Ever felt like you need an extra pair of hands to help with your household chores and run some errands? Chances are that you need another person to help you complete those tasks, especially if you and your partner are working.
Hiring a maid or helper can alleviate your responsibilities and let you focus on work without suffering a breakdown amid this taxing pandemic. Besides, if you have any young children or elderly in the house, having a maid can be very helpful.
With so many maid agencies providing a variety of services in Singapore, it can be challenging to find an agency to provide you with someone reliable and dependable.
That said, not every maid agency in Singapore offers a full service, from the beginning until the end of the hiring process. Due to that, some employers will need to engage in several different service providers to hire a helper.
Thus, choosing a good maid agency is your first step to getting the help you need. Ahead, we’re sharing a list of maid agency services available in Singapore.
What are maid agency services?
When it comes to hiring a maid or helper in Singapore, it can be challenging to find one that’s reliable and suitable. That’s where maid agencies come in – to help you find the most suitable helper for your household needs.
Depending on your needs and preferences, a maid agency will come up with a list of helpers to help you narrow down your search. Then, the maid agency will conduct several interviews and screenings on the ones that you’ve shortlisted.
Additionally, the maid agency will deal with all the employment paperwork, insurance, and pre-deployment training to ease your responsibility as a future employer. Here’s a detailed breakdown of each service apart from the usual maid hiring service.
Employment paperwork
Before your helper can start work in Singapore, she needs a valid working permit to justify her presence and services rendered to your household. The same goes to when you’re hiring a foreign helper.
Dealing with paperwork can be tedious and complicated at times. For that very reason, a maid agency like Homekeeper can help to ease your worries and burden over dealing with paperwork.
This service covers work permit application, renewal, cancellation, and repatriation; passport renewal and medical check-ups; embassy endorsement of documents and home leaves process; and direct hire and maid transfer.
Maid insurance
Like your family members, your maid also needs comprehensive insurance coverage to cover their medical fee, liability or other unexpected events that occur during their employment period.
By getting maid insurance, you can protect your helper and yourself from the unexpected costs. Among the features included are domestic helper liability, insurance coverage (death), permanent disablement, medical expenses, etc.
Pre-deployment training
To ensure that your future maid or helper can efficiently alleviate your household chores, a maid training agency will train them before deploying them to your home.
The training includes infant and maternal care, elderly and disability care, and general housekeeping. That way, your maid or helper is equipped with the necessary knowledge to provide proper care for your household.
However, most maid agencies in Singapore outsource maid training to many different training providers. It’s important to find a maid agency that has a trusted maid training partner that has a long and proven track record of providing quality training.
Why do employers choose to engage maid agency services?
You see, it takes an immense amount of time and effort to directly hire a maid or helper in Singapore, from the paperwork to the training. There’s hardly enough time for you to deal with such matters, given that you’re working full time on the island.
Although you can save on maid agency fees by directly hiring a maid or helper, you still need to prepare the necessary documents for your helper to work for you. Then, once your helper’s employment ends, you also have to be responsible for her welfare until she returns home or finds another employer.
Direct hire can be tedious if you’re not familiar with the employment process. For that very reason, most employers in Singapore prefer to engage maid agency services to take care of all the tedious processes.
What are the important questions to ask a maid agency service?
Now that you’re convinced you should engage a maid agency, here are some important questions you can ask to choose the right agency.
How long have you been in this industry?
Like any industry, the experience is crucial to showing the professionality of a maid agency and their reputation in the industry. A maid agency which has been around for longer must have a good reputation due to the services rendered. Therefore, asking such a question can gauge the agency’s skills and expertise.
How do you train your maids?
You’ll want to know that your future maid or helper is well-trained and can adapt to the living conditions in Singapore. That way, it’ll be easier for you once your helper arrives as you don’t have to train them on using regular home appliances. A good agency will also equip the maids with various cleaning methods and train them on safety, professionalism, and customer service.
How much are your service fees?
While hiring a maid or helper has become a necessity among Singaporean households, it’s also crucial to know how the charges are calculated and the hiring cost through a maid agency. Make sure to check and ask for a list of all costs involved to prevent yourself from overpaying. You may also consider other maid agencies to suit your budget.
How to pick the best maid agency?
Picking the best maid agency to suit your needs and preferences doesn’t have to be difficult. As long as the maid agency provides and covers the above, you can rest assured that your hiring needs will be taken care of while taking your preferences into account.
If you’re looking to hire a maid or helper, consider engaging a professional and reputable maid agency like Homekeeper.
We’re one of the few maid agencies to offer a complete suite of maid agency services in Singapore. To know more about our services, you can give us a call at 6468 5220 or WhatsApp us at 8515 5527
About the Author
Linda Seh has over 20 years of experience in the Employment industry. She takes the time to thoroughly interview each family and helper to understand their requirements, personalities, and preferences. Her intuition and insight has helped her make placements that result in lasting, harmonious working relationships. Linda now leverages this expertise and experience to simplify your search and ensure you find the ideal and qualified helper to become a valued member of your family.
