Your newly hired a Foreign Domestic Worker (FDW) arrived today and you brought her home. You are probably wondering What’s next? Especially first-time employers who are new to hiring FDWs will have a lot of questions and uncertainties. From amount of food portion to provide to rest time to assigning daily tasks to handling children and/or elderly… generally if you pass all information at one go, you’ll only confuse your helper. So grab yourself a cup of coffee or maybe milo peng, some snacks or chips, sit back, relax and let us share with you 4 simple tips that will effectively help your helper to settled into your household.
TIPS #ONE: Print out your schedule
First thing to do is to write up and print out a schedule for your helper to follow. Listing down a work schedule could be of great help and will make both YOUR live and HERS much more easier. Everything your helper needs to do during the first half of the day and 2nd half should be clearly stated. Be very specific on the duties – for example, you want the helper to finished sweeping and mopping the floor before your household members step out of their room. WHY? Because after mopping, the floor can be wet and we don’t want anybody to be Humpty Dumpty. State clearly the time and tasks to be done daily. Tasks that should be accomplished weekly, monthly and/or half yearly etc should also be stated and explained. Spend some time going through with your helper and be very specific on the list of tasks to accomplished. If possible, show it to the helper how certain tasks are to be done, especially the complicated ones. Remember to give your helper some time to digest as well. Don’t expect her to understand all at once. Some hands-on is required.
TIPS #TWO: Give clear instruction
Next is to give clear instruction. Yes as clear as possible. Helpers are from different countries, backgrounds and cultures. What we perceived as general knowledge, general know-hows may not necessary be general to them. And yes, they can’t read your mind too! Also, the way she would be carrying out the tasks, the steps and procedures might be different from you. For example, some helpers are from the countryside; they don’t even know how to operate the washing machine, vacuum cleaner, microwave or other appliances. So you need to run through with them once, or maybe twice.
TIPS #THREE: Assure your Helper you are approachable
Always assure your helper that she can approach you for help. It can be rather challenging and stressful especially for new helper to work in a totally new, and if it’s coupled with an unfriendly environment, can be a recipe for “I want to change employer” situation. The more fear an employer inflict onto the helper, the more mistakes they tend to make. When they call sir/mdm…. don’t reply with an aggressive tone “WHAT?? WHAT YOU WANT??” Be as patient as possible and always show encouragement and support. Your tone of communication is very important! There’s a saying: 10% of conflicts are due to differences in opinion. 90% are due to wrong tone of voice. This is actually quite useful and can be applied to your spouse, children and parents too. ALSO allow her to communicate with her family in her hometown from time to time. This will keep her motivated to work hard for you knowing that you care for her.
TIPS #FOUR: Lay down your house rules
Remember to lay down your house rules. The first and foremost thing is privacy. Let the helper knows what violates your privacy. For example, leaving the house to buy stuff or to meet someone without permission is also not allowed or inviting her friends and other fellow maids to the house for a party, switching on the TV, sitting on the dinning table to take her meals, taking food from the refrigerator, turning on the aircon… the list can go on few pages. You just need to think what is relevant. Next, tell her the restriction for her mobile phone usage, rest day curfew, dress code, etc. One more very important rule: NO NAPPING IN THE AFTERNOON. Unless your helper is required to wake up in the middle of the night to help you with your baby or assist the elderly. Alright today is your lucky day! I will share a BONUS tip!
BONUS TIP: ENGAGE THE RIGHT AGENCY
Yap! Engaging the right agency is extremely important. The most immediate (and perhaps most attractive) benefit of engaging the right maid agency is that it can provide you the support and resources needed, even after the helper is brought back to your home. We continue to provide advisory and counselling services to both yourself and the helper to reconcile any differences. So, engaging the right Maid Agency saves you time and effort! ENGAGE EELIT AGENCY!