net-worth families.

© 2025, Portico Inc.