Hiring a Maid In Singapore " How to Select a Maid for Yourself "

Having in this industry for a while, and listen to so many stories that is involving the hiring a maid in Singapore, I have come to realise a few things about selecting a suitable maid for employer themselves.

I am operating an employment agent mainly deal with Foreign Domestic Worker. As you know, hiring a suitable maid for individual household could be a difficult task. Having gone through Hundreds of candidates, process and documentations, not to mention the cost involving the hiring, and you might still find the worker not suitable for your family.

So how to select a maid that is the most suitable for your own family? Here is my two cents

1. To select someone suitable, you have to understand what is your Job scope. Try to be very clear and be very objective about what is your need in hiring a worker. eg, Cooking, House Work, Care for elderly, Care of young children, care for baby, car wash etc etc.

2. understand the worker ability. In order for a worker to work according to what you require, first is to understand the worker's back ground. their age, physical build, working history etc. selecting one that most suitable for your need will be vital. eg, height, looks or place of birth of the worker might not be a key point for someone to take care of the a baby. ( I have client checking for the horoscope of the worker to find someone suitable )

3. Open for possibility. It is good for employer to know what kind of person they are looking for. But do not over specify. eg, it will be good that you realise you need some one who have experience rather than a fresh maid to save yourself from the lengthy tiring explanation. Also having deal with less adaptation and adjustment issue for fresh maid. Avoid over specify by giving hiring requirement as experience but do not want off days, not very smart but must have initiative, must be careful but fast in working.

some of the employer requirement is some what strange to me as their request is must be a fresh maid, but the English must be very good or must be able to speak Chinese. Please bear in mind all these are rather hard to get, for someone that stay in eg, Indonesia or Myanmar, to be able to speak good English is not easy. by giving those criteria as selection for maid, employer are cutting all possibility from a big pool of talent. out of ten good maids, maybe only one can speak very good English. or one out of tens experience maid do not want rest days.

Having to said all these, do bear in mind that a relationship with the worker is very important in determine the success of hiring a maid. A happy worker is a good worker. It is very important to manage the worker and provide them with a good, healthy and happy working environment.

Happy Hiring!!