On the road to a successful relationship with a Domestic Helper, you will run into three milestones to which you need to dedicate a huge amount of time! This has been found to be the most efficient way to save time in the future!

Take enough time to estimate your needs and write a schedule of tasks

List all tasks you wish a helper to carry out.

Whenever possible, estimate the amount of time required for each task by doing it yourself at least once (you may notice that the local heat slows down the speed of work, even for people acclimated to tropical weather); managing all household tasks on your own for some time may be complicated, but it is the only way to objectively appreciate the load of work you can fairly require a Domestic Helper to take on.

Then write a list of tasks you will hand over to her. This schedule is the job description commonly used in any company and is very useful for avoiding misunderstanding later and also for regularly assessing quality of work.

Remember that you are the boss of the ‘Family Company Pte Ltd’, and to meet your expectations, your helper must become a highly qualified professional!

Take your time before hiring

Your household is at stake if you fail in the hiring process. You are looking for someone who is going to live 24/7 under your roof, sharing every single minute of your daily life! Your Domestic Helper holds a key position in your family; therefore, you must manage your recruitment and hiring process the same way a CEO would: take sufficient time to write the job description and conduct interviews. Whenever you feel hesitation or doubt about an applicant, wait and talk with other candidates.

It can take two months or more from the moment you start your recruitment process to the moment you find the most appropriate helper.  This is even more true since Domestic Helpers have very little availability for interviews:  only once a week on Sundays or, for many others, only once a month, on their only Sunday off. If you want to see the same candidate twice, the two appointments may be a month apart. It would be a regrettable mistake to miss an excellent candidate because she can’t make the interview sooner.

Devote a lot of time to the training of a newly hired helper

It is definitely very time consuming, but you won’t regret it! Even a helper with 10 years’ experience needs training. Allow at least three months before a Domestic Helper becomes fully operational. Consider the training period not a burden but a necessity for filling the gap between Western methods and values and those of a helper.

A detailed schedule of tasks is a helpful tool. You may also consider writing all cleaning methods in a notebook (task, name and amount of product, tools used, frequency, etc.); this is an efficient support for memorisation, and it also avoids many misunderstandings.

Most of all, show her how to do. No training is valuable without these four fundamental steps: explain, demonstrate, observe, correct. Always think about how much a time a company dedicates to the training of its newly hired staff. It should be the same with your helper. The more you train, the more likely you and she will succeed.