15 Cleaning Tips with Baking Soda and Lemon Juice
23 February 2015Hiring home help directly versus using a recruitment agency
22 April 2015When your lifestyle becomes so busy that you don’t have time to clean and organise your home, the solution is to employ a Housekeeper.
Whilst you can always have a Housekeeper who visits your home each day or for a certain number of hours each week, the preferable option of a live-in Housekeeper means that you have consistency and structure to each day and you can assign more to their job role such as managing administration, cooking meals for the family and caring for pets rather than solely cleaning.
Making the decision to invite someone to live with you on a full time basi s takes careful consideration, why is why you’ll find the best live in Housekeeper for you. The family need to be able to give feedback on the situation as well as their thoughts on the character and personality of who will be living with you. It’s vital that you’ve really thought through their role, responsibilities and boundaries and you’ll need that peace of mind that you’ve found someone honest, reliable, organised, hard-working and with a personality which gels well with everyone in the home.
Here are the top 3 tips for finding the best live in Housekeeper for you.
1. Discuss the plan with the family first
Inviting an initial stranger to live with you and your family is a big and important decision. All the family need to be in agreement that it’s the best way forward and ensure all questions are answered. A live in Housekeeper such as those detailed here https://supacare.co.uk/housekeepers will become part of the family so everyone must have the opportunity to give their thoughts. As well as good communication, it’s a great way to get ideas about the work the Housekeeper will be asked to undertake as well as their character and any particular experience, qualifications and skills they would need.
2. Thoroughly think through the responsibilities for your Housekeeper to undertake
Once you have all the ideas from your family, combine them with your own and draw up a list of the areas of work the Housekeeper will be expected to cover. It’s important to have this initially so you know exactly who you are looking for and it’s unfair on the Housekeeper to start work without some expected tasks or discussions on responsibilities.
Areas to consider are:
– Cleaning: Number of rooms, to what extent and frequency?
– Cooking: For how many people are they cooking, what are they expected to cook and how many meals a day?
– Household management: Administration, Filing, Bill Paying and Management of other household staff?
– Children: Babysitting, lifts to school, activities and meals?
– Pets: Walks, feeding and cleaning?
– The boundaries of the relationship with the family
The last point is particularly crucial. It may feel strict to begin a relationship with rules but they need to be discussed from the outset. If this doesn’t happen, there can be unintentional miscommunication or actions from either side which could disrupt the home environment. Your Housekeeper will expect you to be open and honest with your expectations, so keep the lines of communication open and encourage a professional but friendly relationship.
3. Don’t leave it to chance
Finding a live in Housekeeper in London means seeking out the best person to fit in with your family and also someone who can be trusted to not only carry out the work expected of them, but also to be honest and able to keep confidences.
If you place an advert yourself, you’re not only committing yourself to the time it will take to sift through applications and set up interviews, you’re never going to be completely sure that the successful candidate is who they say they are.
The way to solve this predicament is to use a specialist recruitment agency such as SupaCare. They have a database of Housekeepers looking for live in positions and each one has been personally interviewed, their background and references checked for validity and they are already aware of the outline salary and terms and conditions of the job.
If you need help at home and you know that a live in Housekeeper will mean you can get back on track with your career, family and enjoy the little things, talk to SupaCare today about your requirements and they will set the ball rolling immediately.