In Singapore’s busy society, many families find that they need extra help around the house, especially in homes with young children or elderly parents. In recent years, there has been a sharp increase in the number of people looking to hire domestic helpers in Singapore, partly due to the increased number of households with two working parents.
While hiring a domestic helper in Singapore isn’t difficult, many employers are understandably worried about picking a trustworthy and able domestic helper. Potential employers are now even more cautious after a recent spike in reported cases of runaway maids, abusive nannies and other harmful behaviours from domestic helpers.
Potential employers also regularly worry about a maid’s capabilities; whether she’s able to take care of young children or she’s trained to assist elderly members of the family. Some employers have previously had bad experiences with agencies who could not train their domestic helpers in Singapore properly, and who ended up providing domestic helpers who couldn’t do even the simplest of household tasks.
As such, many topics relating to domestic helpers in Singapore have popped up over several popular forums, such as Singapore motherhood, where potential employers and current employers share tips and warn others about rouge maids and bad agencies. While all that information is helpful, it’s a lot to go through, and not every post and advice is necessarily true as it’s important to note that the way an employer treats his or her domestic helper Singapore also affects the behaviour of their helper.
So we’ve gone through the many posts and the many tips, and we’ve come up with an easy to follow list just for you!
1. Pick a reputable agency
A lot of potential employers, especially first timers, are more inclined to hire domestic helpers in Singapore from smaller agencies, as often, their agency fees are lower. However, these agencies often do not spend as much resources and time training the helpers they bring in. These agencies are also less likely to be able to help you and provide after sales service in the case of any mishap regarding the assigned helper.
As such, it’s always important to find a maid agency in Singapore you can trust. Start with online reviews, and if you’re not convinced, you can always go one step further and ask on forums for people’s personal experiences with the agencies.
2. Run an online search for the maid you’re interested in
As we’ve previously mentioned, many people take to the internet to warn others about bad or potentially dangerous domestic helpers in Singapore. A few online forums in Singapore feature quite extensive lists of blacklisted maids in Singapore, along with their details, registration numbers, and details of their shortfalls. While we will only suggest this as a desperate attempt at a background check, and while there’s no guarantee that the information you find online is correct, chances are that if any previous employer has had bad experiences with that particular helper, you‘ll be able to find it online.
3. Treat your maid as you would like your employer to treat you.
This is the most important of all. While there are many good employers out there, there are a few cases of bad, even abusive employers.
Ultimately, your domestic helper in Singapore is a human being, with their own limitations, thoughts and feelings. Understand that it might be difficult for them to be so far away from their family, and let them contact them often. Also understand that they need rest and relaxation, much like you.
By treating your Myanmar maid Singapore well, and allowing them sufficient rest, they’re more likely to do a better job for you, and are less likely to feel like it’s necessary for them to leave or seek shelter somewhere else.
