Having a household help and a driver comes with perks. Obviously. However, many people don’t realize that having someone in your personal space to work for you is a labor for you as well. I won’t go into details about it on this post. Fortunately for us, we have been assigned to live in Senegal, Indonesia, India and the Philippines where we have been able to afford a full time help. I feel blessed.
Taking on a responsibility for someone’s income (and their families depend on it) and welcoming a stranger to your personal space brings on new challenges and tasks. You will be a manager, HR person and payroll all at the same time.
Interviewing Household Help
The very first step you take for starting a life with a household help is the interview process to employ one.
This post lists some questions you may ask when interviewing household help along with some tips from me at the end. You might find that this is more for beginners or newbies. If this is going to be your first time to interview domestic help, don’t worry. We all have our firsts. Sometimes it takes several trials and fails to find someone right and that’s okay. Every experience is a life lesson. No time wasted.
Below are the basic and essential questions I think you should ask.
Are you ready?
1. Full Name, Birth Date & Address
May I have your full name, birth date and address?
The very obvious one is the full name. Ask the legal name and if they have a government ID on them (they shoul), you could ask if you could take a look at it so that you can copy the information.
FOR EXPATS IN INDIA
You can ask “What is your GOOD name?” You know that question!
2. Marital Status
Are you married?
You should be able to ask your interviewee’s marital status. It is important because this will affect you as an employer.
3. Family
Do you have children?
You may ask if your interviewee has children and if so, ask their ages. If a helper or driver is raising a small child, you have to expect that she/he will take some time off due to their children’s matters. You may find out that their child is raised by their family members, too.
SIDENOTE
If your female helper is young and married (not to stereotype, but the chance is higher), you might want to keep in mind that she could get pregnant. You will have to consider the possibility where you might lose your helper temporarily for a maternity leave and be prepared for the benefits such as possible paid leave and paying for a temporary person. You might want to ask around in the expat community what common practice and legal obligation exist as an employer in the country if that becomes your case.
4. Health
Do you have health issues (Including dental)?
It’s more likely that your interviewee would not know any ongoing health issues. However, it’s worth asking if your interviewee has had any health issues in the past during the interview. Tuberculosis, typhoid, diabetic, etc.?
In my experiences, many expat employers provide sick leave. We provide sick leave days as well.
5. Education
What is the last education you received?
The last education doesn’t matter for job performance. However, it’s good to know. You might be surprised that someone has gone to a culinary school. In fact, my helper in Senegal did go to a culinary school and she was a wonderful cook.
6. English Proficiency
Do you read and write in English well?
If you are in a country where English is not a common language, which is the case for most countries where you can afford to hire a household help, you should ask about English proficiency: how well he/she can read and write in English. If you can find someone who can read, it will help you greatly. For example, if your helper can read, you can provide recipes in English for her to prepare meals.
In Manila, I exchanged text messages to book interviews and I found most of them write English very well. In other countries, some of the text replies I received were typed by family members or friends who could write English.
7. Commute
Are you looking into a live-in position or would you like to commute?
I like having a live-in help when we live in a hardship post (a developing country). When I contact potential candidate by phone, I ask this question first so that neither of us waste our times for meeting only to find out that we don’t match.
How long does it take you to commute?
Commute time is something to consider if you live in a city with heavy traffic. Whether your staff has his/her own means of transportation or not will make a difference because he or she will not be affected by unreliability of public transportation.
8. Work Experiences
Can you tell me about your recent jobs? What were your responsibilities?
Previous experiences will tell you stories of the interviewees. Ask if your interviewee has recommendation letters from previous employers. If they worked for expat families and didn’t have a recommendation letter, I ask why. I recommend that you try to get an email address of the previous employer to contact them.
9. Termination of The Last Job
How did your last job end? Why did you leave?
If someone was terminated by misconduct, you may not find out unless you talk to the previous employers. It is important that you find out previous employers’ contact information. Most expat community is fluid enough that this type of information is never kept in record.
Some people might still be employed and going to interviews for a better opportunity. If that is the case, she or he may not be able to work right away for you.
If there are blanks in a resume, I recommend that you ask for explanations.
10. Salary
Here is what we can can offer you. ________ Are you okay with it?
I recommend that you set an amount (after researching around to see what the fair salary is for the position you offer) and offer it to your potential employee. It is good to ask how much they were paid previously so that you will be fair.
He/she may try to negotiate the amount with you. If not, your interviewee will either reject or accept it.
When you learn about the salary your potential candidate received previously and you would like to match, it is advised that you verify the amount with the previous employer when in doubt.
TIPS
Always Take Notes
You might think you can remember all the details you hear. You will be surprised how much you don’t remember. Take notes and write description or impression you had of the person to remember whom you interviewed.
Recommendation Letters
Always ask your interviewee to show you recommendation letters from previous employers. Most expats know to write a recommendation letter when they leave the country and let go of a helper or driver. However, I find that not all the expats provide a recommendation letter to their former employees. It’s unfortunate as it can make finding a new job more difficult for household helps. However, if one fires someone for a misconduct, that’s a different story.
If your interviewee previously worked for an expat and doesn’t have any recommendation letter, ask her/him the reason why her/his previous employer did not provide one. Watch for the ambiguous answers. If she/he can’t provide recommendation letters from the previous expat employers, ask if she/he knows the contact information or can find out the former employer’s email address. (The situation may be different if they worked for a local family or company in the past. They might not have the culture to write recommendation letters.)
In my opinion, it is a common practice to write a recommendation letter for former employee so that his/her future employer could learn about the individual through you and possibly contact you in case there is any questions. Please provide letters of recommendations when you separate from your domestic staff!
Recommendation letters are not always reliable
It is possible that recommendation letters don’t reflect the reality. If a letter was written by non-English speaker, it’s understandable that a letter is short because of the language ability. If a recommendation letter was written by someone whose English is great and the letter is short, you might have to read between the lines. This is also a reason why you should contact the previous employer for clarification.
Background Check
It helps to do a background check if you can. The best way is to contact the previous employers.
Compatibility
Personality has to match. Someone might come with a raving recommendation letter or someone you know highly recommends you the person. Nevertheless, if your gut feeling says he/she is not right for you, then I’d say trust your own gut.
It’s A Professional Relationship
Some people misunderstand that having someone to work for you in your house is like having a new family member. You should be nice to the person and treat with respect. Absolutely. If you hire a nanny and she takes care of your kids and lives with you for many years, sure, inevitably the relationship becomes more intimate. You may become more emotionally involved. However, I find it very important that you always stay professional as long as the relationship is between employer and employee. Issues seem to come up or people end on a wrong note at the end of a contract even after many years of service when the professionalism is lost.
FOR EXPATS IN THE PHILIPPINES
One of the things I am very impressed with the Filipino government is that they have a National Bureau of Investigation for background check called NBI Clearance. When you hire someone to work for you as a helper or driver, you need to ask the updated status of an NBI Clearance. If it is expired, you should ask for an updated one. Most buildings and villages would not issue a badge if their clearance is not up to date.
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