Five things to look for when searching for house help

First and foremost, it is imperative to know who you are hiring. Naturally, for someone you are trusting in your home, with your children and around your belongings, you must know who they are, where they come from and trust that they are truthful people with a moral compass and instilled values that coincide with yours; you don’t want someone who will steal from you or lie to you. Honesty is the best policy, and this applies to all relationships – not excluding that of an employer and employee.

Background Checks

It is the first and foremost step. And tied to that, knowing that your help has received appropriate domestic training from a reputable organisation and knows what they are doing is a major advantage. This will assist you and your employee maintaining a level of trust and understanding that you will not feel the need to constantly doubt or question.

Hygiene

Hygiene is another quality that is fairly simple, often overlooked but extremely vital! More than just the unpleasant odours that one may experience from someone’s bad hygiene and self-care, so many more concerns arise with the lack thereof. If your household Help is preparing your food, tending to your children or making your bed, their hygiene is bound to have a (negative) impact on each of those things and affect you personally. Health and sanitation should be a chief priority, one that, under no circumstances, should be compromised on. Emphasis on being clean, well-groomed and healthy are primary factors to look for in good Help.

Good Work Ethics

It is vital to have a good work ethic. And of course, this ties together all the individual qualities that one should possess in one’s job. Punctuality is one of them; there is a reason why it is stressed upon as being one of the most important qualities to have in a professional environment. And why should it be any different for household help? in general, being punctual simply proves an employee’s commitment to his/her work and the fact that they pay heed to what is expected of them. Time-management is definitely something to hold in high regard.

Communication

Communication is something that connects us all as human beings, yet, being able to do so effectively is not a skill everyone possesses. From an employer’s perspective, one hopes that one can get through to the person who is working for us and with us. From an employee’s perspective, one hopes to be understood, appreciated and be able to deliver and maybe even connect. Therefore, when searching for household Help, one should definitely consider and analyse the potential of this all happening. Scrutinise the words they use, their body language and the energy that surrounds you both. There should be no uncertainty, suspicion and misunderstandings about the person and his/her intention as they would become a part of your everyday life at home. Hopefully you get an overall positive vibe around them and there exists the potential for both parties to feel comfortable with and around each other.

Initiative

There are so many instances that I am sure you as readers can think of, when the help that you have at home have lacked initiative. If for example, every Sunday you tell your employee to gather the dirty laundry and do a load as you, your husband and children need fresh clothes for the upcoming week. Now, another Sunday comes along, except this time you have other engagements, and so, preoccupied, you don’t remind him/her about doing the laundry. It is in such a case, that initiative is vital. Having done this task on a specific day each and every week, your employee should simply do this fairly ‘obvious’ task – so to speak – without asking. When you ask, the Help says, “but you didn’t instruct me to do it.” In reality, though, an employer shouldn’t have to constantly remind a good employee of their expected, routine tasks.

The women empowerment project of TAFF-VTI is thus ground-breaking in its concept and execution, introducing new dimensions in this field. The soft skills that these women are exposed to and learn make these 5 qualities easily achievable and ones that they will definitely end up having after undertaking this vocational training; not to mention the concrete ones that enable them to become great housekeepers! Many success stories have come out of TAFF-VTI and if this is any indication, the face of domestic help and the status of (working) women in Pakistan could visibly improve.