How do you hire a nanny in Portugal?

Define the hours and responsibilities first, then recruit through trusted referral or a specialist agency, interview with the children present, take up references by phone rather than in writing, and put a proper written employment contract in place with registration for social security. A paid trial period of one to two weeks is normal and sensible.

Do household staff in Portugal need an employment contract?

Yes. Domestic employment in Portugal is regulated: staff should have a written contract, be registered with social security, and receive statutory holiday and holiday and Christmas allowances. Employing staff informally exposes the family to liability and offers the employee no protection, which also makes good people harder to retain.

Which household roles should an international family hire first?

Usually housekeeping and childcare, because they absorb the most daily load. Cooking, dog walking, driving, gardening and pool maintenance are often better handled as scheduled services rather than full-time hires until the household's real rhythm is clear.

Hiring household staff in Portugal: nannies, housekeepers, cooks, dog care and drivers

Most families staff their household in the wrong order: they hire people, then try to work out what those people should do. Designing the household first produces a smaller team, better paid, that actually works.

Portugal has a deep, capable pool of household professionals — housekeepers, nannies, private cooks, drivers, gardeners, pool technicians, dog walkers and sitters — and on the Lisbon coast many of them have worked in international households for years. Finding people is not the difficulty. Defining the roles, employing them properly, and holding the whole thing together is.

Design before you hire

Start with the week, not the job titles. Write down what actually has to happen: which mornings are rushed, who does the school run, when meals need to be on the table, when the dog needs walking, when guests arrive, when laundry and ironing pile up, who lets the plumber in. The staffing plan falls out of that document, and it is almost always leaner than the one families draft from instinct.

A household with three well-defined roles runs better than one with six overlapping ones.

The roles, and what they usually cover

Housekeeper: cleaning to a defined standard, laundry and ironing, linen, restocking, letting in and supervising trades. Full-time in larger houses, two to four days a week in most.
Nanny or childcare: school runs, after-school hours, activities, homework, holidays and travel. Hours should mirror the school timetable, not a generic 9-to-5.
Private cook or chef: weekly menus, shopping, family meals, dietary requirements, dinners for guests. Often part-time or a few days a week — a full-time chef is rarer than people assume.
Dog walking and sitting: daily walks, vet appointments, care while you travel. Reliability and the same familiar face matter more than anything else here.
Driver: school runs, airport transfers, Lisbon meetings, vehicle upkeep. Frequently the role that quietly returns the most hours to a parent's week.
Estate and grounds: gardening, pool, maintenance rounds, seasonal works — usually contracted services on a schedule rather than employees.

Employ properly — it is also the cheapest option

Domestic employment in Portugal is regulated, and the details matter. Staff should have a written contract setting out hours, duties, pay and holiday; they should be registered for social security with contributions paid; and statutory entitlements including holiday and Christmas allowances apply. Where a role involves driving the family's cars, insurance must reflect that. Where staff live in, accommodation terms belong in writing.

Families sometimes treat informal arrangements as simpler. They are not. They create liability, leave the employee unprotected, and make excellent people leave for households that do it properly. Correct employment is a retention strategy as much as a compliance one.

Vetting: what actually predicts a good hire

Referrals from households you know, or from an agency that stakes its own reputation on the placement.
Reference calls, not reference letters. Ask what the person found difficult, and whether the family would rehire.
Identity, right-to-work and qualification checks — first aid and driving licences verified, not assumed.
A paid trial of one to two weeks in your actual home, on your actual schedule.
Language fit that matches the role: a nanny for young children needs the language the children speak.
For childcare and drivers, background checks appropriate to the responsibility.

The part that fails: management

Hiring is the easy half. What breaks households is the absence of management: no clear standards, no schedule anyone owns, no one handling holiday cover, sick days, payroll, performance conversations or the friction between two staff members who disagree about the kitchen. That work lands on whichever family member is most present, which is precisely the load a staffed household was meant to remove.

A functioning household has a written standard for each role, a shared calendar, a single point of contact for the family, and someone other than the principal handling payroll, cover and performance.

How we do it

We design the household around your week, recruit and vet through people we know on this coast, put proper contracts and payroll in place with the right advisers, write the standards, and then manage the team on an ongoing basis — schedules, cover, reviews, and the quiet resolution of things you should never have to hear about. You keep the relationships with the people in your home. We keep the administration, the vendors and the accountability.