Thinking about hiring someone to clean your home? Read this first!
People who lead a busy life are more than happy to find someone to take care of the house while they’re out there, taking care of their career or ferrying their kids to extracurricular activities. Finding good help in a cleaning company is a completely different matter and many times you have to interview dozens of house-keepers before you discover one you like. Here are a few tips to help you find a reliable house-keeper, someone you can leave in charge of the house without worrying what might happen.
Check References
Most of the time people look for hired help on job boards or local agencies. Those registered with an agency have probably been screened already, but don’t bank on it. It is your duty to do some research and start by asking for references. And checking on them. Pick up the phone and talk to previous employers instead of relying on a written reference, no matter how glowing it is. Also, go on dedicated forums and ask about this person. Maybe you find someone they used to work for and they can give you an honest opinion.
Ask for a Background Check
Don’t be afraid of hurting their feelings with a request for a background check. You cannot be expected to trust someone you’re seeing for the first time in your life. After all, that person will have unrestricted access to your house and everything inside it. To make things easier for them, suggest using an online character check agency like the following link for the ANCC service which is popular in countries like Australia, New Zealand and also for employers in the U.S. – https://www.australiannationalcharactercheck.com.au/ and provide an online service instead of having to walk into a police station. These types of agencies are accredited and their checks are just as good as one you get from the local authorities. You can order a background check even over the phone, as you only have to fill in a form with basic identification information, plus one photo. They will send you the result via email. If it turns out they don’t have a criminal record, then you can go ahead and hire them. Keep in mind that you have to ask the candidate for consent before ordering a background check. Doing it behind their back is illegal.
Check out their Social Media
If you’re going to hire a person as a housekeeper you’ll probably also become friends on Facebook and Instagram, because that’s what people do. Take the opportunity to ask about their social media at the job interview and have a look at what they post. See what sort of person they are and what sort of friends they have. At the same time, google their name and see what comes up. Hopefully, nothing. Still, there’s always a chance to find some disturbing fact about someone. Google knows everything about everybody these days. These checks are becoming increasingly popular among HR managers as the Internet has a long memory and you can retrieve posts about things that happened many years ago.
Ask for a Medical Checkup
If this person is going to be in your house every day cleaning and sometimes they’re going to cook for you, you need to know they don’t carry transmittable diseases. It’s not just about Covid-19, this will pass eventually, but there are many other diseases a person might carry and sometimes not even know that they’re sick.
Bonus tip: Make sure you like the person you hire as a housekeeper. This is someone you’ll have to see and talk to every day and if you’re uncomfortable around them, it’s going to be very awkward, to say the least.
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