Want to know how to find a good domestic helper in Singapore, plus how to keep her? Asking the right questions at the helper interview stage, paying the helper a decent salary, and being a good employer after that will go a long way to having good home help and a happy environment for everyone!
Jennifer Yarbrough of White Glove agency shares some tips on how to find and keep a good helper in Singapore.
How to be a good employer
- Want a good relationship with your helper? Be kind! Put yourself in your helper’s shoes.
- Do quarterly reviews and balance the comments so you’re giving positive feedback and constructive comments.
- Ask for feedback from her, too. Maybe she doesn’t understand what you want and is scared to ask you to clarify.
- Build incentives into the contract.
10 questions when hiring a domestic helper in Singapore
Jennifer also has lots of recommendations on the hiring process, including the all-important interview questions. This is your time to really get to know the helper – so you should leave nothing unsaid or unasked. Here are some key questions to ask (taken from the White Glove Interview Guide):
- Why are you transferring families?
- Tell me about your own family.
- How is your health?
- Have you worked with children the same age as mine?
- What do you really hate doing?
- How would you handle a baby who didn’t stop crying?
- If my daughter fell in the playground and hit her head, what would you do?
- What’s your favourite dish to cook? Tell me how you cook it.
- Where do you like to shop for groceries and other products?
- Describe what you do to care for pets.
Your guiding light for the interview process is to be honest and upfront about what you expect her to do as your helper. And that means knowing what you want first. How involved with child-rearing do you want her to be? Will she hang with your family or retire to her own space after dinner? Will you plan the meals or will she? What time do you expect her home on her day off? What are her work hours? The list of things to consider is long – and important to define.
Another important point: if you meet a helper you like, offer her a job right away. Interview in the morning and then offer the job before somebody snatches her from you! Currently, the starting monthly salary for a Filipino helper is $650. For a transfer helper, you can expect to pay a minimum of $650, though the average is $750 to $900.
About upfront fees when hiring a domestic helper in Singapore
Many maid agencies in Singapore charge helpers a large fee that the employer pays upfront. Then the helper has monthly deductions taken from her salary to pay it off. Jennifer didn’t think that was fair on the domestic helpers especially, which is one of the reasons she opened her maid agency in the first place.
White Glove does things differently. For one thing, it doesn’t charge the domestic helper any fees. And it also does a little match-making! “We work hard to make sure there’s a good fit between employer and helper, rather than just giving you the person who is sitting in our office,” says Jennifer. “We only deal with transfer and ex-Singapore or overseas helpers, too, so we know they’re experienced; they know the lay of the land, how to take the MRT and so on.”
Jennifer also uses her lawyerly research skills to do thorough background checks, above and beyond a typical agency. This includes a social media check, getting references from former employers, and compiling an extensive biodata to make sure she really knows the person she’s putting into your home.
Get in touch with White Glove at 9758 4585 or wg.sg.
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